How to Avoid Targeted AWS Attacks With Secure AWS Keys

AWS Security, Security Research & Strategy
3 min Read •

If the headlines are any indication, hackers continue to exploit vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure platforms, with targeted AWS attacks becoming very common. Many attacks follow similar patterns: Actors are typically looking opportunistically for AWS keys, which are either accidentally posted to open source code websites like GitHub or stolen from employee laptops using malware. Once the actor has gained access to the AWS account, they often look for fairly direct paths to sensitive data or valuable resources, such as an open S3 bucket or access to launch a new EC2 instance to mine cryptocurrency.

Many developers use AWS access keys that have not been changed in months or years. Although keeping these keys the same makes things easy for the developers, it’s not very good security hygiene. Many organizations aren’t aware that their stagnant AWS keys could be causing major vulnerabilities. Read more “How to Avoid Targeted AWS Attacks With Secure AWS Keys”

Why DevOps Needs Security During an Infrastructure Transition

AWS Security, Dev & DevOps Knowledge, Security Research & Strategy
4 min Read •

The rising popularity of DevOps practices in cloud infrastructure environments has allowed software teams to release work more quickly and efficiently than ever before, but is security top of mind? Data included in a new Pathfinder Report from 451 Research would suggest not.

According to data included in “Refocusing Security Operations in the Cloud Era,” 36% of businesses said their top IT goal over the next year is to respond to business needs faster, while 24% said it is to cut costs. In comparison, only 10.5% prioritized improving security as their top goal, coming in dead last among the options listed.

The problem seems to stem from the misconception that speed and security are mutually exclusive, where DevOps views security as a business decelerator rather than the stabilizing force it is. Baking security into DevOps processes early on through SecOps best practices, which we’ll review below, is the only way to build long-term sustainable infrastructure that will support your products and team as they move into the future. Read more “Why DevOps Needs Security During an Infrastructure Transition”

How to Use Threat Stack to Enable Proactive Security

AWS Security, Security Research & Strategy, Threat Stack Use Cases
3 min Read •

We recently discussed some pretty sobering statistics in the world of cybersecurity, ranging from astronomical misconfiguration rates to the depressing lack of speed with which breaches are detected. Not only are attacks more sophisticated than ever before, but infrastructure is too, with sensitive data spread across various servers, service providers, containers, and even SaaS platforms. No matter how worrisome these statistics, however, each and every one can be mitigated, for the most part, when an organization takes a proactive approach to security.

So what does a proactive security approach look like, exactly? It involves SecOps best practices, where Security is integrated with Development and Operations from the outset and where communication between teams takes priority. It also means putting in place repeatable processes and replacing costly, time-consuming, ad hoc procedures with automation wherever possible.

Transforming your culture to support a proactive security culture can be a daunting prospect to be sure. While 85% of respondents to our recent survey said that employing SecOps best practices is an important goal for their organizations, only 35% reported that SecOps is currently an established practice. Held back by overworked and under-resourced security professionals thanks to an industry-wide skills gap, many organizations simply don’t know where to begin when it comes to establishing a more proactive security posture.

Here’s the good news. The Threat Stack Cloud Security Platform® enables your Security and Operations teams to build security into their workflows from the start to make your organization’s approach to security more proactive. Here’s how. Read more “How to Use Threat Stack to Enable Proactive Security”

Planning to Join the Other 50,000 Security Aficionados at Black Hat USA?

Security Research & Strategy, Threat Stack Use Cases
2 min Read •

Secure the Strange Things Happening in Your Cloud

Booth #2316 | August 8 – 9 | Las Vegas, NV

Black Hat USA is coming up fast!

So plan your activities now, starting with a visit to Booth #2316 where Threat Stack’s experts will be waiting to say Hi, hand out some great swag, and share ideas on how your Security and Operations teams can address their unique security and compliance issues when building in the cloud. Read more “Planning to Join the Other 50,000 Security Aficionados at Black Hat USA?”

Early Guide to Black Hat 2018

Security Research & Strategy, Threat Stack Use Cases
11 min Read •

Black Hat USA offers information security professionals an opportunity to keep up with the latest developments, research, and trends. Now in its 21st year, Black Hat has earned a reputation for being one of the must-attend annual security conferences for today’s information security professionals, providing attendees with a variety of options, including several tracks, to learn from the industry’s most forward-thinking thought leaders and world-renowned experts, not to mention networking opportunities with industry peers. Training sessions and briefings offer chances to learn more about software hacks, advanced cloud security strategies, penetration testing, network security, whiteboard hacking, machine learning, IoT, cryptography, forensics, ICS, malware and mobile security.

