Huawei set for limited UK 5G role, but can we Trust Huawei?

Today the UK Government decided Huawei can be allowed to help build the UK's 5G network, but remain banned from supplying kit to "sensitive parts" of the core network. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson made long await decision to ends months of concern for the Chinese telecoms giant. 

The PM had briefed US President Donald Trump about the decision. Trump has been very vocal on his stance exclaiming, “we are not going to do business with Huawei”, and recently Trump’s administration is reportedly nearing publication of a rule that could further block shipments of US-made goods to Huawei. Trump administrator has said it 'is disappointed' with UK government decision. China had warned the UK there could be "substantial" repercussions to other trade and investment plans had the company been banned outright.

There was ferocious debate in the UK parliament post the government announcement, with MPs calling into question the cybersecurity risks which could prevail – the US says the cybersecurity risks are severe, the UK’s security services say they can be managed, whereas Australia has opted for an outright ban. There’s a clear disconnect and the decision today could cause turmoil to the US/UK working relationship that could ultimately impact a post-Brexit trade deal.

Can Huawei be trusted or will using its equipment leave communication networks, and our own mobile phones, vulnerable? The US says Huawei is a security risk, given the firm is heavily state supported and is run by Mr Ren who served in the Chinese military. Huawei 5G equipment could be used for spying and negatively impacting critical national infrastructure. 

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) published a document which says UK networks will have three years to comply with the caps on the use of Huawei's equipment.

"Huawei is reassured by the UK government's confirmation that we can continue working with our customers to keep the 5G rollout on track. It gives the UK access to world-leading technology and ensures a competitive market." the firm's UK chief Victor Zhang said in a statement.

UK security professionals have reported significant concerns around how digital transformation projects and the implementation of 5G will affect their risk posture. 89% of UK businesses said they have concerns around the implementation of emerging technologies and essential digital transformation projects and almost four in ten (38%) expect digital transformation and 5G to offer cybercriminals more effective and more destructive methods of achieving their nefarious goals, according to research from VMWare Carbon Black.

A10 Networks' VP of Strategy, Gunter Reiss said “The global dispute over whether tech giant Huawei should be used in national 5G networks has created a lot of geopolitical conversations around the 5G build-out, security to Critical National Infrastructure, and generally whether certain vendors should be included or excluded. However, operators need to base their decisions not on these opinions but on technology – the strength, innovation and security capabilities. With the massive increases in bandwidth, number of devices predicted to be on these networks and the growing security requirements, the technology being used must meet these needs.”

A Security Compromise on Economical Grounds

"This is a good compromise between alleviating 'security' concerns and making sure that the 5G UK market is not harmed," commented Dimitris Mavrakis, a telecoms analyst at ABI Research. Previously I posted about National Security Vs Economic argument which has been behind the UK government decision - see The UK Government Huawei Dilemma and the Brexit Factor 

What Website Owners Should Know About Terms and Conditions

All website owners should consider terms and conditions (T&Cs) to be a form of legal protection as they establish the responsibility and rights of the involved parties. T&Cs provide full security should anything go amiss and they also help you settle any disputes quickly without having to resort to the courts.

Is it a legal requirement to include T&Cs?

No, but it’s always best to include terms and conditions on your website as they will enable you to reduce your potential liabilities. It is essential that you let your customers or visitors know about their rights; if you’re not clear about your policies, they may dispute matters such as cancellation options, item returns and other rights, putting your company at a disadvantage. Additionally, if areas are unclear in your terms and conditions or even not mentioned, it may mean that you are liable to give your customer additional rights than are given under statutory.

Do you have to include GDPR provisions?

Website owners, even those outside the European Union (EU), should also consider incorporating the General Data Protection Regulation. Inserting a data protection clause can reassure your customers that their data will not be used for inappropriate purposes. You can include the majority of the GDPR obligations in your site’s privacy policy.

What should you include in the T&Cs?

If you are an online seller, it is essential to explain to customers the various processes involved, such as:

• How to make a purchase
• How to make a payment
• How they will receive their products
• How they can cancel orders

T&Cs help you establish boundaries by outlining what specific rights customers have. In return, you also inform them about your obligations as a seller and the limits of your legal liability.

