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I was once involved in an incident response
project that involved over 10,000 Windows servers
and workstations being infected with targeted
malware. An advanced persistent threat
(APT) had taken a foothold. The business found
the infection early on and thought the IT team
had cleaned it up. Time passed, and they realized
a year or so later they had not cleaned up
the entire mess. The malware had come back
with a vengeance to the point where their entire
network was essentially under surveillance by
foreign, state-sponsored, criminal hackers.
Paying the piper
Chapter 17: Plugging Security Holes
After dozens of people spent many hours getting
to the root of the problem, it was determined that
the IT department had not done what it should’ve
been doing in terms of patching and hardening its
systems from the get-go. On top of that, there was
a serious communication breakdown between
IT and other departments, including security, the
help desk, and business operations. It was a case
of too little too late that ended up getting a very
large business into a very large bind. The lesson
here is that improperly secured systems can
create a tremendous burden on your business.
This book presents hardening countermeasures that you can implement for
your network, computers, and even physical systems and people. I find these
countermeasures work the best for the respective systems.
Implementing at least the basic security practices is critical. Whether installing
a firewall on the network or requiring users to have strong passwords —
you must do the basics if you want any modicum of security. Beyond patching,
if you follow the countermeasures I document, add the other well-known
security practices for network systems (routers, servers, workstations, and
so on) that are freely available on the Internet, and perform ongoing ethical
hacking tests, you can rest assured that you’re doing your best to keep your
organization’s information secure.
Assessing Your Security Infrastructure
A review of your overall security infrastructure can add oomph to your systems:
✓ Look at how your network and overall campus are designed. Consider
organizational issues, such as whether policies are in place, maintained,
or even taken seriously. Physical issues count as well. Do members of
management have buy-in on information security and compliance, or do
they simply shrug the measure off as an unnecessary expense or barrier
to conducting business?
✓ Map your network by using the information you gather from the ethical
hacking tests in this book. Updating existing documentation is a
major necessity. Outline IP addresses, running services, and whatever
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