Did you ever play that game a arcades where you try to whack the mole as it pops up? You struggle to follow the pattern (if there is one) to anticipate the next one. In reality you are just relying on your hand-eye coordination and quickness.
If you have every considered or work to secure a system from unwanted access, it can feel that way, right?! What can a guy do to better defend? Here some thoughts on the topics…
- DLP. The vast amounts of data that traverse our networks are staggering to try an wrap your head around. Unless your budgets are far beyond anything I have seen, you can’t hope to have eyes on every frame of data that passes by. And so we have DLP (Data Loss Prevention) software. This a system that is configured to understand likely sensitive data, and provide systems administrators with tools to control it. (read more)
- Limiting Ports. A quick way to keep unwanted visitors out is to limit the number of doors you have open. Closing all ports, and then only opening what you need. How many should we have open? Try 4? 80, 443, mail, and FTP. Be strict on others. And even with 80, your translate all internal 80 traffic to 443 when it leaves your network. Ever wonder what too many ports open mean? Look up Metasploit (List of Ports)
- Your attack-able surfaces. Ever wonder what you have that is reachable from the web? You can use a nifty tool to discover if your network zipper is undone. Censys.io can report on what servers and devices on your system are exposed to the world. Visit them and enter your public address range and domain names to find out what black and grey hat guys are looking at. (Censys.io)
What do you do to reduce the randomness of your exposed security surfaces? Comment below!
In my next posts I will add more tools and tips, and well as go more into depth into others.
-k0b4l7 f0x
