Companies’ cybersecurity – 5th edition of CESIN’s annual barometer

Companies’ cybersecurity - CESIN barometer - Blog Nameshield
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Every year, the Club of Experts in Information and Digital Security (CESIN) publishes its barometer of companies’ cybersecurity in order to better understand the perception and concrete reality of cybersecurity and its issues within CESIN member companies.

Last January, CESIN unveiled the results of its OpinionWay survey, carried out from the 2nd of December 2019 to the 7th of January 2020 among its 253 members, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of major French groups.

Cyberattacks: Fewer companies affected but still heavily impacted

First of all, the study highlights a positive figure: the decline in the number of companies that suffered at least one cyberattack in 2019, i.e. 65% of the companies surveyed compared to 80% in 2018 (note, however, that this difference in results is nuanced by the addition of the definition of cyberattack in the survey conducted in January 2020).

On the other hand, the impact of these cyberattacks remains significant since 57% of these attacks have consequences on business such as disruption of production (27%), website unavailability (17%) and revenue loss (9%).

The targeted companies were the targets of 4 types of cyberattacks on average in 12 months. Among the attacks vectors, phishing remains the most frequent attack with 79% of companies affected in 2019, followed by the scam on the President (47%), the exploitation of a vulnerability (43%) and fraudulent login attempts (40%).

The main consequences of these attacks are identity theft (35%), malware infection (34%), personal data theft (26%), ransomware infection (25%) and denial of service (19%).

Cloud, IoT and AI, issues of concern

With the digital transformation, the use of the Cloud is important within companies: 89% of companies surveyed store their data in a Cloud, including 55% in public Clouds.

A massive use of the Cloud which still represents a high risk due to a lack of control over the hosting provider’s subcontracting chain (for 50% of CISOs), the difficulty of conducting audits (46%) and the lack of control over the use of the Cloud by employees (46%). For 91% of respondents, the tools implemented by Cloud hosting providers are not sufficient to secure the data stored, and specific additional tools or measures are necessary.

Connected objects are also a growing concern, increasing the attack surface and creating new types of threats. The CISOs surveyed are concerned about the security breaches present in this equipment (43%) and the uncertainty in the assessment of potential risks (28%).

The study also shows that the embedded AI at the heart of cybersecurity solutions has yet to prove its worth since 53% of CISOs do not trust it.

An awareness of cyber-risks

To prevent the risk of attacks, companies implement an average of a dozen protection solutions, in addition to antivirus and firewalls. Among them, the mail security gateway (85%), the VPN/SSL gateway (85%), proxy and URL filtering (83%), and multi-factor authentication. The latter, adopted by 72% of companies, has increased by 13% compared to 2018.

More aware of cyber risks, 91% of the companies surveyed are implementing a cyber-resilience program in parallel with protection solutions or are considering doing so, that’s 12 points higher than last year.

Awareness of cyber risks is also reflected in the steady increase over the last three years in the number of companies having subscribed to cyber-insurance (60%).

Despite this, only 4 out of 10 companies say they are prepared in case of a large-scale cyberattack.

Employees Awareness

In addition to the external threat, for 43% of companies, employees’ negligence is the most common cyber risk.

Shadow IT, i.e. the deployment and use of applications and services beyond the control of IT teams, is mentioned by 98% of the CISOs surveyed and remains a significant threat to be dealt with.

Yet even though they are aware of cyber risks (according to 74% of respondents), only half of employees comply with the recommendations, according to CISOs.

Issues for the future of cybersecurity

Governance is the first issue mentioned by CISOs (70%) for the future of cybersecurity, followed by users’ training and awareness raising on cybersecurity issues (57%).

Increasing the budget is another major issue for 50% of respondents. The proportion of the IT budget allocated to cybersecurity has increased in companies compared to last year. 62% of them plan to increase it further in the next 12 months and 83% want to acquire new technical solutions.

