Showing posts with label AV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AV. Show all posts

22 May 2020

Is there an increasing risk of cyber attacks on companies that have switched to a program of allowing employees to work from home?

 "Is there an increasing risk of cyber attacks on companies that have switched to a program of allowing employees to work from home?"

Yes - and here is why....

1. Most homes do not have business grade intrusion prevention devices (IPS) that are fairly standard in business environments. If employees access the internet on home or work computers - this will increase the attack surface for the company. Companies should provide better security but they may not. Employees who want to continue to work from home should make sure they have a firewall with IPS and that they follow basic security common sense - (don't open emails or click on links you do not recognize)

Here are two lists of "best devices":

https://windowsreport.com/firewall-device-for-home/

https://www.networkstraining.com/best-hardware-firewalls-for-home-small-business/


And here is Gartner's list:

https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/network-firewalls


2. If employees are working from home and using their own devices - and in some cases even company provided devices - they will have subpar endpoint protection. Protection against malware and viruses is necessary for secure operations.

In this case - I'll just link to Gartner's list:

https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/endpoint-protection-platforms


3. If employees are working from home - and the company has no way to manage the employee's compute devices - they are blind to what is really happening.

Again here is Gartner's list on MDM:

https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/unified-endpoint-management-tools


4. Companies are usually blind to the exposure due to outdated software - both on internal and external devices. They should have some sort of vulnerability assessment tool.

Here is Gartner's list: https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/vulnerability-assessment


5. Last but not least - having security professionals to monitor and manage your environment is out of reach for many companies. Either they cannot afford or they cannot find enough professionals to monitor their company's security. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/06/cybersecurity-expert-shortage-may-cost-companies-hundreds-of-millions.html

In the cases where companies do have security professionals - they often suffer "alert fatigue."  https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/in-depth/crying-wolf-combatting-cybersecurity-alert-fatigue/

Therefore, especially in the current environment - https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/are-your-new-remote-workers-visible-to-security-operations/ -  companies should consider using a managed detection and response security provider who has a proven process and staff for monitoring the security of their employees. They should be "agnostic" when it comes to input of logs, cloud sources

https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3314023


Full disclosure  - I do have a bias on which solution you should use since I work for one of them:

https://arcticwolf.com/resources/press-releases/arctic-wolf-named-as-a-representative-vendor-in-gartner-market-guide-for-endpoint-detection-and-response-solutions

21 April 2010

McAfee Windows Kill Fix

**updated again**

Been hit by the McAfee issue?

Yes? No guarantees but the following methods have worked for us:

First try the local cached file option:

* Click start / run / type in cmd
* Click OK

On the command line:
a. copy c:\windows\ServicePackFiles\i386\svchost.exe c:\windows\system32
b. hit /enter/
c. net start “windows installer”
d. hit /enter/

OR
Find someone with the same working version and service pack of Windows - copy the svchost.exe file from their Windows\System32 folder to a usb stick

Then to copy it to the affected system you may have to use the command prompt

Where 'u:' equals the usb drive letter

* Click start / run / type in cmd
* Click OK

On the command line:
a. copy u:\svchost.exe c:\windows\system32\
b. hit /enter/
c. net start “windows installer”
d. hit /enter/

---off the command line----

Go to control panel and add remove programs
Uninstall Mcafee
Reboot if prompted

---

Windows won't boot?

Go here for helpful directions and options

Not affected? Just say no to McAfee anyway - uninstall it and switch to Microsoft Security Essentials

*Written on a Mac*
*I don't own any shares in or work for any of the companies mentioned*