Just how secure are the servers, routers and other high end hardware that is running the global Internet? This is a question posed in a pair of recent articles from US-CERT, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team.
Because of the significant skills and capabilities of organized cyber-criminals, politically motivated hacker collectives, nation-state cyber armies and similar threat sources, operators of global network systems face significant threats.
In order to mitigate these threats, US-CERT recommends:
- Segmenting and segregating networks and functions.
- Limiting lateral communication pathways.
- Hardening network devices by using cybersecurity best practices.
- Using out-of-band network management methodologies.
- Validate hardware and software integrity.
A big part of the problem is associated with home and small business network routers and smart IoT devices that are lacking basic security solutions such as built in anti-malware software, proper identity and authentication mechanisms, and secure encryption. These devices are rarely replaced by when they are out of service life, and are not generally automatically patched.
Solutions include:
- Changing default passwords
- Using longer passwords
- Avoiding passwords that are on “worst password” blacklists
- Make sure passwords are properly salted and hashed using strong encryption.
- Disabling remote administration
You can read the following articles for more information and specific instructions.
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JUL
About the Author:
I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com