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Cloud misconfigurations can cause devastating financial and reputational damage to organizations. Yet, such undesirable circumstances can... Cloud Security Top 5 Tips on Avoiding Cloud Misconfigurations Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 11/24/22 Published Cloud misconfigurations can cause devastating financial and reputational damage to organizations. Yet, such undesirable circumstances can be avoided by understanding common misconfiguration errors and mitigating them before malicious actors can exploit them. Ava Chawla, AlgoSec’s Global Head of Cloud Security provides some valuable insights on cloud misconfigurations and offers useful tips on how to avoid them It may come as a surprise to some, but did you know that misconfigurations were the #1 cause of cloud-security incidents in 2021 and were also responsible for 65-70% of cloud-security challenges in 2020? Cloud Misconfigurations: The Insidious yet Serious Threat Clearly, misconfigurations are a common cause of security loopholes. These security loopholes – usually the result of oversights, errors, or poor configuration choices by inexperienced or careless users – often result in cyberattacks and the exposure of mission-critical information. Most cloud environments are saturated with misconfigurations, with 99% of them going unseen. As a result, they become vulnerable to many cyberthreats, including malware, ransomware, and insider threats. Threat actors may also exploit the vulnerabilities caused by misconfigurations to access enterprise networks, compromise assets, or exfiltrate sensitive data. So why are cloud misconfigurations such a serious threat in cloud environments? And, how can your organization avoid these errors and keep your cloud environment safe from the bad guys? Jarring Data Breaches Resulting from Cloud Misconfigurations: More than Food for Thought In 2018 and 2019 , misconfigurations caused hundreds of data breaches that cost companies a whopping $5 trillion. Threat actors also took advantage of misconfigurations to attack many organizations in 2020. An exposed database is a perfect example of how misconfiguration errors like forgetting to password-protect critical cloud assets can create huge security risks for companies. In early 2020, a database belonging to cosmetics giant Estée Lauder that contained over 440 million records ended up online – all because it was not password-protected. How bad was this oversight? It allowed malicious actors to access its sensitive contents, such as email addresses, middleware records, references to internal documents, and information about company IP addresses and ports. And misconfiguration-related breaches didn’t stop in 2021. In May of that year, Cognyte left a database unsecured, leading to the online exposure of 5 billion records, including names, passwords, and email addresses. The incident is particularly ironic because Cognyte is a cyber-intelligence service that alerts users to potential data breaches. So how can your organization avoid suffering the same fates as Estée Lauder and Cognyte? By preventing misconfiguration errors. How to Eliminate Common Misconfiguration Errors? 1) One of the most common cloud misconfiguration errors is not implementing monitoring . A failure to monitor the cloud environment creates huge security risks because the organization can’t even know that there’s a threat, much less mitigate it. Solution: By integrating monitoring and logging tools into your entire cloud estate, you can keep an eye on all the activity happening within it. More importantly, you can identify suspicious or malicious actions, and act early to mitigate threats and prevent serious security incidents. An example of a monitoring tool is CloudTrail in the AWS Cloud. 2) The second-biggest misconfiguration risk stems from overly permissive access settings. Enterprise teams frequently forget to change the default settings or make the settings overly-permissive, resulting in critical assets being exposed to the Internet and to threat actors lurking in cyberspace. 3) Another misconfiguration mistake is mismanaging identity and access management (IAM) roles and permissions. Unrestricted access, particularly admin-level access, significantly increases the probability of breaches. The compromise of this user could allow a malicious actor to exploit the entire network and its sensitive data. 4) Mismanaged secrets are another common misconfiguration mistake that can lead to attacks and breaches. Secrets like passwords, API keys, encryption keys, and access tokens are the keys to your (cloud) kingdom, and their compromise or theft can severely damage your enterprise. Solution: You can avoid mistakes #2, #3 and #4 by granting least-privilege access (also known as the principle of least privilege) and implementing detailed security policies, standards, and procedures for IAM, secrets management, remote access, etc. 5) The fifth misconfiguration error is not patching vulnerabilities. Patch management pitfalls include pushing out updates too quickly and devices going offline. But the most significant risk when patch management doesn’t take place, not surprisingly, is leaving a system vulnerable to malicious actors. Solution: Proactively scanning your cloud environment is vital to find the vulnerabilities that can be exploited by threat actors to elevate their privileges in your network and execute remote attacks. Conclusion and Next Steps Cloud misconfigurations are the most common cause of security incidents in the cloud. Fortunately, most of them are avoidable. If you’ve found this action-packed guide a valuable read, then you’re on the right path to reaching a solution that includes protecting your most valuable assets, securing the connectivity of your most critical business applications, and streamlining the management of your entire multi cloud environment. Prevasio can help you get there faster. Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

