Technical Assessment

A company with core business of real estate, construction, tourism, mining and financial investment which head quarter is located in Hong Kong with multiple sites in Mainland China

Size
500+ Employees

Service
Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Test

Challenge
Organization is getting more concerns in information security as there is a significant increase in cyber security attack nowadays. However, limited review and regular technical assessment in this organization causes the system and network vulnerabilities have been accumulated throughout the years. Given with this scenario and the scale of the technical assessment which has to be conducted across different sites, our technical specialist and pentesters have to put extra effort in evaluating the security and risk level in order to define the baseline security level and controls that are being implemented in the organization. Furthermore, it is also critical to provide practical recommendation as to resolve the issues identified in this technical assessment. 

Solution
Our certified OSCP, OSWP and GPEN conducted network and web application penetration test to simulate hacker’s activities as to prevent external attack. Internal vulnerabilities assessment is also performed to discover the unmanaged asset. Identify the vulnerabilities with technical tools and manual validation with risk level provided.
 
Result
Our security specialists have issued a penetration test and vulnerabilities assessment report on the security findings with different level of severity. Critical vulnerabilities and system deficiencies are identified such as SQL injection, missing security patches and remote code execution are identified through exploitation and privilege escalation that are putting company asset at risk. Technical recommendations and advisories are provided according to the existing industrial standard. Latest security protection methods and tools were also suggested for future improvement.

The technical assessment report including:
 •    Prioritized list of vulnerabilities
 •    Specific information about the vulnerabilities exploited
 •    The risk level of the vulnerabilities
 •    The description and evidence of the vulnerabilities
 •    Potential impact
 •    Technical recommendations

Follow-up
After our assessment and in-depth analysis of the security testing, Ringus has provided a detailed report documenting each security issue with a set of security recommendations (methods and tools) and corrective action plans. Findings walkthrough session is also conducted to ensure our client understand the issues and able to implement those plans accordingly. Ringus has also provided follow-up services for the remediation works to verify that the remedial activities had been successful.
 
Benefit
Our recommendations have provided our client with an up-to-date defense against known vulnerabilities and global hackers, allowing our client to estimate and justify the cost of equipments whenever appropriate in scaling up its security level, providing a continual improvement model. With our comprehensive report, professional recommendations and direct assistance, our client was able to get a realistic idea on the existing security level of their setup. Our work helped the client avert a potential reputational crisis and allowed the company to operate their systems in a confident and secure way.  

More Updates

Further reading

Blue screen of death

Recently, a CrowdStrike update caused widespread "blue screen of death" errors on approximately 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices worldwide, significantly impacting enterprise organizations. The incident led to technical issue in critical sectors, including airlines, banks, and TV broadcasters. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company providing cloud-based endpoint protection and threat intelligence services, the error that not only affected its operations but also had a cascading impact on its clients who rely heavily on its services for threat detection and response.This incident highlights the necessity for organizations to implement robust business continuity management (BCM) strategies. Effective BCM encompasses risk assessment, business impact analysis, redundancy and resources arrangement and incident response planning to ensure that organizations can maintain essential functions during disruptions. The BCM should not only covering the technical resilient and redundancy while manual operation with drill should be considered. With comprehensive BCM strategies design and on-going maintenance, risk could be addressed in the organization to minimize the impact of downtime and enable quick recovery and response from incidents.In conclusion, the CrowdStrike update events acting as a wakeup call to different organizations on the necessity of an extensive BCM design under this highly technology- dependence and outsourcing era, to safeguard organizations’ operations, protection reputation and minimize the impact in the face of unexpected incidents.ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System offers a framework in governing and establishing process for business continuity.

外掛程式的應用與資訊安全風險防範策略

外掛程式(Plugin)是現代軟體生態系統中的其中一個重要部分,它們能夠顯著擴展應用程式的功能和提升工作效率。然而,外掛程式也帶來了潛在的資訊安全風險。我們將探討一下外掛程式的應用及其資訊安全風險,並提出相應的防範措施。 首先,瀏覽器外掛程式是最常見的外掛程式之一,如廣告攔截器、密碼管理器和翻譯工具等。這些外掛程式能夠顯著提升使用者的網路瀏覽體驗。例如,廣告攔截器可以防止會讓使用者感到煩擾的廣告出現,同時間讓頁面加載更快;密碼管理器則能夠安全地保存和自動填寫使用者的登錄資訊。其次,可以將外掛程式應用於內容管理系統(如WordPress)中來擴展網站的功能。例如,SEO插件可以幫助網站優化搜索引擎排名,安全插件可以增強網站的安全性,而電子商務插件則能夠將網站轉變為線上商店。最後,多媒體播放器如VLC或Adobe Flash Player,可以通過外掛程式來支援更多的音視頻格式和功能。這些外掛程式除了可以使播放器能夠播放各種格式的文件,並會提供額外的功能,如字幕支援和播放列表管理等。 但在提供便利的功能的同時,也相對帶來不少的資安風險。首先,攻擊者會故意嵌入惡意代碼以執行不良行為的插件,使插件成為惡意外掛程式。這些惡意外掛程式可能會竊取使用者的敏感資訊,例如登入憑證和信用卡號碼,或充當後門,允許攻擊者遠程控制使用者的設備。其次,即使是合法的外掛程式也可能會存在漏洞,這些漏洞會被攻擊者利用來入侵系統。例如,外掛程式中的SQL資料隱碼攻擊或跨網站指令碼攻擊(XSS)漏洞可能被利用來竊取資料或劫持使用者會話。最後,一些外掛程式可能要求過高的權限,例如訪問使用者的檔案系統或網路活動。如果這些外掛程式遭到攻擊者的利用,可能會對使用者帶來嚴重的安全威脅。 所以為了 減少安裝到惡意外掛程式的風險,使用者應該只從可信來源下載外掛程式。例如,瀏覽器插件應從官方插件商店下載,而CMS插件應從官方網站或知名的插件市場下載。另外,開發者經常會釋出更新來修復外掛程式中的安全漏洞。因此,使用者應該定期檢查並更新已安裝的外掛程式,以確保其安全性。最後,在安裝外掛程式之前,使用者應仔細檢查外掛程式要求的權限,並且只授予其執行所需的最低權限。例如,一個翻譯工具外掛程式不應該需要訪問使用者的相片或聯絡人資訊。 外掛程式在提升應用程式功能和用戶體驗方面具有顯著的優勢,但同時也帶來了資訊安全風險。通過採取適當的防範措施,可以有效降低這些風險。用戶和組織都需要在便利性和安全性之間找到平衡,從而確保外掛程式的安全使用。 尹展軒 Senior IT Consultant