What kind of protection can you expect from the T&Cs? It may not be uncommon for disputes to arise between you and your online customers or visitors. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the terms and conditions are accessible, preferably on your website.

You also need to protect your website from copyright infringements. You can avoid potential disputes and confusion by specifying which sections are copyrighted and which are your intellectual property. You should also stipulate what visitors can do with your data. If there is any breach of your copyright or intellectual property, the terms and conditions should clearly explain how the problem will be resolved.

Are there standard T&Cs which apply to all websites?
There are general formats or templates of T&Cs that you can obtain for free online. However, there is always the possibility that these documents will not cover specific aspects of your business or will not include the relevant terms. If you omit an essential term from your website, you may find yourself vulnerable if a dispute arises. Therefore, it is critical that you customise your terms and conditions so they are suitable for your website and business.

• Product and service offerings – No two businesses are alike, even if you sell the same products and services. For example, your competitor may only accept PayPal but you may allow other modes of payment.
• Industry or target audience – In every industry, there are specific provisions that need to be included in the T&Cs. For example, customers may have a legal right to cancel or return their purchases within a specified period.

Can website owners enforce their T&Cs?
Your T&Cs are like any other enforceable contract. Nevertheless, you must ensure that they don’t contravene existing consumer laws or government regulations. Remember, you should only incorporate clauses that you can legally apply.

Conclusion
Terms and conditions are necessary for all businesses, including e-commerce sites. It is essential that you create T&Cs that are suitable for your products and services, and that they are legally enforceable. You also need to periodically review your T&Cs, especially if there have been any significant changes to your business structure or the law. Moreover, they must be accessible to your online customers and visitors. If they are not aware of your T&Cs, you may find it difficult to enforce them if a problem arises.

Written by Kerry Gibbs, a legal expert at BEB Contract and Legal Services.

Securing Interactive Kiosks IoTs with the Paradox OS

Article by Bernard Parsons, CEO, Becrypt

Whether it is an EPOS system at a fast food venue or large display system at a public transport hub, interactive kiosks are becoming popular and trusted conduits for transacting valuable data with customers.

The purpose of interactive kiosks, and the reason for their increasing prevalence, is to drive automation and make processes more efficient. For many businesses and government departments, they are the visible and tangible manifestations of their digital transformation.

Kiosks are information exchanges, delivering data and content; ingesting preferences, orders and payments. With so much data going back and forth, there is huge value, however, wherever there is value you’ll find malicious and criminal activities seeking to spoil, subvert or steal it.

Three categories of Cyber Threat
Kiosks are just the latest in a long line of data-driven objects that need protecting. At stake is the very heart (and public face) of digitally evolved organisations.

Threats to kiosks come in three principal forms:

• Threats to system integrity – where kiosks are compromised to display something different. Losing control of what your kiosks look like undermines your brand and causes distress to customers. A recent example is of a well-known sportswear store in New Zealand, where a kiosk displayed pornography for 9 hours before employees arrived the next morning to disconnect it. 
• Threats to system availability – where kiosks are compromised to display nothing. In other words, they go offline and, instead of displaying some kind of reassuring ‘out of order’ message, give the appearance of a desktop computer with frozen dialogue boxes or raw lines of code. Examples of this are all too common, but are typically characterised by ‘the blue screen of death’. 
• Threats to system confidentiality – where kiosks show no outward signs of compromise, but are in fact collecting data illegally. Such attacks carry significant risk over and above creating nuisance or offence. Examples include one of the largest self-service food vending companies in the US suffering a stealthy attack whereby the payment card details and even biometric data gleaned from users at kiosks may have been jeopardised.

The challenge of curbing these threats is compounded by interactive kiosks’ great virtue: their connectedness. As with any Internet of Things (IoT) endpoint architecture, the potential routes for attack are numerous and could spread from attacks on a company’s internal network, stem from vulnerabilities in kiosk application software, or even result from a direct assault on the kiosk itself.