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In our previous post we have provided some details about a new fork of Kinsing malware, a Linux malware that propagates across... Cloud Security Router Honeypot for an IRC Bot Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. glibc_2 Tags Share this article 9/13/20 Published In our previous post we have provided some details about a new fork of Kinsing malware, a Linux malware that propagates across misconfigured Docker platforms and compromises them with a coinminer. Several days ago, the attackers behind this malware have uploaded a new ELF executable b_armv7l into the compromised server dockerupdate[.]anondns[.]net . The executable b_armv7l is based on a known source of Tsunami (also known as Kaiten), and is built using uClibc toolchain: $ file b_armv7l b_armv7l: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, EABI4 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-uClibc.so.0, with debug_info, not stripped Unlike glibc , the C library normally used with Linux distributions, uClibc is smaller and is designed for embedded Linux systems, such as IoT. Therefore, the malicious b_armv7l was built with a clear intention to install it on such devices as routers, firewalls, gateways, network cameras, NAS servers, etc. Some of the binary’s strings are encrypted. With the help of the HexRays decompiler , one could clearly see how they are decrypted: memcpy ( &key, "xm@_;w,B-Z*j?nvE|sq1o$3\"7zKC4ihgfe6cba~&5Dk2d!8+9Uy:" , 0x40u ) ; memcpy ( &alphabet, "0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. " , 0x40u ) ; for ( i = 0; i < = 64; ++i ){ if ( encoded [ j ] == key [ i ]) { if ( psw_or_srv ) decodedpsw [ k ] = alphabet [ i ] ; else decodedsrv [ k ] = alphabet [ i ] ; ++k; }} The string decryption routine is trivial — it simply replaces each encrypted string’s character found in the array key with a character at the same position, located in the array alphabet. Using this trick, the critical strings can be decrypted as: Variable Name Encoded String Decoded String decodedpsw $7|3vfaa~8 logmeINNOW decodedsrv $7?*$s7

Update : Next two parts of the analysis are available here and here . As earlier reported by FireEye, the actors behind a global... Cloud Security Sunburst Backdoor: A Deeper Look Into The SolarWinds’ Supply Chain Malware Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 12/15/20 Published Update : Next two parts of the analysis are available here and here . As earlier reported by FireEye, the actors behind a global intrusion campaign have managed to trojanise SolarWinds Orion business software updates in order to distribute malware. The original FireEye write-up already provides a detailed description of this malware. Nevertheless, as the malicious update SolarWinds-Core-v2019.4.5220-Hotfix5.msp was still available for download for hours since the FireEye’s post, it makes sense to have another look into the details of its operation. The purpose of this write-up is to provide new information, not covered in the original write-up. Any overlaps with the original description provided by FireEye are not intentional. For start, the malicious component SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.dll inside the MSP package is a non-obfuscated .NET assembly. It can easily be reconstructed with a .NET disassembler, such as ILSpy , and then fully reproduced in C# code, using Microsoft Visual Studio. Once reproduced, it can be debugged to better understand how it works. In a nutshell, the malicious DLL is a backdoor. It is loaded into the address space of the legitimate SolarWinds Orion process SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.exe or SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHostx64.exe . The critical strings inside the backdoor’s class SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.OrionImprovementBusinessLayer are encoded with the DeflateStream Class of the .NET’s System.IO.Compression library, coupled with the standard base64 encoder. Initialisation Once loaded, the malware checks if its assembly file was created earlier than 12, 13, or 14 days ago. The exact number of hours it checks is a random number from 288 to 336. Next, it reads the application settings value ReportWatcherRetry . This value keeps the reporting status, and may be set to one of the states: New (4) Truncate (3) Append (5) When the malware runs the first time, its reporting status variable ReportWatcherRetry is set to New (4) . The reporting status is an internal state that drives the logic. For example, if the reporting status is set to Truncate , the malware will stop operating by first disabling its networking communications, and then disabling other security tools and antivirus products. In order to stay silent, the malware periodically falls asleep for a random period of time that varies between 30 minutes and 2 hours. At the start, the malware obtains the computer’s domain name . If the domain name is empty, the malware quits. It then generates a 8-byte User ID, which is derived from the system footprint. In particular, it is generated from MD5 hash of a string that consists from the 3 fields: the first or default operational (can transmit data packets) network interface’s physical address computer’s domain name UUID created by Windows during installation (machine’s unique ID) Even though it looks random, the User ID stays permanent as long as networking configuration and the Windows installation stay the same. Domain Generation Algorithm The malware relies on its own CryptoHelper class to generate a domain name. This class is instantiated from the 8-byte User ID and the computer’s domain name, encoded with a substitution table: “rq3gsalt6u1iyfzop572d49bnx8cvmkewhj” . For example, if the original domain name is “ domain “, its encoded form will look like: “ n2huov “. To generate a new domain, the malware first attempts to resolve domain name “ api.solarwinds.com “. If it fails to resolve it, it quits. The first part of the newly generated domain name is a random string, produced from the 8-byte User ID, a random seed value, and encoded with a custom base64 alphabet “ph2eifo3n5utg1j8d94qrvbmk0sal76c” . Because it is generated from a random seed value, the first part of the newly generated domain name is random. For example, it may look like “ fivu4vjamve5vfrt ” or “ k1sdhtslulgqoagy “. To produce the domain name, this string is then appended with the earlier encoded domain name (such as “ n2huov “) and a random string, selected from the following list: .appsync-api.eu-west-1[.]avsvmcloud[.]com .appsync-api.us-west-2[.]avsvmcloud[.]com .appsync-api.us-east-1[.]avsvmcloud[.]com .appsync-api.us-east-2[.]avsvmcloud[.]com For example, the final domain name may look like: fivu4vjamve5vfrtn2huov[.]appsync-api.us-west-2[.]avsvmcloud[.]com or k1sdhtslulgqoagyn2huov[.]appsync-api.us-east-1[.]avsvmcloud[.]com