Phishing for Facebook logins with the WiFi Pineapple Mark V from HAK5 (Setup Guide)

Posted on March 8, 2014 by admin

I wrote about one of my favorite hot-spot honeypot tools known as the WiFI pineapple Mark III last year HERE. The pineapple only cost $100 dollars and can be found at the HAK5 store.

To summarize what this bad boy does, it is a small portable attack tool that can run things such as Karma used to spoof trusted SSIDs and SSL strip to remove trusted connections while sniffing traffic. So for example, lets say your home network is PUPPYDOG123. When you’re at home, your wireless devices will look for PUPPYDOG123 and connect if they see it. When the pineapple is present and running Karma, it can say back “Hey, I’m PUPPYDOG123 … connect to me”. Your device will think its your network and connect. Traffic will go through the Pineapple so you think you are on a trusted network however the pineapple is between aka a man-in-the-middle attack. Continue reading →

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Open App ID: Cisco commits to open source and application identification

Posted on March 3, 2014 by admin

My buddy Aamir wrote a summary of the open source announcement by Cisco at RSA last week (original post can be found HERE). Cisco also announced integrating FireAMP with Cisco email, web and cloud security products. FireAMP gives Cisco products the ability to detect infected files by searching for known hashes, sandboxing unknown files and other detection means. More on the FireAMP capabilities can be found HERE. Another source for these announcements is on the Network World blog found HERE. Continue reading →

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

2014 UPDATE: Web Security Offerings From Cisco: Comparing the Latest Cisco CX Firewall to Cisco Web Security Appliance

Posted on February 26, 2014 by admin

I wrote a post comparing Cisco’s Next Generation Firewall known as ASA CX vs. Cisco’s Web Security Appliance / Proxy known as WSA HERE. Here is a update to that post as requested by some readers.

In summary, the WSA is a security appliance that can act as a proxy focusing on network bound traffic such as port 80, 443 and 21. The ASA CX is an all ports and protocol firewall with reputation and IPS security (IPS being added in October 2013). Both solutions can provide reputation based security meaning stopping the attacker (more on this concept can be found HERE), Integrate with authentication systems such as Active Directory, can view HTTPS via decryption, application visibly with policy enforcement (IE identify and block Farmsville within Facebook) and detection of threats however detection methods are slightly different (one uses a combination of AV / malware engines while the other uses IPS). Continue reading →

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention Systems changing the game for Cyber

Posted on February 21, 2014 by admin

My buddy Aamir Lakhani wrote about how traditional security products such as Stateful firewalls and older IPS/IDS solutions are not cutting it for today’s level of threats. This post covers why the “Next-Generation” of security technology matters. The original post can be found HERE.

Organizations are replacing their Stateful firewalls with Next-Generation firewalls (NGFW) and Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention systems (NGIPS). Most traditional firewalls are nothing more than packet filters that keep track of who initiated the traffic to automatically allow response traffic back to originator. IPS vendors such as Sourcefire and McAfee (Intel Security) are rapidly adding advanced features to protect against insider threats, application vulnerabilities, mobile devices, and malware. One must wonder are the days of traditional perimeter security devices such as Stateful firewalls and single-pass IDS systems numbered?

Continue reading →

Rating: 4.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Stopping Both Attackers and Attacks – The Future of Network Security

Posted on February 17, 2014 by admin

The future of security must reach beyond the capability of an appliance. There are too many attack vectors that are continuously changing to detect with a silo solution. It basically comes down to this …. there are only so many signatures that can be checked against as well as behavior algorithms that can be put in place before you must let traffic pass. Odds are, a malicious attacker will eventually bypass detection based on the fact that there are hackers out there with a rack of all the latest vendor IPS, Firewalls, etc. in a lab designed to test how effective a piece of malware is against any enterprise security solution. So in a nutshell, you will only be able to stop the majority of attacks launched against your network. Something will eventually get through. This means detecting and preventing can’t be your only security strategy. Continue reading →

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Comparing ASA Management: Internal vs. External Cisco Prime Security Manager Overview

Posted on February 11, 2014 by admin

Management of security devices is a critical function for maintaining the best performance and being aware of security related events. Cisco has released their second generation of ASA, which includes new management options. This post will cover the new management interface and compare it to the previous options. Continue reading →

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Chained Exploits compromise valuable Twitter account

Posted on February 5, 2014 by admin

Aamir Lakhani from drchaos.com wrote a good article on how chaining together social engineering tactics compromised a highly visible twitter account. The original post can be found HERE.

Who can we trust? It’s a tough question. We think we can trust our friends, co-workers, mentors, and colleagues because they are people we see and interact with often as frequently as we do with our family members. Unfortunately, there is risk in trusting others, particularly when those we trust have privileged access to our accounts and sensitive information. When our trust and exposure extends to those who we work with, and incorporates intimate knowledge of our business concerns, corporate cultural developments, and technology secrets, we must face the reality of insider threats. Unlike external attackers, those we consider to be on the inside of our trust circles do not need to hunt for valuable information, nor do they need to exploit strong perimeter defenses; insiders already know what is valuable and where it is stored.

Continue reading →

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Cool Penetration Testing Application: Cobalt Strike

Posted on February 3, 2014 by admin

If you are familiar with penetration tools, then you should know Metasploit. For those that love GUIs, there is a fantastic open source GUI management for Metasploit known as Armitage (found HERE). The same developers of Armitage created a more advanced penetration testing package for a $2,500 annual cost. The tool is called cobalt Strike (CS) and can be downloaded at www.advancedpentestcom for a 21day trail. They also have a 4-hour lab that lets you try out the core cobalt Strike features. It is worth spending the time to test the tool and get some lab time even though the lab itself is is pretty easy. Continue reading →

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

How to Protect Children When Using Mobile Devices And The Internet

Posted on January 30, 2014 by admin

Katrin Deres is a passionate blogger, and works in a marketing team at a mobile tracking company. For more information visit mSpy. Here is a guest post with some of my input covering how to protect mobile devices used by children and young adults.

Smartphones have revolutionized the way we live and are an important tool that most of us depend on daily. With that being said, a smartphone in the hands of a responsible adult is very different from allowing children access to them. Giving smart devices to children without considering its impact can spell big trouble for parents! Continue reading →

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)