how could the solarwinds hack been prevented

Instead it was contacting an unknown systemlikely the hackers command-and-control server. The attack on SolarWinds was not one of an amateur. The bar code scanner had been published for several years and had a healthy installed base of 10 million users. Download our guide to learn how. THE HILL 1625 K STREET, NW SUITE 900 WASHINGTON DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 TEL | 202-628-8503 FAX. If one breaks, the others can continue. SolarWinds Hack: What Happened and How To Protect Yourself. Joe mentions one measure not placing the NMS directly on the internet that I suspect just about every SolarWinds customer already practices. United States. The team is one of several actively developing our SaaS platform. I have spent thousands of hours for more than a decade answering a range of cybersecurity questions from people around the globe. As such, it was impossible to predict. Instead of wondering how to infect all the target organizations, the threat actors attacked one of their common suppliers, sat back, and waited for the normal update process to take place. This is described in a great, Downloading one or more of the Sunburst-bearing updates by fewer than 18,000 SolarWinds customers (to quote the immortal words used in the SolarWinds SEC filing the day after the attack was announced. And is there something they could do to predict or prevent a third-party breach like that from happening? Gillette or Sundance, Wyoming, Director of Emergency Preparedness and Critical Infrastructure Protection A rogue developer could have placed the Sunburst malware in the update code being developed (although this idea goes against the fact that the Russians developed and deployed a very sophisticated piece of malware called SUNSPOT that did everything that was needed remotely; moreover, SUNSPOT painstakingly covered up what it did. Be mindful of any supplier who routinely sends service or maintenance personnel to your premises. Defense in depth requires they take measures to short-circuit both the first and second stages of Phase 2. In addition as you noted, the hacker profile has changed. These updates were issued between March and June 2020. The recent SolarWinds hack has led to widespread attention on necessary cybersecurity reform across the federal government, with a particular focus on preventing future attackers from achieving a similar scope of infiltration. Any opinions expressed in this blog post are strictly mine and are not necessarily shared by any of the clients of Tom Alrich LLC. Good guys pooling resources seems like a good place to build off of. After the hack became public, US lawmakers demanded answers from federal cybersecurity officials on why the hackers were undetected for so long, as well as Bismarck, North Dakota, Relay/SCADA Technician Or the application you are installing has itself been compromised and now harbors malicious code. The SUNBURST malware used a technique that allowed it to access or generate authentication certificates so that it could access protected services. Their default browser would open on its own. We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Since the SolarWinds breach began as an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), it essentially acted as a tailor-made sophisticated threat inflicted on an internal tool that was considered to be a legitimate piece of software. An EU AI Act decision tree and obligations, The Atlantic Declaration: Data bridges, privacy and AI, Consumer health data: A risk-based approach to digital privacy. During his career, he has worked as a freelance programmer, manager of an international software development team, an IT services project manager, and, most recently, as a Data Protection Officer. But the increasingly distributed designs of today's applications provide the bad guys with more possible entryways into these systems. NIST password guidelines include: Microsoft is just one of 18,000 businesses and government agencies that unknowingly enabled hackers to enter their systems when they installed the compromised SolarWinds monitoring software. The same consideration applies to other organizations like cloud providers. But its important that Congress (and the country) realize that some software and cloud services (and in some cases computing hardware as well) constitute critical infrastructure, just as much as a power grid control center or an oil refinery. Maybe its one of that providers other customers. Even assuming the Russians penetrated the SolarWinds IT network first, how did they do that? CrowdStrike President and CEO George Kurtz agreed, testifying that firewalls help, but they are insufficient, and noting that they are a speed bump on the information superhighway for the bad guys.. The hack, which U.S. intelligence agencies assessed earlier this year was likely Russian-government backed, led to the compromise of nine federal agencies and around 100 private sector organizations. Sunspot plants Sunburst in at least seven Orion release updates. This might be the ultimate supply chain attack, for reasons described inthispost. Thats what happened to SolarWinds. Increase vendor