By Lauren Edwards,on January 24th,2012 “After a security breach at the United States Chamber of Commerce last year,the Chamber discovered that its office printer,and even a thermostat in a Chamber-owned apartment,had been communicating with an Internet address in China.” – NY Times 
This is a scary example of unknowingly transmitting information to an outside location. However,it’s not alone. Earlier this month,a hacker was able to jump into dozens of conference rooms around the world through videoconferencing equipment. Fortunately for the companies that were “spied” on,the hacker wasn’t trying to steal information but was looking for security holes. Unfortunately,the companies that were hacked into are well recognized and using the most popular types of videoconference equipment. The automatic acceptance of new callers and participants in video-conferencing allows someone to dial in and look around without being noticed. Your office may have more participants than you think. The importance of knowing your wireless environment is becoming more significant. What you see is not necessarily all there is. The logical world cannot explain the cyber happenings going on without understanding your entire environment. AirPatrol recently came out with a white paper on “Advanced Persistent Response to Mobile Threats.” In the beginning,AirPatrol concentrated on monitoring wireless devices operating on Wi-Fi or cellular frequencies – wireless situational awareness. Now,AirPatrol is bringing intelligence into mobile security as we allow you to see who/what is trying to connect to your network,what devices are transmitting that you may not think of (such as the thermostat in the first example) and more – cognitive mobile security. AirPatrol is ahead of the game and is enabling the management of mobile devices by changing the operating policy depending on contexts such as location – context-aware computing. Your adversaries are becoming more resourceful and using tools you already have in place to their advantage. Be ahead of the opponent and be proactive. If you know where your weaknesses are,if you know what your tools are doing without your consent,you’re prepared and protected. Wireless devices are continuing to gain capabilities and today,almost 20% of US adults have a tablet or e-reader on top of their smart cellular device. Wireless situational awareness. Cognitive mobile security. Context-aware computing. AirPatrol. By Lauren Edwards,on December 29th,2011 Guess what? Bionic man is alive and he’s in the form of millions of people surrounding you. Scared? Don’t be;you’re one too. People often joke that they could not pry their teenager’s iPhone out of his or her hands if their life depended on it. This is met with understanding laughs but we aren’t really any different. The younger generations may have their smart phone permanently affixed to their hand to update Facebook with an Instagram picture of their new Ugg boots,retweet a coupon for hot chocolate on Twitter,check in at the ice skating rink on FourSquare or send a mass text asking why no one else is at the rink yet. All of this while ignoring everything else with earphones blasting iHeartRadio. This is the stereotype,right? Take a step back and look at what you’re doing right now. If something called you away from your desk,you wouldn’t dare walk away without grabbing your cellphone;it’s probably within a foot of your keyboard. Sure,you use your phone for email,keeping track of appointments,your contact list and other business related applications but Pandora and a Star Wars soundboard (we’re all techies at heart) may also be there. Your building gets poor cellular reception so you jump onto the office Wi-Fi the instant you walk in so you can get BBMs,iMessages,etc. Our dependence on these smart devices is strong,ranging from communication to navigation to entertainment to work and more. Each device is becoming more intelligent;contextually-aware devices and applications take into account where you are and what you like as they instantly push-out notifications. These devices can become “dirty” without the user’s knowledge and may connect to your enterprise’s network without your consent,possibly through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It’s important to manage this access,to know who and what is entering through not just your physical walls,but your cyber walls. Those signs that say “NO CELL PHONE ZONE” are not relevant as we enter 2012. Smart devices are going to sneak in as people honestly feel uneasy without one. AirPatrol’s suite of products monitor what is physically in your corporation,what devices are trying to connect to and can even manage the current policy on a device depending on contexts such as location. Here’s a video about it. You can watch it on your mobile device that is permanently within your reach. Happy New Year! By Tom Kellermann,on December 6th,2011 
