2013
Portnox named one of the top 10 fastest-growing tech companies in Deloitte’s “Technology Fast 50” report.
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- In the digital age, where businesses rely on seamless connectivity and data exchange, corporate WiFi networks have become the backbone of modern operations. However, a growing concern looms over these networks: the alarming ease with which their passwords can be hacked. In this article, we explore the vulnerabilities that make corporate Wi-Fi networks susceptible to breaches, as well as the far-reaching consequences that such hacks have on businesses. Unveiling the Vulnerabilities of Wireless Networks The ease with which corporate WiFi network passwords can be hacked poses a dire threat to businesses, yet they continue to persist. Here are some of the reasons why WiFi passwords are so easy to hack: Password Weakness: The Achilles’ heel of corporate WiFi networks often lies in weak passwords. Surprisingly, many organizations still employ generic or easily guessable passwords, providing hackers with a convenient entry point. Cybercriminals employ sophisticated tools capable of deciphering these passwords through brute-force attacks, exploiting the negligence of network administrators. Flawed Network Configurations: Misconfigurations within WiFi networks often leave unintended openings for hackers. Despite advancements in security technologies, network administrators occasionally overlook crucial settings, unknowingly leaving the door ajar for malicious actors. For instance, obsolete authentication protocols like WEP, notorious for their vulnerabilities, can be exploited by skilled hackers to intercept and decrypt network traffic. Human Factors: Internal personnel can inadvertently or deliberately facilitate unauthorized access to corporate WiFi networks. Employees with inadequate security awareness may fall victim to social engineering attacks, disclosing passwords or inadvertently introducing malware into the network. Furthermore, disgruntled employees or ex-staff members with malicious intent can leverage their insider knowledge to breach network security, causing significant harm to their former employers. The Far-Reaching Consequences of a WiFi Hack The consequences of a WiFi password hacker gaining access to a corporate wireless network extend beyond mere financial losses, potentially devastating an organization’s reputation and eroding customer trust. These consequences include: Breach of Sensitive Data: Successful intrusions into corporate WiFi networks grant hackers unrestricted access to a treasure trove of sensitive business data. Confidential customer information, proprietary intellectual property, and critical financial records become vulnerable to exploitation. The repercussions can be devastating, including reputational damage, regulatory non-compliance penalties, and a loss of customer trust. Competitors may capitalize on stolen information, resulting in financial losses and compromised market position. Misuse of Network Resources: Once infiltrated, hackers exploit the compromised corporate WiFi network for their nefarious activities. They may launch attacks on internal systems, infect devices with malware, or engage in illegal practices, such as distributing pirated content. The consequences are dire, ranging from compromised network performance and disrupted business operations to potential legal consequences for facilitating illegal activities. Financial Burdens: The financial implications of WiFi network breaches are profound. Remediation efforts, including incident response, forensic investigations, legal services, and potential regulatory fines, can exact a heavy toll. Moreover, organizations may face indirect financial losses due to diminished business opportunities, decreased productivity, and customer attrition resulting from damaged reputation and eroded trust. Operational Disruptions: A successful hack of a corporate WiFi network triggers significant operational disruptions. While IT teams work tirelessly to contain the breach, investigate the incident, and restore network integrity, the organization’s daily operations grind to a halt. The ensuing downtime leads to missed deadlines, dissatisfied customers, and severe financial ramifications. Stopping the WiFi Password Hacker with NAC To mitigate risks posed by a WiFi password hacker, businesses must prioritize robust security measures, including regular network audits, encryption standards, user access controls, and ongoing employee training. When it comes to user access controls in particular, a network access control (NAC) solution can help prevent someone from hacking the password for a corporate WiFi network through several mechanisms. Here are some ways NAC can enhance security: User Authentication: NAC solutions can enforce strong user authentication methods, such as two-factor authentication (2FA) or certificate-based authentication. This ensures that only authorized users with valid credentials can connect to the network. Access Policies: NAC solutions allow network administrators to define and enforce access policies. These policies can restrict access based on user roles, devices, or locations. By implementing granular access controls, the NAC solution can prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to the network, ultimately thwarting any WiFi password hacker. Device Profiling and Security Checks: NAC solutions can perform device profiling, which involves collecting information about connected devices, such as device type, operating system, and security posture. The solution can then compare this information against predefined security policies and assess the risk level of the device. If a device is deemed insecure or non-compliant, the NAC solution can restrict or deny network access. Network Segmentation: NAC solutions often include network segmentation capabilities. By dividing the network into separate segments or VLANs, the solution can isolate critical assets and restrict access between different segments. This way, even if an unauthorized user gains access to the network, they will face additional barriers when attempting to move laterally or escalate privileges. Continuous Monitoring: NAC solutions provide ongoing monitoring of connected devices. They can detect anomalies, such as multiple failed login attempts, unusual network traffic patterns, or unauthorized devices connecting to the network. If suspicious behavior is detected, the NAC solution can trigger alerts or take automated actions, such as blocking the device or initiating additional security measures. Integration with other Security Tools: NAC solutions often integrate with other security tools, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), or security information and event management (SIEM) systems. This integration allows for more comprehensive threat detection and response capabilities. For example, if the NAC solution detects a suspicious login attempt, it can communicate with the firewall to block the source IP address. Proactively fortifying corporate WiFi networks allows organizations to safeguard their valuable assets, maintain business continuity, and thrive amidst the escalating cybersecurity challenges of the digital era. By implementing a robust NAC solution with these features, an organization can significantly reduce the risk of password hacking attempts and enhance the overall security of their corporate WiFi network. Read more...
