Warning Signs Your Online Accounts Aren’t as Secure as You Think

Many people assume their accounts are safe because they use strong passwords or enable two-factor authentication. But even with these measures, subtle warning signs can reveal vulnerabilities. Here are key indicators that your online security might not be as strong as you believe—and what you can do to fix it.

1. Strange Login Activity in Account Security Dashboards

Regularly check your account security settings on platforms like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. If you notice unfamiliar devices, suspicious IP addresses, or logins from unusual locations, it could mean your account is compromised. These dashboards are powerful tools for spotting unauthorized access early.

2. Your Email Appears in Data Breach Reports

Use tools like Have I Been Pwned to check if your email has been exposed in a data breach. If your credentials are leaked, hackers can attempt credential stuffing attacks or phishing scams. Update your passwords immediately and consider using a password manager for stronger protection.

3. Unexpected Login Alerts

Don’t ignore login notifications from unfamiliar locations or devices. These alerts are often the first sign of account hacking attempts. Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to add an extra layer of security and reduce the risk of unauthorized access.

How to Strengthen Your Account Security

• Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on all major accounts.
• Use unique, complex passwords for every service.
• Monitor account activity regularly for suspicious behavior.
• Update passwords immediately after any breach notification.
• Consider a password manager for convenience and security.

Cybersecurity threats are evolving, and even cautious users can fall victim to account compromise. By staying vigilant, using security tools, and responding quickly to warning signs, you can protect your digital identity and keep your accounts safe.

#Security Predictions – 2017

 Each year organizations from around the world start looking at the new year and try to make predictions on what will occur. The security industry is no different. Our WhiteHat team has gathered their thoughts on predictions for 2017 and new vulnerabilities or trends that might emerge in 2017. I hope you find their predictions a great way to kickstart 2017 planning and start implanting some thoughts on how to protect your applications in the coming years as threats continue to increase. We are a small security community with pretty much the entire world trying to attack our applications. I’m proud and honored to start the conversation about how we can fight back and protect our assets and our customers.

We’ll start out with my prediction.

 Every year around this time people start asking me what I think the cyber security trends for the next year are going to be. What new vulnerabilities are going to come out? Is IoT going to be hacked in a major way? Will self-driving cars start smashing into each other because they’re connected to the Internet? All are valid questions and any of them could occur next year. However, I unfortunately predict a somewhat bleaker and kind of boring thing will happen… Nothing will change. Companies will continue to get breached because of simple vulnerabilities. We have seen year after year that vulnerabilities we knew about at the turn of the century continue to be exploited leading to massive data breaches that effect both companies, and their users. Cross site scripting and SQL injection continue to be found on site after site after site. Here at WhiteHat, we still find cross site scripting on about 50% of all sites we asses. SQL injection which leads to database breaches still occurs on about 6% of all sites. It’s staggering that we haven’t learned from the past and continue to introduce these easily exploitable vulnerabilities.

 As a security community, we need to do a better job. We need to start training all developers on secure coding from day one. Universities need to start teaching secure coding to all computer science majors. The security teams need to share their knowledge with the developers and the rest of the company. We need to tear down the walls that so often pop up between the different organizations. Only then can we start to make forward progress on stopping the bad guys. 

 Ok, enough of my predictions and recommendations.  On to the predictions of some of the team here at WhiteHat…

Marc Druzin, Product Management

(Reference: http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/systems/its-now-temporarily-legal-to-hack-your-own-car)

Cars are a key target for hackers

There will be a lot more surfaced vulnerabilities in cars next year. You can bet as soon as newer models come out with more auto-driving/steering and logically, interconnected features, the hack-a-thon will be on.

