After successfully passing 3 IT security exams this year, here are some high level tips:
schedule your exam well in advance to avoid procrastination
study from at least two sources
use quizzes: they make a huge difference in memorizing things
use the learning channels compatible to your brain (ex. I always prefer text or classroom training instead of audio or video)
Right before the exam: get a good night sleep the night before
schedule your exam in the morning when your brain is fresh
try to clear your mind in the hours before the exam
resist the temptation to go one more time through your materials before the exam
During the exam: keep an eye on the watch
don’t go back to a question: make the best effort to answer and then forget it (some exams will not even allow you to revise a question)
don’t change your answer (exception: when you realize that you misread the question)
And some basic, but interesting things about security:
people are the most important asset
but humans are also the weakest link in every security program
security is always about protecting the CIA triad
security controls can bring the risk to an acceptable level, but there is no such thing as risk zero
a company exists for the sole reason of making profit. This means that they will always look at the return of investment as primary metric in evaluating any security control
security is not a one-time project to fix things, but rather an ongoing program that needs to be planned and revised periodically
complexity is the enemy of security
as a security professional, you must learn to tailor your language to your audience
you are just an adviser, but not a decision-maker
you should act as a prudent man. Like this guy would:
Even if it has wheels and wipers, your Model S is ultimately a computer. A very good looking one if you ask me, but, as any other computer, it can be pwned. The recent news shows an increased incidence of Model S thefts across Western Europe, and apparently the thieves are exploiting a vulnerability in the way the car communicates with the key fob:
Like most automotive keyless entry systems, Tesla Model S key fobs send an encrypted code, based on a secret cryptographic key, to a car’s radios to trigger it to unlock and disable its immobilizer, allowing the car’s engine to start. After nine months of on-and-off reverse engineering work, the KU Leuven team discovered in the summer of 2017 that the Tesla Model S keyless entry system, built by a manufacturer called Pektron, used only a weak 40-bit cipher to encrypt those key fob codes.
Long story short, it only takes about $600-worth of equipment, a decent computer and less than 2 seconds to crack the 40-bit cipher. According to Wired, the vulnerability was responsibly disclosed in August 2017, and after about a year, Tesla reacted by addressing the root cause (upgrading the key fobs) in addition to implementing the PIN-to-drive feature. But this leaves a lot of room for the bad guys: there must be plenty of Model S manufactured before June 2018 and without the PIN-to-drive enabled. So what should you to secure your Tesla Model S and avoid a situation like this?
1. Disable passive entry
I don’t really like this option because you trade functionality for security. The passive entry is a nice feature and Tesla should make it work securely, by upgrading the key fobs. But until then, this is a solid option to improve the existing security posture.
2. Enable PIN-to-drive
Again, an option that gets the job done, but leaves massive room for improvement. There are two major inconveniences: first, you must type your PIN in an environment where you cannot properly hide your keyboard. Second, your fingers leave traces when typing, and unless you are wiping the screen after every PIN entry, you are leaving a potential door open. This is simply not good enough, and I did not even mention how inconvenient is to input your PIN every time you start your car. Tesla can do better – how about FaceID-to-drive?
FaceID just proved how it can address the most security concerns while providing a seamless user experience. With time, software and hardware updates, it will get even better, and we will see FaceID on other computing devices like tablets or laptops. And from there it’s easy to imagine a keyless future. How long until you unlock your car by looking at it?
If your car was produced before June 2018, contact Tesla to replace your key fob so that the communication between the car and the key fob is properly encrypted
Get a Faraday pouch if you would like to keep the Passive Entry active. Store your key inside the pouch when you’re not using the car, but make sure that you don’t leave the key inside the pouch inside the car 🙂 Oh, and get another pouch for the second key
Install a hidden GPS tracker on your car. This will help locate the stolen car even when the bad guys would destroy the embedded connectivity module. Tesla won’t be able to remotely control your car, but, if you react quickly, you should be able to tell the police where it is
Just use common sense when parking your car. Would you park your nice car in a shady, cheap and isolated area?
Think defense-in-depth: implement not one, but more security measures to protect your asset 🙂
An incident is an event that is not part of the standard operation of a service and that causes an interruption or a reduction of service. In simpler words, an incident is an unplanned interruption of service.
Contents of a post-incident report (The post-incident report alternative names: incident report, postmortem report)
Timeline: what exactly happened and at what times?
Metrics: how well did we react? (time to detect, time to react, time to close)
Procedures: were they adequate? were they being followed?
Root cause analysis: is the root cause understood?
Lessons learned: what corrective actions can we take?
Tip: If the incident caused financial loss, attach the current and potential security controls to the timeline. Which controls limited the loss, and which controls could be acquired in the future? Also, it’s a good idea to calculate potential losses if the existing controls would not have intervened. This will help establish the overall return of security investment (ROSI).
A postmortem is a written record of an incident, its impact, the actions taken to mitigate or resolve it, the root cause(s), and the follow-up actions to prevent the incident from recurring. When to create one? Interruption of service, data loss, monitoring failure, etc. 3 best practices: avoid blame, keep it constructive, collaborate and share.
For a postmortem to be truly blameless, it must focus on identifying the contributing causes of the incident without indicting any individual or team for bad or inappropriate behavior. A blamelessly written postmortem assumes that everyone involved in an incident had good intentions and did the right thing with the information they had.
