{"id":2421,"date":"2019-04-23T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devbloglavaprotocols.nityo.in\/this-is-how-hackers-are-fooling-you-your-business\/"},"modified":"2019-04-23T12:00:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T12:00:15","slug":"this-is-how-hackers-are-fooling-you-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/this-is-how-hackers-are-fooling-you-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is How Hackers Are Fooling You & Your Business"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Prethiba Esvary, Marketing and Communications Executive, Lava Protocols<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Last year, approximately 1.5 million patients\u2019 non-medical records <\/span>were stolen<\/span><\/a> from the SingHealth (<\/span>a<\/span> group of healthcare institutions in Singapore) database. To add to that, about 160,000 patient\u2019s medical records <\/span>\u2014<\/span> including that of the current Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong\u2019s <\/span>\u2014<\/span> were accessed illegally. This is one example of a huge case of data breach. <\/span><\/p>\n

Do you remember the CIMB Clicks password issue that took place last year? People <\/span>claimed <\/span><\/a>that they could log in despite adding a few invalid characters after the required 8-character password. Then there was the issue of fraudulent debit card transactions. Several CIMB customers complained that there were <\/span>unauthorized Paypal transactions<\/span><\/a> made via their debit cards. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our question is how can hackers get access to what you would think are high-security systems?<\/span><\/i> Was this a human error or simply due to the absence of a robust security system? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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The Facts<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

A <\/span>study by Frost & Sullivan<\/span><\/a> revealed that Malaysia is looking at a possible loss of <\/span>US$12.2 <\/span>billion (approx. RM50.7billion) due to cybersecurity attacks. <\/span><\/p>\n

In a press conference in July last year, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Marketing VP Saipan Agarwal <\/span>said<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> \u201cCybersecurity attacks have resulted in job losses across different functions in three out of five organizations that have experienced cyber incidents over the last 12 months.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In reference to the SingHealth database hack, associate director of security services provider LGMS CK Fow <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> that most of the time, cybersecurity attacks are due to <\/span>human error<\/b> and they usually come from <\/span>within the organization<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The problem is that organizations tend to place more importance on back-end security (servers, firewalls, intrusion prevention systems), he added. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey may forget the most important part, which is the front-end security, such as end-user computers,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

With regards to the CIMB Clicks password issue, the bank released a <\/span>statement<\/span><\/a> on Dec 17 last year saying they have beefed up their security by accommodating passwords of 8 to 20 characters in length and by adding reCaptcha. As to the fraudulent transactions, CIMB confirmed in a<\/span> public FAQ<\/span><\/a> released on the same date that this matter was separate from CIMB Clicks. A question raised was why wasn\u2019t there an OTP (one-time password) issued to customers to warn them of suspicious transactions?<\/span><\/p>\n

According to CIMB, \u201cThe use of OTP is a policy adopted by e-commerce site owners. Whilst online transactions on Malaysian websites require an OTP (called 3D authentication),<\/span> many international websites such as Facebook or PayPal do not require an OTP<\/b> (called Non-3D transactions)\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

How can consumers protect themselves in that case? Go to the solutions section of this article. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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A Cause for Concern for Your Business <\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Believe it or not, hackers are now more interested in targeting businesses rather than individual consumers, the <\/span>2018 Phishing Trends and Intelligence (PTI) Report<\/span><\/i><\/a> stated. <\/span><\/p>\n

What are <\/span><\/i>phishing attacks<\/span><\/i><\/a>? It is when a hacker masks their true identity behind a trusted entity in an attempt to steal personal and sensitive data from users such as login credentials and debit\/ credit card details. They do this by tricking users to open emails and text messages and to click on malicious links. This \u201ccan lead to the installation of malware, the freezing of the system as part of a ransomware attack or the revealing of sensitive information\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The report also said that hackers are impersonating email service providers and Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms in an attempt to steal corporate data and access their systems. Once a single user has accidentally given access to his\/ her account, hackers are able to <\/span>access all sorts of data<\/span><\/a> from the organization. In fact, they can use this to send malicious emails to other employees. Now that there is the single sign-on function, hackers can also use that to access all the other SaaS services.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take a look at this email:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Paypal<\/p>\n