Antoine Baisy, Threat Research Center

• Cars are a key target for hackers
• There will be a published hack for Google Home or the Amazon Echo

So, when I gazed into my crystal ball located conveniently on my desk, two major events appeared in the mist. One is another remote hack on self-driving cars which will continue to hammer home that they need to be properly secured before they are released to the masses. The other is a published hack for either the Google Home or the Amazon Echo. The Echo has been out for two years and it’s been solid so far. However, with the Google Home emerging, the always-on microphones in people’s homes are a serious concern for the general consumer. I’ll trust both Google and Amazon to patch the hacks before they are published, but I do think both devices have a target on them in the hacking community. If you believe crystal balls that is.

Brian Williams, Threat Research Center

DDoS attacks like Mirai will continue.

DDoS attacks are likely to become a big problem.

The record-breaking Mirai botnet, and the subsequent release of its source code, was some of the biggest security news that we saw this year. The malware first reared its head back in September, when it was used to deliver a record-breaking DDoS attack on Brian Krebs’ security blog. Mirai exploits default passwords on Internet of Things devices, such as routers, security cameras, and DVRs in order to gain control of them. Thousands of devices are infected at once, and then used to deliver a massive barrage of requests to a target victim, unloading up to 700 gigabits of data per second. Directly following the attack on Brian Krebs’ blog, the source code for Mirai was released to the public.

On October 21, Mirai was used to take down the DNS provider, Dyn. By targeting Internet infrastructure, attackers were able to deny service to a large number of websites for most of the day, including Twitter, Amazon, Tumblr, Reddit, Spotify, Netflix, and GitHub.

Since the source code of Mirai is easily obtained, I expect that DDoS attacks of this nature will continue.

Jeannie Warner, Security Manager

The social and political unrest around the world will encourage a dramatic rise in Hactivism.

I foresee the return of Anonymous, cranking up U.S. operations to unheard-of new levels. We’re all used to www.whitehouse.gov and www.cia.gov being constantly attacked, defaced, and taken offline. With all of the anger and frustration of the 2016 U.S. elections, we’re going to see a lot more attacking, DDoS, and exposure attacks of many media outlets, right- and left- leaning special interest groups, and definitely the FBI. Anonymous already stands with Standing Rock and the protests there.  There will likely be a lot more attacks on big oil, as well as state-level sheriff and police supporting these kinds of activities. The gloves seem to be off on the topic of fair play. Google and Facebook are both declaring they are working at eliminating the fake news issues that plagued social media over the last 12 months. What will come of it remains to be seen, but I predict there will be a lot of focus on new natural language processing technology examining ad filters and URL processing as part of web applications.

New guidelines will emerge from organizations such as NIST requiring that application security vendors partner with device manufacturers and testing labs to deliver secure IoT systems.   

The Internet of Things is growing daily, with smart devices and controlling applications at the core of every business from Healthcare to smart cars and smart buildings. It’s essential to protect smart anything from attackers attempting to exploit their vulnerabilities – and I’m expecting/hoping to see a shift from the term “security” to “safety”, as well as an increase in legislation mandating increased rigor of testing. In the same way manufacturing safety testing via the American National Standards Institute controls new releases in devices, I think that the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s SP 800 or a similar body will form guidelines for a comprehensive security assurance through the integration of dynamic application scanning technology and rigorous device controls testing. Commonalities in all IoT systems include controls for tracking and sensing interfaces, combined with web- or mobile-enabled control applications which combine to expand the borders of the security ecosystem. New guidelines will (ideally) force more application security vendors to partner with device control testing labs to support manufacturing earlier in the development process, helping the innovative organizations to manage risk by identifying vulnerabilities early in development, continue to monitor challenges during testing, and help release more secure products.

Dan Lacey, Threat Research Center

Nothing will change.

Attackers will continue to discover and exploit zero-days. Companies large and small will continue to lose data and money to the usual attacks, often because they didn’t take basic security precautions. Individuals will continue to lose money in the usual ways, often because they lack basic knowledge of Internet safety. Manufacturers will continue to produce Internet-connected devices with no security, or easily by-passable security, enabling attackers to hijack them. Someone might pass laws mandating that new Internet of Things devices have security, but those laws will be unenforceable and impossible to apply retroactively.