As we hear the drone of commentary regarding the advanced persistent threat, we must come to appreciate that these attacks are nothing new. The APT,aka digital insider,is merely the natural evolution of tradecraft and criminality. The arms bazaar of the internet has leveraged asymmetrical capabilities to the masses. The hackers and traditional miscreants will inevitably compromise your digital and physical infrastructures. The threat is there and the only way to manage the threat is with advanced situational awareness. Know your environment,both wireless and physical. Know who is entering your borders in both the physical and virtual senses of reality. In today’s world,wherein physical reality and virtual reality are converging on tablets and smart phones,we must come to grips with the need for a paradigm shift. How might we maintain continuity of operations as well as increase the level of discomfort to the adversary to a point wherein they no longer care to expend the resources to maintain persistence? Advanced persistent response is the new paradigm. In order to achieve an advanced persistent response to the APT that lingers in our smartphones and tablets,we must be able to blend our cyber and physical incident response capabilities. Transparency must be realized through both the physical security and cybersecurity SEMs and visibility into the wireless spectrum must be overlayed. As a nation,we must appreciate that converged threats are here to stay and only through “advanced situational awareness” will our enterprises be capable of developing a concerted advanced persistent response. Strategic awareness must blend incident response in order to heighten the pressure we place upon the digital insiders that reside within our enterprises. The question should no longer be about building a better castle but rather how to build a better dungeon for the insider to reside within. Next week I’ll be discussing Advanced Situational Awareness and the Security Threat Convergence with Brian Zaas,Director for Enterprise Solutions at Avineon. Please join us for the discussion and the Q&A session that will follow. I look forward to your questions. Registration is free,but required here:http://airpatrolcorp.com/webinars/webinar_register.php. By Guy Levy-Yurista,on November 22nd,2011 One of the best business books I have had the pleasure of reading is,not surprising,Good to Great by Jim Collins. In the book,Collins and his colleagues outline the key aspects that take a company from just being ‘good’ to true ‘great’ success. Several of his analogies stuck with me through the years [...] . . . →Read More:Here we go! By Lauren Edwards,on November 15th,2011  The ability to change what you can do depending on where you are or who you’re with is something we all wish we could do. If you walked into a room where no one spoke your language,wouldn’t you love the ability to suddenly speak the common language? Wouldn’t you love to know what you [...] . . . →Read More:Empowerment through Transformation By Tom Kellermann,on October 27th,2011  Nearly a decade ago,the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies noted a developing trend and,in response,developed one of the first cyber security insurance products. As a leader in this industry,Chubb has continued to respond to the changing landscape. Now,due to the explosion of corporate smartphones and PDAs,Chubb will support the [...] . . . →Read More:Mobile Risk Management:Blazing New Trails Through the Cyber Forest By Tom Kellermann,on October 11th,2011 Our country is hemorrhaging a library of congress of data every week. One terabyte of data is exfiltrated from our networks weekly,by both state and non-state actors. Private Manning –Mr. Assange’s mule - facilitated the WikiLeaks fiasco (http://wikileaks.org). In case you have been traveling in Timbuktu,Wikileaks ushered in the new anarchy movement. Since Private [...] . . . →Read More:Mirror Mirror on the Wall By Lauren Edwards,on October 6th,2011 “You can’t connect the dots looking forward;you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” – Steve Jobs The passing of Steve Jobs yesterday,October 5th,is a moment to be marked in entrepreneur and innovation’s history. Learning the news last night,his [...] . . . →Read More:Connect the Dots By Guy Levy-Yurista,on September 30th,2011 One of the most gratifying experiences any new parent goes through is the personal growth and change that comes into one’s life alongside the new born. Over the 6 weeks that have passed since the launch of ZoneDefense into the world,we have all been transformed significantly. New realizations have dawned on us as we were talking to [...] . . . →Read More:Mobility,soon to be redefined By Lauren Edwards,on September 14th,2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHvQPz6wQe4 It seems that many success stories are the result of a dynamite team that has pushed and pulled together,side by side. This team goes from start to finish and remains strong at every point. The team is aware of what each component is doing,how it can be helped and how it may be [...] . . . →Read More:Protect Your House | |
