Here at SpiderLabs, we take the security of all our clients extremely seriously.  While the attacks that we see and use align with a recent note from US-CERT, they are not to be considered new or novel, however, their impact is even more profound during these uncertain times, where Work From Home (WFH) has become the new normal.

WFH and its implications

We’ve seen that the rise from WFH has caught many organisations off-guard, new infrastructure has hastily been created; we know that when things are rushed issues can occur. New infrastructure (be it cloud, on-prem, or hybrid) is too much of an attractive proposition for threat actors to ignore given the current pandemic. The preferred attack vectors are and Credential Stuffing. Due to their relative simplicity and effectiveness, they clearly give the best returns given the increase in attack surface and their impact to launch further attacks once a foothold has been established.

The note from US-CERT focuses on Healthcare and Essential Services, and we would recommend that all organisations from all sectors follow the mitigation guidance.

High-Level Mitigation

• Ensure that all software is running the latest, stable release;
• Reduce the attack surface by removing Internet facing services that are not required or are better placed behind a VPN;
• Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on all Internet facing services;
• For Internet facing services, ensure that passwords are non-shared & non-guessable;
• Conduct regular Vulnerability Scanning complemented with Penetration Testing activities will increase assurance and minimise the impact.

With the 'new new', how can SpiderLabs help?

SpiderLabs have been performing remote penetration testing for a number of years.  In fact, we were one of the first to offer this service; we have a Virtual Remote Pen testing (VRPT) appliance that creates a seamless testing experience coupled with our world-class consultants.

If you have any questions or queries, please don't hesitate to speak to us.