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- One of the worst things you can go through as a company is a data breach. It costs a small fortune (average of $4.35 million as of 2022), destroys your reputation, often leads to bankruptcy, and takes a massive toll on your employee’s well-being. Thus, preventing a data breach should be top of your to-do list. Today, that means taking a hard look at your connected endpoints – starting with IoT – and making sure you have the necessary tools to keep them from putting you at risk. Safety Third for IoT IoT (Internet of Things) is loosely defined as devices other than computers and networking equipment that connect to the internet, and these days that is just about everything. There are currently over 13 billion IoT things connected around the globe, with that number projected to grow two-fold to 25.4 billion by 2030. The unfortunate reality of these billions of devices is that they are not designed with security at the top of the list…if it’s even on the list. Default administrator passwords, security patches that are slow to be released if at all, and impossible to update firmware are some of the many ways IoT devices make your network vulnerable. Behold, IoT Fingerprinting! One of the trickiest things about IoT devices is just figuring out that they’re there. IoT devices prioritize ease of setup and use (most of them just connect to the internet and away you go) over best security practices, which makes them an attractive target for hackers. They don’t respond to SNMP, WMI, or other common monitoring protocols, and they typically run locked-down operating systems that don’t allow for additional software like agents. It’s easy for them to hide in plain sight, just waiting to be exploited. This is where IoT fingerprinting comes in – a good option here is a NAC solution that has the ability to pull information from IoT devices to give you critical information like operating system, manufacturer, and firmware version. There are several ways to get this information with various levels of accuracy – Nmap scanning, DHCP, NetFlow, MAC address look up, etc. Many of these options require additional configurations or features in your network, so it’s important to pick one that will work with what you already have without creating any network latency. Staying in Your IoT Lane In 2017, a casino was hacked using a fish tank as an entry point. Two buildings in Finland had their heat turned off in November through a DDoS attack on the internet-connected thermostats (and with the average temperature just a bit above freezing, that put some lives at risk.). When security startup Verkada was breached, hackers got access to not only the live camera feeds, but archived security camera footage from Tesla, Equinox, Cloudflare, and others. One of the most important ways to protect your networks is making sure they are segmented – the practice of separating your network into different VLANs with limited access to specific resources. This is particularly important for your IoT devices because if they are breached, you don’t want the hackers to be able to move through your network and cause further damage. Ideally you would create a special IoT VLAN that had internet access only, and then use a security tool like a NAC to automatically move all of your IoT devices to that specific VLAN. After all, your fish tank probably does not need access to your customer database. Spoof Proof IoT When it walks like a duck, but barks like a dog…. One challenge in adding IoT devices onto your network is the fact they don’t support 802.1x authentication. That means they need to bypass your usual safeguards and get on some other way. MAC Authentication Bypass (MAB) is a way for a device to authenticate based on its MAC address, rather than any kind of certificate or identity provider. Essentially, a device connects to a switch or wireless access point and then does not respond to requests for 802.1x authentication (because it can’t). The device then sends a packet containing its MAC address to the switch, which forwards it onto the RADIUS server and determines if it gets access or not. Obviously, the issue here is that there is no real authentication happening, so you need something to ensure you’re not just letting every device onto your network. The most common way to do this is to set up a MAC address filter, which your RADIUS server will then use to validate that the device asking for access is allowed, but that’s still not a great solution because MAC addresses can be spoofed. Spoofing is, in fact, laughably easy – a quick Google search yields over 6 million how-to results! To prevent a potential bad actor from gaining access, you want to make sure you have a solution that can do some kind of comparison between a device’s past behavior and present behavior so that if a security camera suddenly starts behaving like a laptop, you can remove it from the network. If all this seems a bit overwhelming, well, securing IoT can definitely be a big undertaking. IoT Device Trust Thankfully, there are tools in the zero trust security space that have recognized how important it is to keep these devices secure and can do most of the heavy lifting for you. Portnox combines all of these features – fingerprinting, access control, and secure MAB, into a collection called IoT Device Trust. These features are key to keeping your network secure no matter how many things live on your internet. Read more...