security for less! . But the leaders of top cybersecurity groups FireEye and CrowdStrike pushed back against the idea that a firewall could fully have prevented this attack or others. Hear expert speakers address the latest developments in data protection globally and in the Netherlands. He stressed, however, that while the agency did observe victim networks with this configuration that successfully blocked connection attempts and had no follow-on exploitation, the effectiveness of this preventative measure is not applicable to all types of intrusions and may not be feasible given operational requirements for some agencies.. Solutions are elusive. Heres what happened, and how to stay safe. We offer individual, corporate and group memberships, and all members have access to an extensive array of benefits. It's too late for anything but damage control for SolarWinds, but The Linux Foundation has found several lessons to make sure your programs, whether open Intelligence agencies, anything to do with the military, critical infrastructure, or government departments are high-risk targets that an APT might try to snare with a supply chain attack. Lower Colorado River Authority respond and recover from a third-party data breach. WebThe Supply Chain Attack on the SolarWinds Orion platform could have prevented one of the biggest hacks. The first stage could probably have been prevented had protections like those in NERC CIP-005 been in place. Since the Russians had effectively substituted a component with Sunburst for a legitimate component (and that component was presumably included in whatever SBOM was generated), it would never have been identified on its own. Taking each supplier in turn, how likely is it that they would be useful in a supply chain attack. 13. Please show them your appreciation by leaving a comment, 'liking' this post, or following this Member. Its quite simple to describe: The software build environment would need to be protected in a similar fashion to how the Electronic Security Perimeter (ESP) is required to be protected by the NERC CIP standards in other words, there should be no direct connection to the internet, and any connection to the IT network should be carefully circumscribed through measures like those required by CIP-005. Our mission at EnergyCentral is to help global power industry professionals work better. The Energy Central Power Industry Network is based on one core idea - power industry professionals helping each other and advancing the industry by sharing and learning from each other. Instead, they created whats certainly the most amazing piece of malware since Stuxnet: Sunspot. Gain exclusive insights about how privacy affects business in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. I had this idea a few months ago and ran it by one of the mailing lists of the, Suppliers of CI software to the federal government, Of course, CI software suppliers should also be required to notify the federal government if they discover such a breach; Rep. Jim Langevin (D, RI) is proposing this idea, as described in, I also think that cloud providers used by the feds should face mandatory cybersecurity rules (beyond whats in FedRAMP, since that didnt prevent the Capitol One or Cloudhopper breaches), as I discussed in. The malware has been named SUNBURSTby cyber security researchers at FireEye. The U.S. Department of Justice announced its final settlement with the Federal Trade Commission against education technology provider Edmodo over alleged Children's Online Privacy Protection Act violations. In a June 3 letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) provided to The Hill on Monday, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) acting Director Brandon Wales agreed with Wydens question over whether firewalls placed in victim agency systems could have helped block the malware virus used in the SolarWinds attack. against Russia in April in retaliation for the hack and raised the incident with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their recent in-person summit in Switzerland. Lets be clear: The only way to force them to do anything is with some kind of regulation. 2023 is the place to find speakers, workshops and networking focused on the intersection of privacy and technology. Introductory training that builds organizations of professionals with working privacy knowledge. Lower Colorado River Authority If you would like to comment on what you have read here, I would love to hear from you. Of course, CI software suppliers should also be required to notify the federal government if they discover such a breach; Rep. Jim Langevin (D, RI) is proposing this idea, as described inthisWall Street Journalarticle. Remediation vs. Mitigation: Whats the difference? That is the case with matching anonymization standards to EU General Data Protection Regulation requirements. Any opinions expressed in this blog post are strictly mine and are not necessarily shared by any of the clients of Tom Alrich LLC. What could have actually prevented the SolarWinds attacks in the first place? Theres another possible way in which this stage could have been prevented. Weve written a blog post about how