This month, I’ve had the liberty of examining a vast array of Cyber Security exploits continuously plaguing the global economic infrastructure at alarming rates. Normally, I would give you the laundry list of every attack landing the headlines in the last 30 days. But not today. If you have decided to turn to this page, you have made a conscience choice to either be informed on matters of Cyber Security or distracted from boredom. No matter what the reason, I assure you this article will be far from redundant in that regard.
Today, my dear reader, I will give you a non-technical insight into the Lens of Exploitation firms like mine encounter on a daily basis. However, this round, I will treat you to a close to home experience.
bits&digits decided to open another office in the US. (Our home is in Germany.) We were initially making the move to supplement a client’s request for a very “personal cyber intelligence engagement.” It was not fiscally advantageous for us to buy/lease an office. That would expand our budget. So we did what most of the new age entrepreneurs and lean startups would. We searched for a reputable, known Business Incubator in the community. After the interview process and the onboarding, all seemed like it was good to go.
For those not familiar with Business Incubators, or Co-Location offices, see Wikipedia:
“Colocation (or co-location) is the act of placing multiple (sometimes related) entities within a single location.”
At first sight, as to many entrepreneurs with a lean budget, a Colocation business center is a dream come true. You don’t need much capital to reserve an office. Typically, the “CoLo” solicits its core differentiators by an array of utilities, services, and associations to which you as the “Member” will be privy.
Affordable rent, printing and copy stations, and internet is even included in the agreement. I mean, who wouldn’t think this is the wisest thing on earth to do when starting a financially lean organization? The answer prior to you finishing this article would possibly have been “Only a Fool wouldn’t find this attractive.”
That is until you put on your Lens of Exploitation.
Enter Day 1: Happy to be here. Smiles here and there. All is very welcoming. As I pass through the corridor, there’s a beautiful roster of the companies all in this wonderful CoLo. Warm and full of excitement to have our company official housed in a CoLo to accommodate a client’s request, I could not have been any happier. As I reviewed the roster, it read like an Upper Manhattan skyscraper business ledger.
(Company names have been redacted to protect the identity of the innocent.) Smile.
First Floor
ABC LawFirm Suite 101
TechIntegrator Suite 103
Z-Labs Insurance Solutions Suite 108
ProMed Medical Insurance Providers Suite 190
LogSec Logistical Solutions Security Suite 128
Second Floor
Keener & Associates Certified Public Accountants Suite 204
DataDocs-Data Scientist 4 Scientist Suite 201
FastPay Systems- Utility Payment Solutions Suite 209
DMV Plus-Expedited Driver License and Tag Solutions Suite 211
Marketing Insight Group (MIG) Suite 220
Financial Curves – Day Trading Training Solution Suite 208
It felt great to be in the presence of such a budding group of professionals. The parking lot, let me say, was nice to see. Full of what an outsider would assume are successful and promising businesses. Bright colors, wonderful services, and happy faces everywhere.
Enter the Lens: Now, I am the Co-Founder of a Cyber Intelligence company accompanied with about 15 years of experience attacking and defending networks. Because of this, it was my duty to ensure the soon to be satellite office of bits&digits was secure as possible. Doing my dance, setting up my firewalls, routers, counter surveillance devices, and other physical intrusion devices (some habits die hard), I felt all was good to go. I plugged in my router to the CoLo provided Lan source and just for the heck of it, opened up a Virtual Machine, and started up a packet analyzer (see below) by the name of Wireshark. Of course, there are a lot of other things I setup to ascertain the level of security within the building, but my lawyer has advised I keep things to a minimum.
“A packet analyzer (also known as a network analyzer, protocol analyzer or packet sniffer-or, for particular types of networks, an Ethernet sniffer or wireless sniffer) is a computer program or piece of computer hardware that can intercept and log traffic that passes over a digital network or part of a network.[1] As data streams flow across the network, the sniffer captures each packet and, if needed, decodes the packet’s raw data, showing the values of various fields in the packet, and analyzes its content according to the appropriate RFC or other specifications.”
Welcome Pwned Palace: The next morning was like every other morning. Tai chi, green tea, check emails, and get to work. Before I got to work though, I decided to check the logs of the wire capture I started the night before. Let me tell you right now, a Yellow Unicorn with Falafel Stuffed bags on its back would NOT have been as shocking as what I saw.
Passwords to underdeveloped systems and databases with intellectual property PRICELESS to a startup all running amuck on the network my Cyber Intelligence firm was “riding on.” I can go on and on about the various vulnerabilities, unsecured databases, and computers connected (unprotected) on this network. But, I will let your imagination lead you to the strong conclusion. Be careful, very careful, of the assumptions you make when housing your business in a CoLo.
Let me add, some wannabe script kiddie had already tried to scan and assess the way my internal network was configured. Poor guy. (I know it was a guy. I know all about him, his company…let I stop:). )
But what all of the above illuminated was the Target Rich Environments we more often than not ignore in our dealings with companies. Let me shift your focus for a second.
I’m not asking you to think about the dangers of a CoLo. They are wonderful opportunities for startups. However, it would not hurt to lean toward a cyber security firm or consultant to help protect your business before starting in a CoLo. What I do urge you to think about is the companies you may do business with which are not “Cyber Ready.” Hackers, or smart intruders alike, take the path of least resistance. Why go after the fort, when the delivery truck driver leaves the car running when they pump gas?
by J.Tate
Chief Intelligence Officer bits&digits
Edited January 2020.
