Security

Earlier this year, I broke into the network of a large teaching hospital located in a major U.S. city. It wasn’t difficult, and I did so without using any sophisticated technical skills. My weapon of choice? A dress shirt and a pair of khakis.

Dressed like your typical IT professional, I walked the hallways of the hospital carrying a laptop, looking for a target. I found a maintenance technician repairing a section of the floor and approached him, saying, “Hi there, I’m Mike from IT, and I’m trying to fix the network. I left my badge downstairs, and I really don’t want to walk back there. Is there any chance you could let me into this network closet?”

“Sure, buddy, no problem,” he replied. He stood up, walked over to the door and swiped his ID card, letting me into the network closet. Once I was in, I quickly attached a small device to the network switch that opened a reverse connection, giving my entire team remote access to the hospital’s internal network. Now, let me explain myself. I’m not a criminal — I’m a penetration tester with CDW’s Amplified Security services team, and organizations around the country hire me to perform tests just like this one. I work to help business and technology leaders understand the risks facing their organizations and develop strategies to better secure their networks, systems and people from attack.

Video surveillance systems play an essential role in protecting the physical security of organizations across a wide variety of industries. Until recently, these systems ran on closed-circuit television technology and were the domain of physical security and facilities teams.

Modern systems, however, take a different approach and leverage digital networks to facilitate easy deployment of cameras and rapid analysis of camera data. The digitalization of this technology often shifts responsibility for camera systems away from facilities teams and moves it under the umbrella of the IT department.

I often work with CIOs and other IT leaders who find themselves responsible for the reliability and security of these systems. I’ve seen camera systems deployed in dozens of organizations and have learned some common lessons that can help any organization improve the security of its video surveillance deployment. Let’s look at six things organizations can do right now to protect the cybersecurity of these important assets.

As a member of CDW’s cybersecurity incident response team, I spend much of my time working with organizations in the heat of a crisis.

Whether they’re in the middle of an active network compromise or they’ve fallen victim to a ransomware attack, my team steps into emergency situations and helps companies get back on their feet as quickly as possible. In that respect, our team is much like a battalion of firefighters.

Managing a mobile computing environment was already complex enough at the beginning of this year. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, driving many employees (and their mobile devices) out of the office and into their homes, limiting the visibility and control of IT teams.

Most enterprises were already getting on board with unified endpoint management tools, recognizing the need for a common platform to help them manage their fleets of smartphones, tablets and notebook computers, along with associated mobile apps and content. But for organizations that were dragging their feet with UEM, 2020 has served as a wake-up call about the importance of these tools.

For organizations still looking for the right fit, here are four ways that UEM solutions can help navigate these challenging times.

The most exciting part of my job occurs when I have the opportunity to visit with a new client organization and help its leaders assess their security infrastructure and remediate any vulnerabilities. I enjoy being able to examine the current state of their cybersecurity programs and help them redesign elements to better address the modern threat environment.

Recently, I had the opportunity to engage in this type of work with one of CDW’s customers — the government of a midsized county. As we worked through the assessment, we identified two core issues that required immediate attention. First, the county’s network firewall platform was quite outdated, running technology that was over a decade old. The devices still functioned, but they were designed to protect against the threats of 10 years ago, not today’s advanced persistent threats. Our first core recommendation was that the county replace this aging firewall infrastructure with a modern next-generation firewall (NGFW) designed to stymie today’s attackers.

We also realized that the core of the county’s network lacked essential security controls. If someone gained physical access to the building and connected any device to the network, the attacker would have open access to all types of resources. There was no internal access control restricting the devices that could connect to the network and limiting the authorization of those devices based on the identity of the user. The county urgently needed a network access control (NAC) solution to address these risks and protect its network.

A lot of attention gets paid in the press to “zero-day” threats — attacks that wreak havoc on organizations while they’re still completely unknown to the cybersecurity community. But the truth is that 60 percent of breaches are the result of known vulnerabilities that have been left unpatched.

The problem is that patching practices in many organizations are slow and disorganized. Too many teams are in charge of patching too many different systems, and security leaders typically lack visibility into who is staying on top of patching and who isn’t. The good news is that many organizations already have a powerful tool to help streamline vulnerability management — the service management platform ServiceNow. Although some organizations use the platform primarily to manage help desk tickets, it’s capable of much more. The solution can also help organizations shore up vulnerabilities across their IT environments.

Here’s how.