to respond and recover from a third-party data breach. Of course, this makes them ripe for attack and compromise (especially given the weaknesses of the SNMP protocol used for network monitoring). Menlo Park, California, Manager, Power Marketing & Compliance Of course not. It is also aware of many types of antivirus, antimalware, and other endpoint protection software and it can dodge and evade them. There are proactive measures you can take today to help you quickly and comprehensively respond to, remediate and recover from a third-party or digital supply chain breach. Discuss your aims and concerns with your suppliers. So what should a software supplier do, who wants to avoid being the inadvertent victim/perpetrator of a SolarWinds-type attack? This report explores the compensation, both financial and nonfinancial, offered to privacy professionals. Theyre the same in both venues. Who are the providers other customers? Each third party has its own infrastructure and its own third parties, which are your fourth parties. We select and review products independently. What could have actually prevented the SolarWinds attacks in the first place? Gillette, Wyoming, Regulatory Specialist Uniondale, New York, VP - Power Supply Without automation, it is nearly impossible to properly manage all of your vendors to the depth and breadth that is required to properly ascertain their security posture. In this case, this would be the first documented (that I know of) multi-level supply chain attack, where a supply chain attack was used to penetrate a supplier, and from there another supply chain attack was executed against the customers of the supplier. Brookfield Renewable U.S. The initial penetration by the Russians of the SolarWinds IT network in 2019. Our platform continuously monitors and evaluates your suppliers, sending you live alerts about any security changes or breaches to your third parties. Please email me attom@tomalrich.com. And at least a few large organizations are starting to require (or at least nudge) software suppliers to implement in-toto. Subscribe to the Privacy List. 10:10 AM. The solution for the business community, (semi-)governmental authorities and secret services: ZoneZero SDP In 2020 one of the biggest cyber attacks in the world have taken place. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Add to your tech knowledge with deep training in privacy-enhancing technologies and how to deploy them. First, what could have prevented the Russians from penetrating the software build environment? No discussions yet. Austin, Texas, Director, Tax Our. "Of course, the country was greatly relieved to hear there had been only 17,999 victims, not 18,000" "SolarWinds is seeing if it can design its software-build systems and pipelines a bit differently.". In fact, it was so subtle that it managed to stay under the radar and remain undetected for at least nine months. Im quite happy with the level of attention my posts have received on EC). The attackers randomized parts of their actions making traditional identification steps such as scanning A firewall is like having a gate guard outside a New York City apartment building, and they can recognize if you live there or not, but some attackers are perfectly disguised as someone who lives in the building and walks right by the gate guard.. What Is a PEM File and How Do You Use It? Automation also enables a more expansive discovery phase, giving you more visibility and understanding of which assets need protection. To achieve cyber resilience and recovery, you first must understand what your assets are. The challenge is that the likely actor responsible for this hack the Russian hacking group known as APT29, or Cozy Bear used novel TTPs, ones we had not The global standard for the go-to person for privacy laws, regulations and frameworks, The first and only privacy certification for professionals who manage day-to-day operations. Great River Energy It was sold to a new owner, Ukraine-based The Space Team, at the end of 2020. Development of this product was funded by the federal government for $2.2 million, which has to be something on the order of a thousandth (or less) of what the feds will ultimately pay to remediate the damage caused by the SolarWinds attack. It was the work of highly sophisticated state-sponsored actors, making it impossible to recognize that the target software had even been compromised. Contact Panorays today to schedule a demo. Fortunately, the Russians didnt get into the White House football pool server. It turns out that the perpetrators painstakingly planned and prepared for this attack by carefully packaging their malware inside Orion, a trusted piece of software, allowing easy, unnoticed entry into thousands of systems during a standard software update. Learn more today. I reasoned that, since Sunburst was effectively a component that had been added to the code, it should have been identified when the SBOM was generated. The IAPP is the largest and most comprehensive global information privacy community and resource. Talk privacy and network with local members at IAPP KnowledgeNet Chapter meetings, taking place worldwide. Trimarc Security has shared a Powershell script that will scan a single-domain Active Directory forest and report on any weaknesses it finds. Did they make zero mistakes between (at least) June and December with every other customer besides FireEye? The Russians then took advantage of the backdoor to penetrate the customers network and do nasty deeds. They covertly modified a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) called SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.dll. Your access to Member Features is limited. What is SSH Agent Forwarding and How Do You Use It? If they can compromise an MSP, they have the keys to the kingdom for all of the MSPs customers. 