This mage is taken from www.phishing.org<\/a> and intended for illustration purposes only.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When we get security warning emails from e-commerce sites or email service providers we have accounts with, naturally, we would assume it is from a trusted source. Hackers take this to another level by mimicking these emails (down to the logo, font, sender\u2019s email, and colors), just to get you to click on a malicious link. <\/span><\/p>\n

In this case, you should hover over the link to ensure it is from a legitimates source BEFORE clicking on it. You\u2019ll be able to see the source at the bottom left of your screen. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n This is a screenshot taken from the author\u2019s inbox and is purely for illustration purposes. <\/p>\n

” data-medium-file=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/udemy.jpg?fit=300%2C140&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/udemy.jpg?fit=700%2C326&ssl=1″ loading=”lazy” class=”size-full wp-image-11566″ src=”https:\/\/4843500.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net\/hubfs\/4843500\/Imported_Blog_Media\/udemy-2.jpg” alt=”cybersecurity attacks in malaysia” width=”700″ height=”326″ srcset=”https:\/\/4843500.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net\/hubfs\/4843500\/Imported_Blog_Media\/udemy-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/4843500.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net\/hubfs\/4843500\/Imported_Blog_Media\/udemy-3.jpg 300w, https:\/\/4843500.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net\/hubfs\/4843500\/Imported_Blog_Media\/udemy.jpg 610w” sizes=”(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px” data-recalc-dims=”1″><\/p>\n

This is a screenshot taken from the author\u2019s inbox and is purely for illustration purposes.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You would also think that sites that contain HTTPS are trusted as it encrypts your communication. Apparently, that\u2019s not the case anymore. Hackers have become smarter and are exploiting this for their own benefit. The same report stated that \u201cby the end of 2017, nearly one-third of all phishing sites were hosted on HTTPS infrastructure, compared to just five percent at the end of 2016\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I can go on and on. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more<\/b>: <\/span>Four Phishing Attack Trends To Look Out For In 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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The Solution<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

1. Two-step verification method on Google<\/b><\/p>\n

This means that every time you sign into your Google account, you\u2019ll need to put a password and verification code. The code is sent via text message, voice call, or Google\u2019s mobile app. This way, even if hackers somehow got a hold of your password, they can\u2019t log in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, you have the option of not going through this <\/span>two-step process<\/span><\/a> again and again if you\u2019re on the same computer\/ device. But the moment you yourself sign in from another device, the two-step verification is needed. <\/span><\/p>\n

2. Strengthen your CRM platform security<\/b><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re using a CRM platform such as Salesforce, there are several <\/span>security measures<\/span><\/a> you can take. One is the two-factor authentication approach. You can set this up for every user\u2019s login, log in through API (for developers and client applications), and also for access to particular features such as reports and apps. Users would have to either download a Salesforce\/ Google mobile authenticator app (to receive push notifications or OTPs via the app) or use a U2F security key as the second-factor authentication. <\/span><\/p>\n

The second security measure you can take is to include IP range restrictions. This means you will be restricting users to log in only from your company network or a VPN (virtual private network). <\/span><\/p>\n

Last but not least, it would be good to add spam filters and malware protection to your system.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Check the website domain<\/b><\/p>\n

Since hackers are now mimicking other \u2018https\u2019 sites, what you can do is to check the domain. Say you have an account on <\/span>amazon.com<\/span><\/a>. Hackers can easily create a website that looks exactly like amazon.com. But if you look closely, you may see that the domain is actually amaz0n.com. That\u2019s because no two users can purchase\/ have the same domain. <\/span><\/p>\n

You can also look at the following:<\/span><\/p>\n