No one will deploy a better authentication system than passwords.

The government will continue to press for increased surveillance including backdoors.

Whitehatsec.com

Genesis mining promo code: CZL5k6

#G7 FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF #CYBERSECURITY FOR THE FINANCIAL SECTOR

 Increasing in sophistication, frequency, and persistence, cyber risks are growing more dangerous and diverse, threatening to disrupt our interconnected global financial systems and the institutions that operate and support those systems. To address these risks, the below nonbinding, high-level fundamental elements are designed for financial sector private and public entities to tailor to their specific operational and threat landscape, role in the sector, and legal and regulatory requirements.

The elements serve as the building blocks upon which an entity can design and implement its cybersecurity strategy and operating framework, informed by its approach to risk management and culture. The elements also provide steps in a dynamic process through which the entity can systematically re-evaluate its cybersecurity strategy and framework as the operational and threat environment evolves. Public authorities within and across jurisdictions can use the elements as well to guide their public policy, regulatory, and supervisory efforts. Working together, informed by these elements, private and public entities and public authorities can help bolster the overall cybersecurity and resiliency of the international financial system.

Element 1: Cybersecurity Strategy and Framework.

 Establish and maintain a cybersecurity strategy and framework tailored to specific cyber risks and appropriately informed by international, national, and industry standards and guidelines.The purpose of a cybersecurity strategy and framework is to specify how to identify, manage,and reduce cyber risks effectively in an integrated and comprehensive manner. Entities in the financial sector should establish cybersecurity strategies and frameworks tailored to their nature, size, complexity, risk profile, and culture. Informed by the cyber threat and vulnerability landscape, a jurisdiction can also establish sector-wide cybersecurity strategies and frameworks that outline how cooperation occurs between entities and public authorities in the financial sector, with sectors upon which the financial sector depends, and with other relevant jurisdictions.

Element 2: Governance.

 Define and facilitate performance of roles and responsibilities for personnel implementing,
managing, and overseeing the effectiveness of the cybersecurity strategy and framework to
ensure accountability; and provide adequate resources, appropriate authority, and access to the governing authority (e.g., board of directors or senior officials at public authorities).Effective governance structures reinforce accountability by articulating clear responsibilities and lines of reporting and escalation. Effective governance also mediates competing objectives and fosters communication among operating units, information technology, risk, and controlrelated activities. Consistent with their missions and strategies, boards of directors (or similar oversight bodies for public entities or authorities) should establish the cyber risk tolerance for their entities and oversee the design, implementation, and effectiveness of related cybersecurity programs.

Element 3: Risk and Control Assessment.

 Identify functions, activities, products, and services—including interconnections, dependencies,and third parties—prioritize their relative importance, and assess their respective cyber risks.
Identify and implement controls—including systems, policies, procedures, and training—to
protect against and manage those risks within the tolerance set by the governing authority.Ideally as part of an enterprise risk management program, entities should evaluate the inherentcyber risk (or the risk absent any compensating controls) presented by the people, processes,technology, and underlying data that support each identified function, activity, product, and service. Entities should then identify and assess the existence and effectiveness of controls to protect against the identified risk to arrive at the residual cyber risk. Protection mechanisms can include avoiding or eliminating risk by not engaging in an identified activity. They can also include mitigating the risk through controls or sharing or transferring the risk. In addition to evaluating an entity’s own cyber risks from its functions, activities, products, and services, risk and control assessments should consider as appropriate any cyber risks the entity presents to others and the financial sector as a whole. Public authorities should map critical economic functions in their financial systems as part of their risk and control assessments to identify single points of failure and concentration risk. The sector’s critical economic functions range from deposit taking, lending, and payments to trading, clearing, settlement, and custody.

Element 4: Monitoring.