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Electrical Estimator It is true that the Orion platform software does not need connectivity to the internet to perform its regular duties, which could be network monitoring, system monitoring, application monitoring on premises of our customers, Ramakrishna testified in response to Wydens question. A big takeaway from this security incident is just how important it is to manage and mitigate third- and fourth-party risk. However, one of SolarWinds customers was FireEye, a well-known cyber security company. Today marks a milestone in the history of data privacy: the 50th anniversary of the Fair Information Practice Principles. His writing has been published by howtogeek.com, cloudsavvyit.com, itenterpriser.com, and opensource.com. Electrical Estimator Are you guaranteed to get results using any of these means? What are the new due dates for software supplier attestations? Instead of a single, linear supply chain for critical or strategic supplies, it may be possible to establish several parallel supply lines. This is further borne out when you look at the list of victims. On 30 June 1973, the original Fair Information Practice Principles were published in the federal register as part of a report on Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens. The article describes the great pains the Russians went to in order to ensure they werent discovered which was much harder because they couldnt operate inside the development environment in real time. Penetration by the Russians of perhaps 200 of those customers using the backdoor included in Sunburst, and exfiltration of an unknown quantity of information. Definitely not. Development of this product was funded by the federal government for $2.2 million, which has to be something on the order of a thousandth (or less) of what the feds will ultimately pay to remediate the damage caused by the SolarWinds attack. Gillette, Wyoming, Regulatory Specialist Dave is a Linux evangelist and open source advocate. IAPP members can get up-to-date information here on the California Consumer Privacy Act and the California Privacy Rights Act. Presumably, the cost of purchasing the app was viewed as a running cost of the scam, to be recouped from their criminal profits. The Colonial Pipeline hack might not have been the largest hack in recent memorythat probably goes to the SolarWinds or Microsoft Exchange hacks. In fact, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) specifically advises against using a password that includes the name of a company. That is, they should both isolate their development environment by taking steps somewhat like those required in NERC CIP-005, and they should also implement the redundant build process, in-toto, or some other means to short-circuit Stage 2. San Francisco, California, Transmission Interconnection Specialist Sr (Hybrid) Meet the stringent requirements to earn this American Bar Association-certified designation. The goal is to see if SolarWinds can establish software integrity across multiple pipelines to avoid supply chain attacks of the kind it experienced a few months ago, Ramakrishna says. We need cybersecurity tools and services that provide us a better chance of detecting the most sophisticated attacks. So, how could the SolarWinds hack have been prevented? Queensbury, New York, Billing Workstream Lead So Im happy to say now that I completely agree with everything Joe says in the post, which points to a mistake sometimes made with network management systems (NMS), and more often with the devices that are controlled by NMS (including UPS, battery management systems, building control systems and power distribution units): they are placed directly on the internet, not even behind a firewall. Different interpretations across jurisdictions make the definition of "anonymization" difficult to nail down. Experts have been warning for The new owners had modified the code of the scanner app to include malware. But with a supply chain attack, many other companies are caught in the cross-fire and suffer as collateral damage. It then makes HHTP requests to the threat actors servers to retrieve commands, which it then acts upon. Energy Central contributors share their experience and insights for the benefit of other Members (like you). Join 425,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. If you read any of the 15 or so posts Ive written about the SolarWinds attacks since they were announced in mid-December or you read some of the huge number of