The conference runs August 4 through 9 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Here’s what you need to know to get the most out of Black Hat 2018:

Read more “Early Guide to Black Hat 2018”

101 AWS Security Tips & Quotes, Part 4: Best AWS Security Practices

AWS Security, Security Research & Strategy
10 min Read •

The fourth — and final — blog post in our series of AWS Security Tips and Quotes offers tips on AWS Security Best Practices. So far the series has covered:

Today’s post offers recommendations that include running a configuration audit, using automation to reduce errors, ensuring that you stay abreast of the latest best practices and recommendations provided by AWS and other resources — and more. Read more “101 AWS Security Tips & Quotes, Part 4: Best AWS Security Practices”

Access Management Lessons From Timehop’s Cloud Security Breach

AWS Security, Security Research & Strategy, Threat Stack Use Cases
3 min Read •

Over the past couple of weeks, both Macy’s and Timehop experienced breaches as a result of authentication weaknesses. On July 4, social media startup Timehop experienced a data breach that affected 21 million customers and included information such as names, emails, and phone numbers. According to a preliminary investigation conducted by the Timehop team, the attacker gained unauthorized access to the company’s cloud service provider using stolen administrative credentials back in December 2017. For months, the hacker conducted reconnaissance on the system before launching an attack against the company’s production database on the July 4 holiday.

Unfortunately, credential theft attacks like these happen all too often: According to the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report, credential theft was the top cause of data breaches. Attackers can gain privileged access to a system using administrative credentials, remaining undetected (sometimes for months as in the Timehop incident) as they move laterally across a system, conducting reconnaissance, and waiting for the right opportunity to exfiltrate data.

Timehop’s breach is an example of the security risk that employees, both current and former, can pose to any organization that practices poor cloud security hygiene. Given the sheer scope of security incidents involving some form of credential theft, it’s important for IT staff and engineers to understand not only where data is stored but also who is accessing and exporting it.

Businesses issue thousands of credentials to employees and contractors, making it more important than ever for them to improve access management. Not doing so could cause an organization’s most sensitive data to be stolen.

Here are a few tips on where to start. Read more “Access Management Lessons From Timehop’s Cloud Security Breach”

Three Homegrown SecOps Tools Used by the Threat Stack Team

Security Research & Strategy, Threat Stack Use Cases
3 min Read •

As a security company, there’s a lot of pressure to keep our data secure while still moving fast and innovating on product development. I find the intersection of security and speed the most interesting challenge as an infrastructure security professional. The unique thing about Threat Stack is that our Security and Engineering teams have learned how to work together to automate security into our day-to-day processes — making them simultaneously more secure, efficient, and effective.

I’m a firm believer that an effective SecOps organization involves people, processes, and tools, in that order. The tools we’ve built in-house are meant to make people’s lives easier, and ease some of the processes that make security a natural part of the workflow if you’re trying to get a job done quickly.

We’ve open-sourced a lot of the tooling we’ve developed to make our operations more secure, and hope you’ll find this information useful when you’re thinking about automating security in your own organization.

In this post, I’ll describe three of the tools we’ve developed (and then open-sourced) at Threat Stack in order to integrate automated security processes into our workflow. (I’ve also included a description of a fourth tool that we developed — an automated SOC 2 compliance checking bot. We use it internally, but to date, it’s not available outside Threat Stack.) Read more “Three Homegrown SecOps Tools Used by the Threat Stack Team”

101 AWS Security Tips & Quotes, Part 3: Best Practices for Using Security Groups in AWS

AWS Security, Security Research & Strategy
9 min Read •

Here’s the third blog post in our 4-part series of AWS Security Tips and Quotes, which is designed to help you evolve and strengthen your organization’s security, building on a proactive, comprehensive security strategy.

So far we’ve covered:

Today the spotlight falls on Best Practices for Using Security Groups in AWS, (and in the final installment, Part 4, we’ll deal with AWS Security Best Practices). Read more “101 AWS Security Tips & Quotes, Part 3: Best Practices for Using Security Groups in AWS”

What is SecOps? A Definition, Benefits, Best Practices, and More

Security Research & Strategy
5 min Read •

While the technologies, processes, and cultural shifts of DevOps have improved the ability of software teams to deliver reliable work rapidly and effectively, security has not been a focal point in the transformation of cloud IT infrastructure.

SecOps is a methodology that seeks to address this by operationalizing and hardening security throughout the software lifecycle.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a disconnect between what organizations want when it comes to security, and what they’re actually able to put into practice. In Threat Stack’s recent report, Bridging the Gap Between SecOps Intent and Reality, we found that 85% of organizations believe bridging the gap and employing SecOps best practices is an important goal. Yet just 35% say that SecOps is a completely or mostly established practice at their organizations, and 18% say it’s not established at all.

In this post, we’ll discuss a number of facets of SecOps — what it is, it’s goals, how it benefits organizations, best practices for implementing a SecOps program, to name a few — with the aim of giving you some helpful background and, perhaps, some of the motivation you need to get a SecOps program established in your organization. Read more “What is SecOps? A Definition, Benefits, Best Practices, and More”