Original BizBahrain, October 2016, Special Feature., pg 58 – 59.
This month I’ve had the liberty of examining a vast array of Cyber Security exploits that are continuously plaguing the global economic infrastructure at alarming rates. Normally I would give you the laundry list of every attack that has landed the headlines in the last 30 days. But not today, if you have decided to turn to this page you have made a conscience choice to either be informed on matters of Cyber Security or distracted from boredom. No matter what the reason I assure you this article will be far from redundant in that regard.
Today my dear reader I will give you a non-technical insight into the Lens of Exploitation that firms like mine encounter on a daily basis. However this round, I will treat you to a close to the home experience.
bits&digits decided to open another office (our home is in Germany) in the US. Because we were initially making the move to supplement a client’s request for a very “personal cyber intelligence engagement”. It was not fiscally advantageous for us to buy/ lease an office that would expand our budget. So we did what most of the new age entrepreneur, lean startups would. We searched for a Business Incubator that was reputable and known in the community. After the interview process, and the onboarding all seemed alike it was good to go.
For those not familiar with Business Incubators, or Co-Location offices see below from Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colocation_(business)
“Colocation (or co-location) is the act of placing multiple (sometimes related) entities within a single location.”
At first sight, as too many entrepreneurs with a lean budget, a Colocation business center is a dream come true. You don’t need much capital to reserve an office, typically the “Colo” solicits its core differentiators by an array of utilities, services, and associations that you as the “Member” will be privy to.
Affordable rent, printing and copy stations, the internet is even included in the agreement. I mean, who wouldn’t think this is the wisest thing on earth to do when starting a financially lean organization? The answer prior to you finishing this article would possibly have been “Only a Fool wouldn’t find this attractive”.
That is until you put on your Lens of Exploitation.
Enter Day 1: Happy to be here, smiles here and there all is very welcoming. As I pass through the corridor there’s a beautiful roster of the companies that are in this wonderful Colo. Warm and full of excitement to have our company official housed in a Colo to accommodate a client’s request, I could not have been any happier. As I reviewed the roster it read like an Upper Manhattan skyscraper business ledger.
(Company names have been redacted to protect the identity of the innocent) Smile
First Floor
ABC LawFirm Suite 101
TechIntegrator Suite 103
Z-Labs Insurance Solutions 108
ProMed Medical Insurance Providers Suite 190
LogSec Logistical Solutions Security Suite128
Second Floor
Keener & Associates Certified Public Accountants Suite 204
DataDocs-Data Scientist 4 Scientist
Suite 201
FastPay Systems- Utility Payment Solutions 209
DMV Plus-Expedited Driver License and Tag Solutions Suite 211
Marketing Insight Group (MIG) Suite 220
Financial Curves – Day Trading Training Solution 208
It felt great to be in the presence of such a budding group of professionals. The parking lot, let me say was nice to see. Full of what an outsider would assume are filled with successful and promising businesses. Bright colors, wonderful services, and happy faces everywhere.
Enter the Lens: Because I am the Co-Founder of a Cyber Intelligence company accompanied with about 15 years of experience attacking and defending networks, it was my duty to ensure the soon to be the satellite office of bits&digits was secure as possible. Doing my dance, setting up my firewalls, routers, counter surveillance devices and other physical intrusion devices (some habits die hard) I felt all was good to go. Plugged in my router to the Colo provided Lan source and just for the heck of it, I opened up a Virtual Machine and started up a packet analyzer (see below) by the name of Wireshark. Of course, there are a lot of other things I setup to certain the level of security within the building but my lawyer has advised I keep things to a minimum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_analyzer
“A packet analyzer (also known as a network analyzer, protocol analyzer or packet sniffer-or, for particular types of networks, an Ethernet sniffer or wireless sniffer) is a computer program or piece of computer hardware that can intercept and log traffic that passes over a digital network or part of a network.[1] As data streams flow across the network, the sniffer captures each packet and, if needed, decodes the packet’s raw data, showing the values of various fields in the packet, and analyzes its content according to the appropriate RFC or other specifications.”
Welcome Pwned Palace: The next morning was like every other morning, tai chi, green tea, check emails and get to work. Before I got to work, though, I decided to check the logs of the wire capture I started the night before. Let me tell you right now, a Yellow Unicorn with Falafel Stuffed bags on its back would NOT have been as shocking as what I saw.
Passwords to underdeveloped systems, databases with intellectual property that is PRICELESS to a startup all running amuck on the network my Cyber Intelligence firm was “riding on”. I can go on and on about the various vulnerabilities, unsecured databases, and computers connected (unprotected) on this network. But I will let your imagination lead you to the strong conclusion. Be careful, very careful of the assumptions you make when housing your business in a CoLo.
Let me add, some wannabe script kiddie had already tried to scan and assess the way my internal network was configured. Poor guy, I know it was a guy (I know all about him, his company…let I stop:).
But what all of the above illuminated was the Target Rich Environments that we more often than not ignore in our dealings with companies. Let me shift your focus for a second.
I’m not asking you to think about the dangers of a COLO. They are wonderful opportunities for startups, however, it would not hurt to lean toward a cyber security firm or consultant to help protect your business before starting in a COLO. What I do urge you to think about the companies that you may do business with that are not “Cyber Ready”, hackers, or smart intruders alike take the path of least resistance. Why go after the fort, when the delivery truck driver leaves the car running when they pump gas.
by J.Tate
Chief Intelligence Officer bits&digits