How Best Practice Regulatory Standards Apply to Kiosks

Regulatory compliance plays a part here, with the EU GDPR and NIS directive (ably supported by comprehensive guidance proffered via the UK NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework) compelling organisations to consider all parts of their endpoint estates with appropriate operational controls, processes and risk management approach in respect of – for example – patch management, privileged user access and data encryption.

Regulatory reforms are all well and good, but technology (AI, machine learning, blockchain, etc.) is evolving rapidly and organisations must be as proactive about the cybersecurity challenge as possible or risk falling behind the digital innovation curve.

Becrypt work with the UK Government and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), to develop solutions in line with core objectives sought by NIS and other regulations, for use in public sector environments. At the same time, we are seeing private sector businesses increasingly coming under the sorts of cyberattacks more commonly associated with the public sector.

Paradox: The Secure, Linux-based OS for Interactive Kiosks
Government research has determined that the best way to mitigate threats to interactive kiosks, and safeguard wider digital transformation objectives, is to secure the kiosk operating system (OS).

Becrypt have developed in collaboration with NCSC, Paradox, a secure Linux-based OS and management platform for kiosks. Paradox incorporates a secure-by-design architecture, ensuring kiosks remain in a known healthy state, free of malware. For organisations concerned about the potential for attack, this provides absolute certainty that every time a machine is switched on, its OS and all its applications have not been compromised.

Likewise, another common concern with kiosks is managing hundreds or even thousands of geographically dispersed devices without being able to check on or remediate system health. Should it detect anything unusual, Paradox will automatically rollback to the last known good state, presenting a functioning system rather than an offline/unavailable one. This avoids the onset of ‘bluescreen’ failures and allows administrators to visualise and manage kiosks in an easy and low-cost way. Automated security and patch management further ensures that devices are always kept up-to-date.

Paradox is also a very lightweight OS, which shrinks the potential attack surface and ensures the entire kiosk estate is not susceptible to common exploits. It also carries a number of advanced security controls that make it more difficult to attack, such as a sandboxed user account for privilege escalation prevention. OS components are also mounted as ‘read-only’, thereby preventing persistent, targeted attacks.

Spurred on by consumer demand for deeper interactions and easier, more personalised experiences, the exponential growth in interactive kiosks is plain to see in public spaces everywhere. And as this shift encourages more private and public sector organisations to do more with their data, the onus is on all of us to protect it.

Cyber Security Roundup for January 2020

A roundup of UK focused cyber and information security news stories, blog posts, reports and threat intelligence from the previous calendar month, December 2019.

Happy New Year!  The final month of the decade was a pretty quiet one as major security news and data breaches go, given cybers attack have become the norm in the past decade. The biggest UK media security story was saved for the very end of 2019, with the freshly elected UK government apologising after it had accidentally published online the addresses of the 1,097 New Year Honour recipients.  Among the addresses posted were those of Sir Elton John, cricketer and BBC 'Sports Personality of the Year' Ben Stokes, former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, 'Great British Bakeoff Winner' Nadiya Hussain, and former Ofcom boss Sharon White. The Cabinet Office said it was "looking into how this happened", probably come down to a 'user error' in my view.

An investigation by The Times found Hedge funds had been eavesdropping on the Bank of England’s press conferences before their official broadcast after its internal systems were compromised. Hedge funds were said to have gained a significant advantage over rivals by purchasing access to an audio feed of Bank of England news conferences. The Bank said it was "wholly unacceptable" and it was investigating further. The Times claimed those paying for the audio feed, via the third party, would receive details of the Bank's news conferences up to eight seconds before those using the television feed - potentially making them money. It is alleged the supplier charged each client a subscription fee and up to £5,000 per use. The system, which had been misused by the supplier since earlier this year, was installed in case the Bloomberg-managed television feed failed.

A video showing a hacker talking to a young girl in her bedroom via her family's Ring camera was shared on social media. The hacker tells the young girl: "It's Santa. It's your best friend." The Motherboard website reported hackers were offering software making it easier to break into such devices. Ring owner Amazon said the incident was not related to a security breach, but compromised was due to password stuffing, stating "Due to the fact that customers often use the same username and password for their various accounts and subscriptions, bad actors often re-use credentials stolen or leaked from one service on other services."