Next, the domain name is resolved to an IP address, or to a list of IP addresses. For example, it may resolve to 20.140.0.1 . The resolved domain name will be returned into IPAddress structure that will contain an AddressFamily field – a special field that specifies the addressing scheme. If the host name returned in the IPAddress structure is different to the queried domain name, the returned host name will be used as a C2 host name for the backdoor. Otherwise, the malware will check if the resolved IP address matches one of the patterns below, in order to return an ‘address family’: IP Address Subnet Mask ‘Address Family’ 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 Atm 172.16.0.0 255.240.0.0 Atm 192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 Atm 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 Atm fc00:: fe00:: Atm fec0:: ffc0:: Atm ff00:: ff00:: Atm 41.84.159.0 255.255.255.0 Ipx 74.114.24.0 255.255.248.0 Ipx 154.118.140.0 255.255.255.0 Ipx 217.163.7.0 255.255.255.0 Ipx 20.140.0.0 255.254.0.0 ImpLink 96.31.172.0 255.255.255.0 ImpLink 131.228.12.0 255.255.252.0 ImpLink 144.86.226.0 255.255.255.0 ImpLink 8.18.144.0 255.255.254.0 NetBios 18.130.0.0 255.255.0.0 NetBios 71.152.53.0 255.255.255.0 NetBios 99.79.0.0 255.255.0.0 NetBios 87.238.80.0 255.255.248.0 NetBios 199.201.117.0 255.255.255.0 NetBios 184.72.0.0 255.254.0.0 NetBios For example, if the queried domain resolves to 20.140.0.1 , it will match the entry in the table 20.140.0.0 , for which the returned ‘address family’ will be ImpLink . The returned ‘address family’ invokes an additional logic in the malware. Disabling Security Tools and Antivirus Products If the returned ‘address family’ is ImpLink or Atm , the malware will enumerate all processes and for each process, it will check if its name matches one of the pre-defined hashes. Next, it repeats this processed for services and for the drivers installed in the system. If a process name or a full path of an installed driver matches one of the pre-defined hashes, the malware will disable it. For hashing, the malware relies on Fowler–Noll–Vo algorithm. For example, the core process of Windows Defender is MsMpEng.exe . The hash value of “ MsMpEng ” string is 5183687599225757871 . This value is specifically enlisted the malware’s source under a variable name timeStamps : timeStamps = new ulong[1] { 5183687599225757871uL } The service name of Windows Defender is windefend – the hash of this string ( 917638920165491138 ) is also present in the malware body. As a result, the malicioius DLL will attempt to stop the Windows Defender service. In order to disable various security tools and antivirus products, the malware first grants itself SeRestorePrivilege and SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege privileges, using the native AdjustTokenPrivileges() API. With these privileges enabled, the malware takes ownership of the service registry keys it intends to manipulate. The new owner of the keys is first attempted to be explicitly set to Administrator account. If such account is not present, the malware enumerates all user accounts, looking for a SID that represents the administrator account. The malware uses Windows Management Instrumentation query “ Select * From Win32_UserAccount ” to obtain the list of all users. For each enumerated user, it makes sure the account is local and then, when it obtains its SID, it makes sure the SID begins with S-1-5- and ends with -500 in order to locate the local administrator account. Once such account is found, it is used as a new owner for the registry keys, responsible for manipulation of the services of various security tools and antivirus products. With the new ownership set, the malware then disables these services by setting their Start value to 4 (Disabled): registryKey2.SetValue(“Start”), 4, RegistryValueKind.DWord); HTTP Backdoor If the returned ‘address family’ for the resolved domain name is NetBios , as specified in the lookup table above, the malware will initialise its HttpHelper class, which implements an HTTP backdoor. The backdoor commands are covered in the FireEye write-up, so let’s check only a couple of commands to see what output they produce. One of the backdoor commands is CollectSystemDescription . As its name suggests, it collects system information. By running the code reconstructed from the malware, here is an actual example of the data collected by the backdoor and delivered to the attacker’s C2 with a separate backdoor command UploadSystemDescription : 1. %DOMAIN_NAME% 2. S-1-5-21-298510922-2159258926-905146427 3. DESKTOP-VL39FPO 4. UserName 5. [E] Microsoft Windows NT 6.2.9200.0 6.2.9200.0 64 6. C:\WINDOWS\system32 7. 0 8. %PROXY_SERVER% Description: Killer Wireless-n/a/ac 1535 Wireless Network Adapter #2 MACAddress: 9C:B6:D0:F6:FF:5D DHCPEnabled: True DHCPServer: 192.168.20.1 DNSHostName: DESKTOP-VL39FPO DNSDomainSuffixSearchOrder: Home DNSServerSearchOrder: 8.8.8.8, 192.168.20.1 IPAddress: 192.168.20.30, fe80::8412:d7a8:57b9:5886 IPSubnet: 255.255.255.0, 64 DefaultIPGateway: 192.168.20.1, fe80::1af1:45ff:feec:a8eb NOTE: Field #7 specifies the number of days (0) since the last system reboot. GetProcessByDescription command will build a list of processes running on a system. This command accepts an optional argument, which is one of the custom process properties enlisted here . If the optional argument is not specified, the backdoor builds a process list that looks like: [ 1720] svchost [ 8184] chrome [ 4732] svchost If the optional argument is specified, the backdoor builds a process list that includes the specified process property in addition to parent process ID, username and domain for the process owner. For example, if the optional argument is specified as “ ExecutablePath “, the GetProcessByDescription command may return a list similar to: [ 3656] sihost.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\sihost.exe 1720 DESKTOP-VL39FPO\UserName [ 3824] svchost.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe 992 DESKTOP-VL39FPO\UserName [ 9428] chrome.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe 4600 DESKTOP-VL39FPO\UserName Other backdoor commands enable deployment of the 2nd stage malware. For example, the WriteFile command will save the file: using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Append, FileAccess.Write)) { fileStream.Write(array, 0, array.Length); } The downloaded 2nd stage malware can then the executed with RunTask command: using (Process process = new Process()) { process.StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(fileName, arguments) { CreateNoWindow = false, UseShellExecute = false }; if (process.Start()) … Alternatively, it can be configured to be executed with the system restart, using registry manipulation commands, such as SetRegistryValue . Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

