Welcome back to Cyber Updates, apologies for hiatus over the summer.

Cisco Meraki Cloud Data Loss

Cisco Meraki is a cloud based network management system. They recently experienced a loss of customer data which it appeared was not backed up and according to accounts from one customer a significant amount of manual work would be required to recreate the relevant data.

Key takeaways:

• If you are reliant on cloud services, what happens when they are unavailable. If you have an SLA with a provider, do you offer the same SLA to your customers? Remember that you may receive compensation if SLA your provider violates the SLA but it is unlikely to be enough if the provider is business critical to you.
• Even if you use a cloud service, some form of local or separated backup can be beneficial.

Chrome Extension Malware

The developer of a popular Chrome Extension called “Web Developer” was phished which allowed hackers access to his Google account. They used this to submit a malicious update to his extension which was then delivered to all extension users through the Chrome Extension updates mechanism. In this case it just seems to have been adware which was incorporated into the code but it could have been much more sinister.

Key takeaways:

• Network admins should be monitoring which chrome extensions are installed and if necessary only allowing a whitelist of extensions.
• Endpoints should always be considered at risk and monitored accordingly
• Sensitive credentials should always be protected using Multi-factor Authentication

HTTP sites to be marked as insecure by Chrome in October

Starting in October, the Google Chrome browser will start marking HTTP sites with a red “Not secure” warning in the URL bar as a warning to users to not enter any sensitive information.

Key takeaways:

• Any site which processes data or has login functionality should be communicating using HTTPS throughout.
• This move should provide a marketing impetus for companies to push this ability to their sites.

HPKP considered harmful

Scott Helme, a UK based security consultant and lecturer, wrote a blog in which he declared that he had given up on the HTTP Public Key Pinning (HPKP) standard due to the difficulty in implementing it compared to the significant risks of getting it wrong. This caused quite a stir as he has been a strong supporter of secure web standards and his blog post makes for an interesting read into security tradeoffs.

Key takeaways:

• Make sure you understand the complexity and risks of any new security standard.
• This decision should be part of the cost benefit analysis of implementing a new security control.