In terms of human resources, one out of two companies (51%) would like to increase the number of staff dedicated to cybersecurity, but 90% face a shortage of Information Systems Security profiles, leading to recruitment difficulties.

COVID19.com – The domain name registered by a third party redirects to the website of the World Health Organization (WHO)

COVID19 domain name
Image source: geralt via Pixabay

“Domainers” are always a step ahead when it comes to taking advantage of a good or bad situation. For example, some will anticipate elections by registering the names of political figures, others by taking advantage of a sport or cultural event. Consequently, regarding domain names, there will be opportunities for speculative registrations.

In the case of “COVID19.com“, it seems clear that at the time of this domain name registration on February 11, 2020, the holder obviously wants to speculate on the “COVID 19” virus, a term that can generate multiple requests in any language. The name is available for sale for $10,000 USD.

However, instead of simply redirecting the domain name to commercial links, the holder chose to redirect this strategic name to the World Health Organization (WHO) website. Is this a citizen’s initiative? Unlikely, because given the current context, using such a name to make a direct profit through commercial links could lead to a violation of the Registrar’s registration conditions.

If the holder does not immediately benefit from this domain name, he will at least have the merit to draw our attention to him for the time of an article.

.ZA websites will have to propose a link towards the COVID-19 official website implemented by the government

South Africa - .ZA domain names - dot ZA
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Since last Thursday, the South African government has imposed to all websites using domain names in .ZA to propose a link that redirects towards the official Covid-19 information website implemented by the government:  www.sacoronavirus.co.za

This new rule applies to all .ZA websites, regardless of their content.

The two other extensions managed by ZADNA registry, JOBURG and .CAPETOWN are also affected by this rule.

In the same logic, the registry also invites Internet services providers to block any websites which spread fake news.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that the government’s COVID information website is not www.coronavirus.co.za but www.sacoronavirus.co.za. This is because the domain name www.coronavirus.co.za has been registered by a domainer who proposes on his website to resell the name in question.

Like all crisis or news, COVID-19 led to a massive registration of domain names containing the associated terms, some unscrupulous players seeking to take advantage of the situation.

Unsurprisingly, during this unprecedented and complicated period, there has been a high increase in the number of cybercriminal attacks of all kinds.

Let’s Encrypt, do not confuse confidentiality and security

Let’s Encrypt was recently the subject of discussions in the small world of TLS certificates, by suddenly revoking 3 048 289 certificates which should not have been issued. A bug in its validation software prevented CAA registrations controls, and the certificates in question should not have been initially issued. These significant disruptions resulted from this mass revocation, but it is difficult to complain about a free service.

I am often asked what I think of Let’s Encrypt, and I always have this same answer: Let’s Encrypt has done a lot to encrypt the web, but is undermining the security of the web. Encryption allows to ensure confidentiality (no one can spy on) and integrity (no one can modify) of exchanges. But encryption alone is not enough if I do not have any guarantee of the identity of the one I am exchanging with (legitimate or fraudulent?)… And that is the whole problem.

Let's Encrypt - SSL TLS certificates - Nameshield

In 2015, the Let’s Encrypt initiative supported by leading players of the Internet (EFF, Mozilla, Cisco, Akamaï…) was created with the purpose of massively and freely spreading SSL certificates to the whole world. More than five years later, the organization secures 190 million websites and has just announced that it has issued a billion certificates. The milestone was reached on February 27, 2020. This is undoubtedly a great performance.

96% of the web encrypted in January 2020

In 2015, less than half of the web traffic was encrypted, to reach 96% in January 2020. Of course, Let’s Encrypt is not the only player responsible for this rise. Edward Snowden launched the first alert, Google has largely stepped into the breach, between referencing policy and changes in web security indicators. But by providing to all, free certificates based on a largely automated system, Let’s Encrypt has democratized encryption… and put the concept of identity into oblivion.