In this guest blog, Jeff Yager from IT Central Station (soon to be PeerSpot), discusses how actual AlgoSec users have been able to... Security Policy Management Securely accelerating application delivery Jeff Yeger 2 min read Jeff Yeger Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 11/15/21 Published In this guest blog, Jeff Yager from IT Central Station (soon to be PeerSpot), discusses how actual AlgoSec users have been able to securely accelerate their app delivery. These days, it is more important than ever for business owners, application owners, and information security professionals to speak the same language. That way, their organizations can deliver business applications more rapidly while achieving a heightened security posture. AlgoSec’s patented platform enables the world’s most complex organizations to gain visibility and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network. IT Central Station members discussed these benefits of AlgoSec , along with related issues, in their reviews on the site. Application Visibility AlgoSec allows users to discover, identify, map, and analyze business applications and security policies across their entire networks. For instance, Jacob S., an IT security analyst at a retailer, reported that the overall visibility that AlgoSec gives into his network security policies is high. He said, “It’s very clever in the logic it uses to provide insights, especially into risks and cleanup tasks . It’s very valuable. It saved a lot of hours on the cleanup tasks for sure. It has saved us days to weeks.” “AlgoSec absolutely provides us with full visibility into the risk involved in firewall change requests,” said Aaron Z. a senior network and security administrator at an insurance company that deals with patient health information that must be kept secure. He added, “There is a risk analysis piece of it that allows us to go in and run that risk analysis against it, figuring out what rules we need to be able to change, then make our environment a little more secure. This is incredibly important for compliance and security of our clients .” Also impressed with AlgoSec’s overall visibility into network security policies was Christopher W., a vice president – head of information security at a financial services firm, who said, “ What AlgoSec does is give me the ability to see everything about the firewall : its rules, configurations and usage patterns.” AlgoSec gives his team all the visibility they need to make sure they can keep the firewall tight. As he put it, “There is no perimeter anymore. We have to be very careful what we are letting in and out, and Firewall Analyzer helps us to do that.” For a cyber security architect at a tech services company, the platform helps him gain visibility into application connectivity flows. He remarked, “We have Splunk, so we need a firewall/security expert view on top of it. AlgoSec gives us that information and it’s a valuable contributor to our security environment.” Application Changes and Requesting Connectivity AlgoSec accelerates application delivery and security policy changes with intelligent application connectivity and change automation. A case in point is Vitas S., a lead infrastructure engineer at a financial services firm who appreciates the full visibility into the risk involved in firewall change requests. He said, “[AlgoSec] definitely allows us to drill down to the level where we can see the actual policy rule that’s affecting the risk ratings. If there are any changes in ratings, it’ll show you exactly how to determine what’s changed in the network that will affect it. It’s been very clear and intuitive.” A senior technical analyst at a maritime company has been equally pleased with the full visibility. He explained, “That feature is important to us because we’re a heavily risk-averse organization when it comes to IT control and changes. It allows us to verify, for the most part, that the controls that IT security is putting in place are being maintained and tracked at the security boundaries .” A financial services firm with more than 10 cluster firewalls deployed AlgoSec to check the compliance status of their devices and reduce the number of rules in each of the policies. According to Mustafa K. their network security engineer, “Now, we can easily track the changes in policies. With every change, AlgoSec automatically sends an email to the IT audit team. It increases our visibility of changes in every policy .” Speed and Automation The AlgoSec platform automates application connectivity and security policy across a hybrid network so clients can move quickly and stay secure. For Ilya K., a deputy information security department director at a computer software company, utilizing AlgoSec translates into an increase in security and accuracy of firewall rules. He said, “ AlgoSec ASMS brings a holistic view of network firewall policy and automates firewall security management in very large-sized environments. Additionally, it speeds up the changes in firewall rules with a vendor-agnostic approach.” “The user receives the information if his request is within the policies and can continue the request,” said Paulo A., a senior information technology security analyst at an integrator. He then noted, “Or, if it is denied, the applicant must adjust their request to stay within the policies. The time spent for this without AlgoSec is up to one week, whereas with AlgoSec, in a maximum of 15 minutes we have the request analyzed .” The results of this capability include greater security, a faster request process and the ability to automate the implementation of rules. Srdjan, a senior technical and integration designer at a large retailer, concurred when he said, “ By automating some parts of the work, business pressure is reduced since we now deliver much faster . I received feedback from our security department that their FCR approval process is now much easier. The network team is also now able to process FCRs much faster and with more accuracy.” To learn more about