articles and posts that have been written about this subject by others youll probably know the answer to this question: Theres literally nothing a SolarWinds customer could have done to prevent the attack from happening to them in the first place, although they could have lessened the degree of compromise through various measures. Of course, building every release of every software product (or even just Orion) three times, not just one, will be very expensive for SolarWinds. In theory, its a sound thing, but its academic, in practice, its operationally cumbersome, Mandia said. Our. Finally, the Russians could have penetrated a software development tool (presumably by planting malware in the tool developers network, which would have played the same role that SUNSPOT did with SolarWinds). The U.S. announced new sanctions on Russia in response to the SolarWinds attack. How about regulation of all software suppliers to the federal government? Supply chain Cyber Risk management - emphasis on SBOMs and VEX documents. President Biden issued a sweeping set of sanctions against Russia in April in retaliation for the hack and raised the incident with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their recent in-person summit in Switzerland. The SolarWinds hack, one of the largest cybersecurity incidents in U.S. history, may have been deterred or minimized if basic security measures had been put in place, a topgovernment official acknowledged earlier this month. If there laptop has been compromised because their employers network has been targeted, youll be infected. Sunburst contained a zero-day vulnerability (which is called a backdoor. Once youve identified those suppliers that directly or indirectly touch your network, you can make a risk assessment. For this reason. The same thing we do regarding anything else we want a supplier to do: nudge them along the path of righteousness. The bar code scanner app had been singled out as a good purchase by the threat actors. During his career, he has worked as a freelance programmer, manager of an international software development team, an IT services project manager, and, most recently, as a Data Protection Officer. Ill be the first to admit that this step would be very challenging to implement. Supply chain Cyber Risk management - emphasis on SBOMs and VEX documents. To provide the detailed, granular information that system administrators require to maintain the effectiveness of the IT resources they are responsible for, the SolarWinds software requires extremely privileged access rights to the network. Location - Remote, CleanPowerSF Customer Data and Billing Operations Manager However, this wouldnt have prevented the SolarWinds attack, since SolarWinds had no clue about any of this until FireEye reported the attack to the world. There were three stages in that phase. Walessaid that CISA does not have numbers on how many federal agencies were segmenting and segregating their networks, a key security guideline the agency has long recommended as a way to prevent hackers from moving through sensitive networks. View our open calls and submission instructions. Shape the vision and lead the Automation efforts for our platform. It sounds like the kind of thing uninformed managers and bean counters like, but which actually is useless. It was compromised by threat actors. If you have an experience or insight to share or have learned something from a conference or seminar, your peers and colleagues on Energy Central want to hear about it. To summarize, I think Phase 2 of the four phases of the SolarWinds attack could have been short-circuited during either its first or second stages. Its quite simple to describe: The software build environment would need to be protected in a similar fashion to how the Electronic Security Perimeter (ESP) is required to be protected by the NERC CIP standards in other words, there should be no direct connection to the internet, and any connection to the IT network should be carefully circumscribed through measures like those required by CIP-005. Europes top experts offer pragmatic insights into the evolving landscape and share knowledge on best practices for your data protection operation. However, in hindsight its clear that SolarWinds should have done much more to protect its development networks than it did. (thxfor Tuesday-morning chuckle). Most of the time, hackers using phishing attacks will pose either as a person known to the business, or a company known to you - The Energy Central Power Industry Network is based on one core idea - power industry professionals helping each other and advancing the industry by sharing and learning from each other. Its crowdsourcing, with an exceptional crowd. This helps the malware to remain undetected. Contact Panorays today to schedule a demo. Links and buttons to download and install further apps would cascade over their screen. Step 1: Build cyber resilience & recovery. A cyber attack could result in a breach within either your third or fourth party (or both, like the SolarWinds attack). Chinese Hackers Using Never-Before-Seen Tactics for Critical Infrastructure Attacks.

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