 Establish systematic monitoring processes to rapidly detect cyber incidents and periodically
evaluate the effectiveness of identified controls, including through network monitoring, testing, audits, and exercises.Effective monitoring helps entities adhere to established risk tolerances and timely enhance or remediate weaknesses in existing controls. Testing and auditing protocols provide essential assurance mechanisms for entities and public authorities alike. Depending on the nature of an entity and its cyber risk profile and control environment, the testing and auditing functions should be appropriately independent from the personnel responsible for implementing and managing the cybersecurity program. Through examinations, on-site and other supervisory mechanisms, comparative analysis of entities’ testing results, and joint public-private exercises, public authorities can better understand sector-wide cyber threats and vulnerabilities, as well as individual entities’ relative risk profiles and capabilities.

Element 5: Response.

Timely (a) assess the nature, scope, and impact of a cyber incident; (b) contain the incident and mitigate its impact; (c) notify internal and external stakeholders (such as law enforcement, regulators, and other public authorities, as well as shareholders, third-party service providers, and customers as appropriate); and (d) coordinate joint response activities as needed.As part of their risk and control assessments, entities should implement incident response policies and other controls to facilitate effective incident response. Among other things, these controls should clearly address decision-making responsibilities, define escalation procedures,and establish processes for communicating with internal and external stakeholders. Exercising protocols within and among entities and public authorities contributes to more effective responses. Exercising also enables entities and public authorities to identify how potential 3decisions could affect each other’s ability to maintain critical and other functions, services, and activities.

Element 6: Recovery. 

 Resume operations responsibly, while allowing for continued remediation, including by (a)
eliminating harmful remnants of the incident; (b) restoring systems and data to normal and
confirming normal state; (c) identifying and mitigating all vulnerabilities that were exploited;
(d) remediating vulnerabilities to prevent similar incidents; and (e) communicating appropriately internally and externally.Once operational stability and integrity are assured, prompt and effective recovery of operations should be based on prioritization of critical economic and other functions and in accordance with objectives set by the relevant public authorities. Maintaining trust and confidence in the financial sector significantly improves when entities and public authorities have the ability to mutually assist each other in the resumption and recovery of critical functions, processes, and activities. Therefore, before an incident occurs, establishing and testing contingency plans for essential activities and key processes, such as funding, can contribute to a faster and more effective recovery.

Element 7: Information Sharing. 

 Engage in the timely sharing of reliable, actionable cybersecurity information with internal and external stakeholders (including entities and public authorities within and outside the financial sector) on threats, vulnerabilities, incidents, and responses to enhance defenses, limit damage,increase situational awareness, and broaden learning.Sharing technical information, such as threat indicators or details on how vulnerabilities were exploited, allows entities to remain up-to-date in their defenses and learn about emerging methods used by attackers. Sharing broader insights among entities, between entities and public authorities, and among public authorities deepens collective understanding of how attackers may
exploit sector-wide vulnerabilities that could potentially disrupt critical economic functions and endanger financial stability. Given its importance, entities and public authorities should identify and address impediments to information sharing.Element 8: Continuous Learning.Review the cybersecurity strategy and framework regularly and when events warrant—including its governance, risk and control assessment, monitoring, response, recovery, and information sharing components—to address changes in cyber risks, allocate resources, identify and remediate gaps, and incorporate lessons learned.Cyber threats and vulnerabilities evolve rapidly, as do best practices and technical standards to address them. The composition of the financial sector also changes over time, as new types of entities, products, and services emerge, and third-party service providers are increasingly relied
upon. Entity-specific, as well as sector-wide, cybersecurity strategies and frameworks need
periodic review and update to adapt to changes in the threat and control environment, enhance user awareness, and to effectively deploy resources. Other sectors, such as energy and telecommunications, present external dependencies; therefore, entities and public authorities should consider developments in these sectors as part of any review process. 

Ec.europa.eu