what IT Central Station members think about AlgoSec, visit https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/algosec-reviews Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Webinars Stop Putting out Fires. Pass Network Security Audits – Every Time Compliance with network and data security regulations and internal standards is vital and mission-critical. But with increasing global regulations and network complexities, it’s harder than ever to keep up. Firewall management and network security policies are critical components in achieving compliance. Firewall audits are complex and demanding and documentation of current rules is lacking. There’s no time and resources to find, organize, and inspect all your firewall rules. Instead of being proactive and preventative, network security teams are constantly putting out fires. In this webinar, you will learn: The golden rules for passing a network security audit Best practices to maintain continuous compliance How to conduct a risk assessment and fix issues Learn how to prevent fires and pass network security audits every time. Tal Dayan, AlgoSec’s product manager, will reveal the Firewall Audit Checklist, the six best practices to ensure successful audits. By adopting these best practices, security teams will significantly improve their network’s security posture and reduce the pain of ensuring compliance with regulations, industry standards and corporate policies. October 29, 2019 Tal Dayan AlgoSec security expert Relevant resources Network firewall security management See Documentation Firewall policy management Automate firewall rule changes See Documentation Securing & managing hybrid network security See Documentation Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

In today’s dynamic digital landscape, the security of hybrid networks has taken center stage. As organizations increasingly adopt cloud... Hybrid Cloud Security Management Hybrid network security: Azure Firewall and AlgoSec solutions Joseph Hallman 2 min read Joseph Hallman Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 10/30/23 Published In today’s dynamic digital landscape, the security of hybrid networks has taken center stage. As organizations increasingly adopt cloud solutions, like Azure, the complexities of securing hybrid networks have grown significantly. In this blog post, we’ll provide an overview of the key products and solutions presented in the recent webinar with Microsoft, highlighting how they address these challenges. Azure Firewall: Key features Azure Firewall, a cloud-native firewall offers robust features and benefits. It boasts high availability, auto-scalability, and requires minimal maintenance. Key capabilities include: Filtering and securing both network and application traffic. Support for source NAT and destination NAT configurations. Built-in threat intelligence to identify and block suspicious traffic. Three SKUs catering to different customer needs, with the Premium SKU offering advanced security features. Premium features encompass deep packet inspection, intrusion detection and prevention, web content filtering, and filtering based on web categories. Azure Firewall seamlessly integrates with other Azure services like DDoS protection, API gateway, private endpoints, and Sentinel for security correlation and alerting. AlgoSec: Simplifying hybrid network security AlgoSec specializes in simplifying hybrid network security. Their solutions address challenges such as managing multiple applications across multiple cloud platforms. AlgoSec’s offerings include: Visibility into application connectivity. Risk assessment across hybrid environments. Intelligent automation for efficient and secure network changes. CloudFlow: Managing cloud security policies AlgoSec Cloud, a SaaS solution, centralizes the management of security policies across various cloud platforms. Key features include: A security rating system to identify high-risk Risk assessment for assets Identification of unused rules Detailed policy visibility A powerful traffic simulation query tool to analyze traffic routes and rule effectiveness. Risk-aware change automation to identify potential risks associated with network changes. Integration with Azure Cloudflow seamlessly integrates with Azure, extending support to Azure Firewall and network security groups. It enables in-depth analysis of security risks and policies within Azure subscriptions. AlgoSec’s recent acquisition of Prevasio promises synergistic capabilities, enhancing security and compliance features. Conclusion In the ever-evolving landscape of hybrid networks, Azure Firewall and AlgoSec Cloudflow are powerful allies. Azure Firewall provides robust security for Azure customers, while Cloudflow offers a comprehensive approach to managing security policies across diverse cloud platforms. These solutions empower organizations to master hybrid network security, ensuring the security and efficiency of their applications and services. Resources- View the on-demand webinar here – Understanding your hybrid network security- with AlgoSec and Microsoft Azure.mp4 – AlgoSec Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Oren Amiram, Director of Product at AlgoSec, explains why misconfigurations continue to plague public cloud network services and how... Firewall Change Management Why misconfigurations continue to plague public cloud network services and how to avoid them? Oren Amiram 2 min read Oren Amiram Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 3/18/24 Published Oren Amiram, Director of Product at AlgoSec, explains why misconfigurations continue to plague public cloud network services and how organizations can address these shortfalls with AlgoSec Cloud. Cloud security as a strategy is constantly evolving to meet the needs of organizations for scale, agility, and security. If your organization is weighing the merits of the use of public cloud versus private cloud, here are a few facts to keep in mind. Data shows that the public cloud is the preferred choice. Here’s what’s driving it. Public cloud security has become more ubiquitous thanks to IaaS platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure. According to Gartner, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is expected to grow by 20.4% in 2022 to a total of $494.7 billion, up from $410.9 billion in 2021 It is easy to see why public clouds are so appealing. Unlike private clouds, public cloud platform