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- It should come as no surprise that passwords have fallen out of favor as a reliable method of authentication. This is because passwords are often weak (easily guessable), can be forgotten, and password stores become a weak point for security (if an intruder accesses the password store, they hit the motherload). Luckily, there is a better way to reliably authenticate users – certificate-based authentication. What Is Certificate-Based Authentication? Certificate-based authentication is a cryptographic technique that uses a digital certificate to identify a user, device, or machine before granting access to specific resources. Certificate-based authentication isn’t new. It’s widely used by many internet security protocols, including SSL/TLS, a near-universal protocol that encrypts communications between a client and server, typically web browsers and websites or applications. However, certificate-based authentication works slightly differently for SSL/TLS than in other use cases. With SSL/TLS, the server confirms its identity to the client machine, but this happens in reverse for client certificate-based authentication. For example, let’s say a company wants to use certificate-based authentication to grant employees access to its email servers. In this scenario, the company will issue employees with valid certificates to access the email servers, and only employees with these certificates will be granted access. In recent years, certificate-based authentication has risen in popularity as an alternative to password-based authentication, mainly as a way to address the security gaps with usernames and passwords. For example, username/password authentication uses only what the user knows (the password). In contrast, certificate-based authentication adds another layer of security by also using what the user has (the private cryptographic key). With that said, it’s important to note that certificate-based authentication is rarely used as a replacement for usernames and passwords but instead used in conjunction with them. By using both, companies essentially achieve two-factor authentication without requiring any extra effort from the end user (getting out their cell phone to receive a one-time password (OTP), for example). How Does Certificate-Based Authentication Work? Before answering this question, we first have to understand what a digital certificate is. A digital certificate is an electronic password or file that proves the authenticity of a user, server, or device through cryptography and the public key infrastructure (PKI). PKI refers to tools leveraged to create and manage public keys for encryption. It’s built into all web browsers currently in use today, and organizations also use it to secure internal communications and connect devices securely. The digital certificate file contains identifiable information about the certificate holder and a copy of the public key from the certificate holder. This identifiable information can be a user’s name, company, department, and the device’s IP address and serial number. When it comes to the public key, the key needs to be matched to a corresponding private key to verify it’s real. So, how does this work in practice? First, the end user digitally signs a piece of data using their private key. This data and the user’s certificate then travel across the network. The destination server will then compare the signed data (protected with a private key) with the public key contained within the certificate. If the keys match, the server authenticates the user, and they’re free to access network resources. Benefits of Certificate-Based Authentication Digital certificates are widely used by organizations today and for many reasons. Let’s dive into why. Boosted Security Public key cryptography, also known as asymmetric encryption, is considered very secure. This is because all data encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the matching private key. So, when two parties communicate, the sender encrypts (scrambles) the data before sending it, and the receiver decrypts (unscrambles) the data after receiving it. The unscrambling can only happen if the keys match. And while in transit, the data remains scrambled and will appear as gibberish to a hacker. Ease of Deployment & Use Certificate-based solutions are easy to deploy and manage. They typically come with a cloud-based management platform that allows administrators to issue certificates to new employees with ease. The same is true for renewing or revoking certificates. Moreover, many solutions integrate with Active Directory, which makes the certificate issuing process even more straightforward. They also don’t require any additional hardware, which isn’t the case for other authentication methods like biometrics or OTP tokens. Lastly, certificate-based solutions are very user-friendly and require minimal end-user involvement. Users don’t have to expend additional effort to get this boosted level of security. This is crucial because adding friction to any security measures tends to frustrate users and can often lead to worse outcomes. We see this happen with passwords where users typically reuse passwords to ease the burden of remembering multiple highly secure phrases. Natively Supported by Many Existing Enterprise Applications Countless enterprise applications and networks natively support X.509 digital certificates – the typical format used in public key certificates. This means enterprises can get up and running with certificate-based authentication with just a few configuration tweaks. Security Flaws of Certificate-Based Authentication No solution is without its drawbacks, and the same is true for certificate-based authentication. It’s much harder to crack a key than a password, but once cracked, the results are the same. If a key is compromised, cybersecurity goes out the window. Essentially, IT can’t distinguish between a hacker and a legitimate employee if the keys match. And this is precisely why certificate-based authentication should be used in coordination with other authentication and cybersecurity measures wherever possible. Second, certificate-based authentication is only as strong as the digital certificate. Or in other words, the stronger the cryptographic algorithms used to create the certificates, the less likely an attacker can compromise them. For this reason, organizations must ensure that the certificate authority is reputable and trustworthy. Final Thoughts on Certificate-Based Authentication Certificate-based authentication can be an excellent addition to any organization’s cybersecurity stack. While it’s not without its drawbacks, the benefits outweigh the challenges. Certificate-based authentication allows only approved users and devices to access your network while keeping unauthorized users and rogue devices locked out. Read more...
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