No identity, no security

Let's Encrypt - SSL TLS certificates - Nameshield

Let’s Encrypt’s credo is simplicity, to “simplify to the extreme HTTPS deployment and put an end to its horribly complex bureaucracy” (says EFF in the launch campaign). The horribly complex bureaucracy has however a meaning: high authentication, which guarantees the identity of the certificate’s holder. Maybe not the absolute guarantee of legitimacy, not a guarantee of content either, but the guarantee of a registered company, legitimately owner of the concerned domain name and with a certificate validated according to a drastic procedure.

Let’s encrypt merely verifies the domain name’s control (DV, Domain Validation). One only has to click on a link in an email or to fill in a TXT record on the domain name’s DNS zone. Yet domain names registration in most TLDs is purely declarative. It is quite easy to register a domain name, to request a certificate from Let’s Encrypt and to publish a website in HTTPS://.

The results?

In five years, all phishing and fraudulent websites have switched to HTTPS://. Since 2016, Vincent Lynch alerted on this problem, 15 270 certificates with the term “Paypal” had been issued by Let’s Encrypt, 14 766 of these certificates were fraudulent.

The market has been brought down in terms of authentication level. Let’s Encrypt is far from being the only one responsible, Google and Mozilla, with their 70% of market shares, have largely supported the initiative, the big Cloud hosting providers followed, as well as the Certification Authorities, challenged on the prices. Today we have a secure web with 77% (November 2019) of certificates whose proprietary’s legitimacy is not verified.

High authentication changes the game

The web has become encrypted by default. Does that make it more secure? Nothing is certain. The web user educated for twenty years to check the presence of the padlock in the address bar, trusts a web where all the fraudulent websites display the security padlock. Today, Internet is confidential but that does not make it safe.

It is urgent to return to high authentication. High authentication ensures a set of compulsory, drastic and controlled steps in order to obtain certificates. The procedures are enacted by CA/B Forum, regularly strengthened, and followed by audit from Certification Authorities.

23% of the certificates are still issued on the basis of high authentication, mostly in the corporate world, where CISO are pushing to preserve it. We all have to rely on them and support initiatives supporting OV (Organization Validation) and EV (Extended Validation) certificates, especially EV to guarantee the identity of the websites visited by web users. While identity on the Internet seems to have been somewhat forgotten for some time in favor of confidentiality, it is likely to come back to the spotlight again soon, driven in particular by web users and the need of personal data protection.

Nameshield renews its ISO 27001 certification

ISO 27001 - Nameshield renews its ISO 27001 certification

Nameshield Group is an expert in domain names, DNS, TLS/SSL certificates management.

Through our experience gained from world-renowned customers with ever-increasing security requirements, we have also become technical experts in Information security. That is why we have implemented an Information Security Management System (ISMS).

In 2017, we obtained the ISO 27001 certification of this ISMS for our activities of domain names portfolio, DNS and TLS/SSL certificates management. Nameshield Group has thus become the sole French registrar ensuring such a level of security for its customers.

Since then, our employees involved in the ISMS continuously contribute to the constant improvement of our security arrangements.

An analysis of the risks and their processing, according to the Ebios method, answer to our security goals and those of our clients.

We permanently adapt to security, performance and sustainability needs. It results in the deployment of more secure products and services, with higher added values, that meet our clients’ expectations more and better.

We know how to mobilize ourselves in case of incidents and learn to always do better by analyzing the processing of each alert.

We have and control a business continuity plan. Therefore, we are able to carry out our activities remotely (backup site, telecommuting, redundant servers…), whatever the threats.

Information security is the DNA of Nameshield Group and all its employees.

Logically, our ISO 27001 certificate has been renewed for 3 years in last February without any non-compliance nor comments being notified.

This international recognition ensures you:

  • An availability rate (domain names management platform and DNS Premium)
  • Tests implementation allowing us to permanently review ourselves and anticipate incidents
  • The raising awareness of all Nameshield employees to all Information security aspects
  • The reliability and performance of our system
  • The study of our experience feedbacks to continuously improve our security and thus yours