solutions allow organizations to provide business applications fast and reduce the costs associated with purchasing, managing, and maintaining on-premise hardware and application infrastructure. Furthermore, public clouds enable businesses to set up the required infrastructure much faster than on-premise and provide unmatched scalability, as well as extra security capabilities. Public cloud benefits are abundantly clear, but there’s more to this than meets the eye. As robust as a public cloud platform, there are also challenges that organizations need to overcome. According to a recent global survey on public cloud security risks, just under a third of organizations (31%) were not confident or only slightly confident about their ability to protect sensitive data in a cloud environment and another 44 percent reported they were only moderately confident. Another survey focused on top threats to cloud computing showed that misconfiguration of the cloud platform was one of the top three concerns among respondents. This challenge is even more amplified as evidenced in a separate survey, with nearly 76% of respondents stating their organization uses two or more different public cloud providers. The findings suggest that security teams often have to manage multiple native security and management consoles to enforce security and compliance across different environments. How profound is the impact of misconfigurations on your network? All it takes is a single hole It is no surprise that enterprise IT teams find it difficult to keep their applications secure. Migration of applications to public cloud platforms involves many potential pitfalls. Misconfiguration errors can occur at many different points on the network as part of the migration process, especially when moving from traditional firewalls to cloud security controls. Ongoing management of applications and workflows within the public cloud presents a unique challenge. Many organizations have multiple teams using different methods to manage the applications and the security controls that should protect them, such as Ansible, Chef and Terraform, in addition to manual changes. Even if you are using a single public cloud platform, you still need to manage multiple security controls protecting a multitude of applications. Organizations may have hundreds of separate public cloud accounts, each with multiple VPCs, spread across different regions. These VPCs are protected by multi-layered security controls, from Cloud Infrastructure, such as security groups and network ACLs, cloud-native advanced network firewalls, to Security Products offered by ISVs, such as NG Firewalls. It is easy to see why misconfiguration occurs if IT teams attempt to take on this complex, tedious and labor-intensive process themselves. A single mistake can cause outages, compliance violations and create holes in your security perimeter. Digital Shadows detected over 2.3 billion files that had been Misconfigured storage services have exposed more than 30 billion records and contributed to more than 200 breaches over the past two years. It is safe to assume that as organizations seek to optimize their public cloud deployment, cloud breaches will increase in velocity and scale. According to a recent Accurics report, misconfigured cloud storage services were commonplace in 93% of hundreds of public cloud deployments analyzed. Avoiding misconfiguration risks is easier said than done, but there’s a solution Given that organizations are so concerned about misconfiguration risks, what steps can they take to avoid making them? There are two basic principles that should be followed: Ensuring that only authorized, qualified personnel can make network or security control changes Following a clearly defined change process, with mandatory review and approval for each stage. It’s also important to keep in mind that errors are still likely to occur even while you’re still carrying out your processes manually. Luckily, there is an easy solution – hybrid network-aware automation. This solution enables you to employ network change automation, eliminates guesswork and error-prone manual input, while also simplifying large-scale, complex application migration projects and security change management. Is there a much more holistic solution? Yes, meet AlgoSec AlgoSec’s cloud offering seamlessly integrates with all leading brands of cloud security controls, firewalls (including NGFWs deployed in the cloud), routers, and load balancers, to deliver unified security policy management. With the AlgoSec Security Management Solution, users benefit from holistic management and automation spanning on-premise, SDN and public cloud. AlgoSec cloud offering, including CloudFlow, allows organizations to seamlessly manage security control layers across the hybrid network in three key areas: Visibility across your hybrid network With our cloud offering, you can obtain a full network map of your entire hybrid network security estate, as well as identify risks and correlate them to the assets they impact. You can also achieve instant visibility of cloud assets and security controls, pinpointing and troubleshooting application and network connectivity issues resulting from security policies. Change management Organizations can leverage a uniformed network model and change-management framework that covers the hybrid and multi-cloud environment, with an automated policy push for “zero-touch” automation. You can securely migrate workloads from on-prem to the public cloud and discover the power of CloudFlow’s central policy management, allowing you to orchestrate multiple similar security controls in a single policy. Cloud-centric risk analysis and remediation You can proactively detect misconfigurations to protect cloud assets, including cloud instances, databases and serverless functions. Also, you can easily identify risky security policy rules, the assets they expose and whether they are in use. You can also remediate risk, including cleaning up bloated and risky policies and enjoy audit-ready compliance reporting, including vast support for diverse regulations. Find out more about AlgoSec cloud offering or start your journey through AlgoSec’s hybrid cloud hub . Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Prof. Avishai Wool, AlgoSec co-founder and CTO, breaks down the truths and myths about micro-segmentation and how organizations can... Micro-segmentation Why Microsegmentation is Still a Go-To Network Security Strategy Prof. Avishai Wool 2 min read Prof. Avishai Wool Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 5/3/22 Published Prof. Avishai Wool, AlgoSec co-founder and CTO, breaks down the truths and myths about micro-segmentation and how organizations can better secure their network before their next cyberattack Network segmentation isn’t a new concept. For years it’s been the go-to recommendation for CISOs and other security leaders as a means of securing expansive networks and breaking large attack surface areas down into more manageable chunks. Just as we separate areas of a ship with secure doors to prevent flooding in the event of a hull breach, network segmentation allows us to seal off areas of our network to prevent breaches such as ransomware attacks, which tend to self-propagate and spread laterally from machine to machine. Network segmentation tends to work best in controlling north-south traffic in an organization. Its main purpose is to segregate and protect key company data and limit lateral movement by attackers across the network. Micro-segmentation takes this one step further and offers more granular control to help contain lateral east-west movement. It is a technique designed to create secure zones in networks, allowing companies to isolate workloads from one another and introduce tight controls over internal access to sensitive data. Put simply, if network segmentation makes up the floors, ceilings and protective outer hull, micro-segmentation makes up the steel doors and corridors that allow or restrict access to individual areas of the ship. Both methods can be used in combination to fortify cybersecurity posture and reduce risk vulnerability across the security network. How does micro-segmentation help defend against ransomware? The number of ransomware attacks on corporate networks seems to reach record levels with each passing year. Ransomware has become so appealing to cybercriminals that it’s given way to a whole Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) sub-industry, plying would-be attackers with the tools to orchestrate their own attacks. When deploying micro-segmentation across your security network, you can contain ransomware at the onset of an attack. When a breach occurs and malware takes over a machine on a given network, the policy embedded in the micro-segmented network should block the malware’s ability to propagate to an adjacent micro-segment, which in turn can protect businesses from a system-wide shutdown and save them a great financial loss. What does Zero Trust have to do with micro-segmentation? Zero trust is a manifestation of the principle of “least privilege” security credentialing. It is a mindset that guides security teams to not assume that people, or machines, are to be trusted by default. From a network perspective, zero-trust implies that “internal” networks should not be assumed to be more trustworthy than “external” networks – quotation marks are intentional. Therefore, micro-segmentation is the way to achieve zero trust at the network level: by deploying restrictive filtering policy inside the internal network to control east-west traffic. Just as individuals in an organization should only be granted access to data on a need-to-know basis, traffic should only be allowed to travel from one area of the business to another only if the supporting applications require access to those areas. Can a business using a public cloud solution still use micro-segmentation? Prior to the advent of micro-segmentation, it was very difficult to segment networks into zones and sub-zones because it required the physical deployment of equipment. Routing had to be changed, firewalls had to be locally installed, and the segmentation process would have to be carefully monitored and managed by a team of individuals. Fortunately for SecOps teams, this is no longer the case, thanks to the rapid adoption of cloud technology. There seems to be a misconception associated with micro-segmentation where it might be thought of as a strictly private cloud environment network security solution, whereas in reality, micro-segmentation can be deployed in a hybrid cloud environment – public cloud, private cloud and on-premise. In fact, all public cloud networks, including those offered by the likes of Azure and AWS, offer “baked in” filtering capabilities that make controlling traffic much easier. This lends itself well to the concept of micro-segmentation, so even those businesses that use a hybrid cloud setup can still benefit enormously. The Bottom Line Micro-segmentation presents a viable and scalable solution to tighten network security policies, despite its inherent implementation challenges. While many businesses may find it hard to manage this new method of security, it’s nevertheless a worthwhile endeavor. By utilizing a micro-segmentation method as part of its network security strategy, an organization can immediately bolster its network security against possible hackers and potential data breaches. To help you navigate through your micro-segmentation fact-finding journey, watch this webcast or read more in our resource hub . Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

The Web application and service business loves containers, but they present a security challenge. Prevasio has the skills and experience... Cloud Security Don’t Neglect Runtime Container Security Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 9/21/20 Published The Web application and service business loves containers, but they present a security challenge. Prevasio has the skills and experience to meet the challenge. Its runtime scanning technology and techniques will let you avoid the serious risks of vulnerable or compromised containers. The very thing that makes Docker containers convenient — their all-in-one, self-contained structure — makes them opaque to traditional security tests. Instances come and go as needed, sometimes deleting themselves within seconds. This scalable and transient nature isn’t amenable to the usual tools. Prevasio’s approach is specifically designed to analyze and test containers safely, finding any problems before they turn into security incidents. The container supply chain Container images put together code from many sources. They include original source or binary code, application libraries,language support, and configuration data. The developer puts them all together and delivers the