January 2023

The Importance of Red Team and Blue Team in an Enterprise Red teams and Blue teams are essential security components for enterprises. Read about the red team’s and blue team’s skills and activities. As cyber-attacks are increasing exponentially, companies need to ensure that their sensitive data is safe from theft and corruption. In order to find and solve vulnerabilities in an organisation, most organisations keep certain teams. These teams are called Red teams and blue teams and are crucial when it comes to defending against advanced cyber threats that can affect business communications, trade secrets, and even sensitive client data. Let’s take a look at how red teaming and blue teaming work and what tasks are performed by each team. What is a Red Team? A Red Team can be defined as a group of people who have been authorised and organised to emulate potential adversary attacks or exploitation capabilities against an enterprise’s security posture. Essentially, red teams play the part of an attacker with the purpose of identifying weaknesses in a system. Activities of a Red Team Members of the red team are required to think the way a hacker would in order to penetrate an organisation’s security with their explicit permission. Some common activities include, but are not limited to, social engineering, penetration testing, intercepting communications, and making recommendations to the blue team for improvements in security. Red Team Skills Because of its offensive attitude, red team activities have their own set of skill requirements. Building the following skills can help you succeed as a red team member: What is a Blue Team? A Blue Team can be defined as a group of people who are tasked with defending an organisation’s use of information systems by preserving its security posture against a group of faux attackers. Blue teams are defensive teams that protect an enterprise’s essential assets. Activities of a Blue Team The job of blue team members is to analyse the current security strategies and systems of an organisation. They also take steps to tackle flaws and vulnerabilities in these systems. As a blue team member, you would have to monitor for breaches and respond to them when they do take place. Some other tasks of the blue team are DNS auditing, digital footprint analysis, monitoring network activity, installation and configuration of firewalls and endpoint security software, and using least-privilege access. Blue Team Skills In order to defend an enterprise against attacks, one needs to understand which assets need to be protected and the best ways to protect them. Developing the following skills can help a blue team member excel at their job: How do Red Teams and Blue Teams Work Together? The most important factor when it comes to executing successful red and blue team exercises is communication. Blue teams need to be aware of new technologies that can improve security and share this information with the red team. In the same way, red teams need to be up to date on the new threats and penetration techniques that hackers use and inform the blue team about prevention techniques. Whether or not the red team informs the blue team about a planned test is dependent on your goal. For instance, if you want to simulate an actual response scenario to a “legitimate” threat, then the blue team would not be informed about the test. It is also important to ensure that someone in management is aware of the test, usually the blue team lead. This guarantees that the response scenario is still tested, but with more control when or if the situation is escalated. When the test ends, both teams collect information and make reports about their findings. If the red team succeeds in penetrating defences, they advise the blue and give them advice on blocking identical attempts in a real-life scenario. Similarly, the blue team must let the red team know if their monitoring procedures detected an attempted attack. Both the red and the blue teams need to work in tandem to plan, develop, and implement better security controls as required. Do We Even Need Red Teams and Blue Teams? Yes, we do need red and blue teams. The existence of these teams in an enterprise setting is essential as it allows an enterprise to understand how effective its security posture is and allows it to quickly react to attacks and improve its security further. These teams are sure to help an enterprise improve its security systems and ensure that it is not caught off guard and harmed by an attack. Reach out to us today & let’s talk about how we can help you! Website: https://secureu.in | E-mail: contact-us@secureu.in | Contact us: Instagram, Twitter Youtube & LinkedIn

Learn About Social Media Scams and How to Prevent Them Extensive use of social media makes us susceptible to social media scams. Here are some social media scams and tips on avoiding social media scams. How much do you use social media? Today, social media is an essential part of nearly everyone’s life. Globally, more than 3.8 billion people use it on a daily basis. The pandemic has changed how a lot of people interact with social media, and the increasing popularity of these platforms has created an increased risk of fraud and social media scams. Social media scams are getting more sophisticated with time, often making use of brand logos and duplicitous terms and conditions to seem authentic. In this article, we will take a look at some of the most popular social media scams and give you some tips to protect yourself when you use social media. The State of Social Media Scams For most of us, social media is a place that we can use to connect and communicate with our friends and family. However, cybercriminals treat social media as a goldmine of personal information and a platform they can use to potentially scam people. Research has shown that the number of social media attacks per target has seen an increase of 103% from January 2021. This emphasises the fact that cyber criminals regularly use social media to commit fraud, masquerade as trust brands and officials, and target users all over the world. Social media scams are a common occurrence as they depend on human error. These mistakes can come in the form of clicking on malicious links in private messages or posting something that reveals private information that can be used for identity theft. For instance, all a Facebook scammer needs to do to spread malware is to pretend to be an individual’s friend and fool them into downloading malware through the Messenger app. Types of Social Media Scams While there are hundreds of different types of social media scams, here are a few that you should be wary of: Tips to Avoid Social Media Scams Although modern scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, here are some simple steps you can take to protect yourself from falling prey to a social media scam: Using these tips will surely help you avoid social media scams. It is extremely important to be vigilant while using social media and make sure you never overshare on any social media platforms. While social media connects you with your loved ones, it also puts you at risk, so it is best to use it wisely.