Online retailer 'LightInTheBox' is said to have exposed a whopping 1.6 billion shopper records online for a three month period, by not properly securing a cloud based database. In a separate incident, another unsecured online database was found on the dark web holding the personal details of 267 Facebook users. And yet another open database exposed 26,000 Honda customers was found and reported to Honda a security researcher.  

Ransomware continues to plague multiple industries and it has throughout 2019, even security companies aren't immune, with Spanish security company Prosegur reported to have been taken down by the Ryuk ransomware.

Finally, a Microsoft Security Intelligence Report concluded what all security professionals know well, is that implementing Multi-Factor Authenication (MFA) would have thwarted the vast majority of identity attacks. The Microsoft study found reusing passwords across multiple account-based services is still common, of nearly 30 million users and their passwords, password reuse and modifications were common for 52% of users. The same study also found that 30% of the modified passwords and all the reused passwords can be cracked within just 10 guesses. This behaviour puts users at risk of being victims of a breach replay attack. Once a threat actor gets hold of spilled credentials or credentials in the wild, they can try to execute a breach replay attack. In this attack, the actor tries out the same credentials on different service accounts to see if there is a match.

BLOG

• Cyber Attacks are the Norm
• Only Focused on Patching? You’re Not Doing Vulnerability Management
• 12 days of Christmas Security Predictions: What lies ahead in 2020
• How the Cyber Grinch Stole Christmas: Managing Retailer Supply Chain Cyber Risk
• Plundervolt! A new Intel Processor 'undervolting' Vulnerability
• MoJ Reports Over 400% Increase in Lost Laptops in Three Years
• Accelerated Digital Innovation to impact the Cybersecurity Threat Landscape in 2020
• Cyber Security Roundup for November 2019
• Three Consequences of a Misaddressed Email

NEWS 

• New Year Honours List 1,000 Recipients Addresses Published Online in Error
• UK’s Cyber Security Chief Ciaran Martin to step down from NCSC
• Hijacked Bank of England Audio Feed Sold to Hedge Funds Seconds Ahead of Broadcast
• Santa Hacker Speaks to Girl via Smart Camera
• 1.6 billion LightInTheBox Customer Records left Exposed
• Spanish Security Company Prosegur hit with Ryuk
• Open Dark Web Database Exposes Info on 267 Million Facebook Users
• Open Database Exposes 26,000 Honda Motors Customers
• Iran 'foils second Cyber-Attack in a week'
• Briton extradited over claims he was key member of hacker group 'Dark Overlord'

VULNERABILITIES AND SECURITY UPDATES

• MicrosoftPatches 35 Vulnerabilities, including 6 Critical for Visual Studio, Win32k and Hyper-V
• Microsoft issues an Advisory for a SharePoint Vulnerability
• Adobe Patches 25 Vulnerabilities, 21 in Acrobat products
• Intel Patches 15 Vulnerabilities affecting Software and Firmware
• WordPress Patches Four Security Vulnerabilities
• Mozilla Patches 11 Vulnerabilities in Firefox 71 and ESR 68.3
• Citrix Vulnerability places80,000 Companies at Risk
• The Top 20 Vulnerabilities to Patch before 2020

AWARENESS, EDUCATION AND THREAT INTELLIGENCE

• 2020 Cybersecurity Forecasts: 5 Trends and Predictions for the New Year
• Visa Warns against new POS attacks, Fin8 fingered as the Culprit
• Momentum Botnet Spotted in the Wild
• Chinese State 'likely' linked to Cyber Spies Targeting Human Rights Workers
• Biggest Malware Threats of 2019
• China-Based Cyber Espionage Group Targeting Orgs in 10 Countries
• Microsoft Reveals Phishing Tactic Evolution
• Microsoft Security Intelligence Report
• PreciseSecurity.com Research: XSS Nearly 40% of All Attacks