resulting image. A complex container has a long supply chain,and many things can go wrong. Each item in the image could carry a risk. The container developer could use buggy or outdated components, or it could use them improperly. The files it imports could be compromised. A Docker image isn’t a straightforward collection of files, like a gzip file. An image may be derived from another image. Extracting all its files and parameters is possible but not straightforward. Vulnerabilities and malicious actions We can divide container risks into two categories: vulnerabilities and malicious code. Vulnerabilities A vulnerability unintentionally introduces risk. An outsider can exploit them to steal information or inflict damage. In a container, they can result from poor-quality or outdated components. The building process for a complex image is hard to keep up to date. There are many ways for something to go wrong. Vulnerability scanners don’t generally work on container images. They can’t find all the components. It’s necessary to check an active container to get adequate insight. This is risky if it’s done in a production environment. Container vulnerabilities include configuration weaknesses as well as problems in code. An image that uses a weak password or unnecessarily exposes administrative functions is open to attacks. Malicious code Malware in a container is more dangerous than vulnerabilities. It could intrude at any point in the supply chain. The developer might receive a compromised version of a runtime library. A few unscrupulous developers put backdoors into code that they ship. Sometimes they add backdoors for testing purposes and forget to remove them from the finished product. The only way to catch malware in a container is by its behavior. Monitoring the network and checking the file system for suspicious changes will discover misbehaving code. The Prevasio solution Security tools designed for statically loaded code aren’t very helpful with containers. Prevasio has created a new approach that analyzes containers without making any assumptions about their safety. It loads them into a sandboxed environment where they can’t do any harm and analyzes them.The analysis includes the following: Scanning of components for known vulnerabilities Automated pen-test attacks Behavioral analysis of running code Traffic analysis to discover suspicious data packets Machine learning to identify malicious binaries The analysis categorizes an image as benign,vulnerable, exploitable, dangerous, or harmful. The administrator looks at agraph to identify any problems visually, without digging through logs. They can tell at a glance whether an image is reasonably safe to run, needs to be sent back for fixes, or should be discarded on the spot. If you look at competing container security solutions, you’ll find that the key is runtime technology. Static analysis, vulnerability scans, and signature checking won’t get you enough protection by themselves. Prevasio gives you the most complete and effective checking of container images, helping you to avoid threats to your data and your business. Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

The persistence of sophisticated ransomware In 2023, organizations faced a surge in ransomware attacks, prompting a reevaluation of... Network Segmentation Navigating the Cybersecurity Horizon in 2024 Prof. Avishai Wool 2 min read Prof. Avishai Wool Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 12/17/23 Published The persistence of sophisticated ransomware In 2023, organizations faced a surge in ransomware attacks, prompting a reevaluation of cybersecurity readiness. The focus on high-value assets and critical infrastructure indicated an escalating threat landscape, demanding stronger preemptive measures. This trend is expected to continue in 2024 as cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities. Beyond relying on technology alone, organizations must adopt strategies like Zero Trust and Micro-segmentation for comprehensive preparedness, fortifying data security. A resolute and practical response is crucial to safeguard critical assets in the evolving cybersecurity landscape. DevSecOps Integration DevSecOps is set to become a cornerstone in software development, integrating security practices proactively. As Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) popularity rises, customizing security settings becomes challenging, necessitating a shift from network perimeter reliance. Anticipating an “Always-on Security” approach like Infrastructure as Code (IaC), companies can implement policy-based guardrails in the CI/CD pipeline. If risks violating the guardrails are identified, automation should halt for human review. Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP): The CNAPP market has advanced from basic Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) to include varied vulnerability and malware scans, along with crucial behavioral analytics for cloud assets like containers. However, few vendors emphasize deep analysis of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) networking controls in risk and compliance reporting. A more complete CNAPP platform should also provide comprehensive analytics of cloud applications’ connectivity exposure. Application-centric approach to network security will supersede basic NSPM Prepare for the shift from NSPM to an application-centric security approach, driven by advanced technologies, to accelerate in 2024. Organizations, grappling with downsizing and staff shortages, will strategically adopt this holistic approach to improve efficiency in the security operations team. Emphasizing knowledge retention and automated change processes will become crucial to maintain security with agility. AI-based enhancements to security processes Generative AI, as heralded by Chat-GPT and its ilk, has made great strides in 2023, and has demonstrated that the technology has a lot of potential. I think that in 2024 we will see many more use cases in which this potential goes from simply being “cool” to a more mature technology that is brought to market to bring real value to owners of security processes. Any use case that involves analyzing, summarizing, or generalizing text, can potentially benefit from a generative AI assist. The trick will be to do so in ways that save human time, without introducing factual hallucinations. Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call