Wi-Fi Security: The Threats We Face and How to Stay Safe Wi-Fi security is essential for businesses and individuals alike. Secure your Wi-Fi with the help of the tips given. Wi-Fi security can protect your business from breaches. Today, it is very easy to connect to the Internet. In fact, most of us are connected to the Internet at all times. We use mobile devices, personal computer systems, gaming systems, and even our cars to do so. While some of these systems use wires and others use proprietary communication methods, we shall focus on Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi security issues. Many people lack awareness when it comes to Wi-Fi security which is why it is a topic that requires more consideration. As the number of devices connected to the Internet is constantly growing, it is essential to implement security strategies to minimise the risk of exploitation. Taking some precautions in the configuration and use of your devices can prevent malicious activities. Let’s dive right in. What is Wi-Fi and How Does it Work? Wi-Fi is a play on Hi-Fi or High Fidelity which is the quality of sound. Although it is not a direct pun as there is no quality of wirelessness, Wi-Fi is wireless and uses Radio Frequency instead of wires or fibre optics. A wireless or Wi-Fi network uses a radio frequency signal in lieu of wires to connect devices such as computers, printers and more to the Internet as well as to each other. Wi-Fi signals can be picked up by any device that has wireless capability within a certain distance in all directions. Simply put, it is a means for providing communication on a network wirelessly using Radio Frequencies. Data is passed and encoded as well as decoded using the 802.11 standards-compliant antennae and routers. Wi-Fi processes data in the Gigahertz range, which is the 2.4 and 5 GHz ranges as of now. So, contrary to wired networks, anyone can “touch” your communications media. This can lead to multiple security issues. What is Wi-Fi Security? Protecting devices and networks connected in a wireless environment is called Wi-Fi security. In the absence of Wi-Fi security, networking devices such as wireless access points or routers can be accessed by anyone using a computer or mobile device as long as they are in the range of the router’s wireless signal. In essence, Wi-Fi security is the act of barring unwanted users from accessing a particular wireless network. Moreover, Wi-Fi security, also called wireless security, tries to ensure that your data is only accessible to the users you authorise. Wi-Fi Security Protocols There are 4 main wireless or Wi-Fi security protocols. These protocols have been developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance which is an organisation that promotes wireless technologies and interoperability. This organisation introduced 3 of the protocols given below in the late 1990s. Since then, the protocols have been improved and have stronger encryption. The 4th protocol was released in 2018. Let’s have a look Wired Equivalent Privacy : was the first wireless security protocol. It used to be the standard method of providing wireless network security from the late 1990s to 2004. WEP was difficult to configure and used only basic (64- / 128-bit) encryption. This protocol is no longer considered secure. Weakness - There are many weaknesses in WEP such as key recovery attacks, initialization vector reuse, dictionary attacks, and fragmentation attacks. Due to this WEP is no longer considered to be secure and has been since replaced by WPA and WPA2. Wi-Fi Protected Access was developed in 2003. It delivers better and stronger (128-/256-bit) encryption compared to WEP by using a security protocol known as the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). WPA and WPA2 are the most common protocols in use today. However, unlike WPA2, WPA is compatible with older software. Weakness - One weakness of WPA is that it uses Temporal Key Integrity Protocol encryption algorithm which can be compromised by an attacker that can capture and analyse a large number of packets which will allow them to identify the key used to encrypt the packets. Another weakness is the pre-sharing of key for authentication. This means that the key must manually be entered into every device that connects to the wireless network which is inconvenient for users and can also create potential security vulnerabilities if the key is not managed properly. Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 This later version of WPA was developed in 2004. It is easier to configure and provides better network security compared to WPA by using a security protocol called the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Different versions of WPA2 protocol are available for individuals and enterprises. Weakness - WPA2 has the same weakness as WPA in that both of them use a pre-shared key for authentication. Other than that, WPA2 is vulnerable to certain kinds of attacks like dictionary attacks and brute force attacks, if a user uses a weak password for the pre-shared key. WPA2 is also susceptible to vulnerabilities in the underlying Wi-Fi standard such as the KRACK or Key Reinstallation Attack which was discovered in 2017. Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 is a new generation of WPA that has been designed to deliver even simpler configuration and even stronger (192-/256–384-bit) encryption and security compared to its predecessors. It is meant to work across the latest Wi-Fi 6 networks. WPA3-Personal makes use of a 128-bit encryption key that is communicated to both the AP and the client before a wireless connection is established. It implements Forward Secrecy Protocol which improves key exchange and resists offline dictionary attacks. WPA3- Enterprise uses a 192-bit key-based encryption and also uses a 48-bit initialization vector that guarantees a minimum level of security. Weakness — WPA3 has the same weaknesses as WPA2 Wi-Fi Security Threats There are many threats to Wi-Fi security. Some of them are listed below: Tips for Wi-Fi Security Luckily, there are a number of things that you can do to reduce the risk of the Wi-Fi security threats listed above. The best time to start checking these to-do tips off your list