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Source: https://ictframe.com/wp-content/uploads/Risk-Based-Approach-in-Cyber-Security-In-Nepal.pdf

For more details: https://ictframe.com/one-cover-awarded-web-application-security-certificate-to-mavorion-systems/

For more details: https://thehimalayantimes.com/lifestyle/experts-urge-all-to-be-digitally-secure-as-phishing-up-3-times/

One Cover Pvt. Ltd. is a security company based in Kathmandu that provides dependable security solutions. In fact, it places itself at the frontier of the cybersecurity needs of organizations. Its expertise is in the domain of risk management, security solutions, IT audit, and security research & innovation.

TechCERT is Sri Lanka’s finest and largest Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT). It provides fully integrated information security services to organizations across the globe. Furthermore, it works in collaboration with several national and global information or cybersecurity organizations.

What does it mean for One Cover?

One Cover has expertise in domains that cover a complete cybersecurity framework required for an organization. Collaboration with TechCERT will enable the company to offer enhanced solutions to its clients.

Moreover, it will help to sustain a global standard that One Cover promises to provide. It also ensures reliable and consistent services as per the need of organizations.

Mutual Benefit for TechCERT

TechCERT, as an industry leader, will make resources and expertise available to projects with One Cover. Likewise, an active partnership with One Cover to provide Cyber Security services are on the table.

How this Collaboration Benefits Cybersecurity in Nepal?

One Cover provides state-of-the-art security solutions with experts on deck. This collaboration brings along a complete solution to help prepare, protect, and secure network and IT infrastructure in Nepal.

TechCERT will work collaboratively with One Cover in projects as an opportunity to provide Cyber Security services in Nepal.

Insight and technical assistance from an industry leader will help take the necessary steps to improve security processes and operations at every step.

https://technologykhabar.com/2020/06/17/35958/

https://ictbyte.com/news/one-cover-signs-mou-with-techcert/

https://csrinepal.org/onecover-signs-mou-with-techcert/

https://himalsanchar.com/23399/

https://ictframe.com/onecover-signs-mou-with-techcert/

https://banksnepal.com/posts/2020-06-24-02-46-31?

Many have experienced a lack of preparedness for such a digital transformation. Due to such a surge in digital services, cybersecurity attackers and scammers are leaving no stones unturned to capitalize on vulnerabilities of digital services.

Cybersecurity has become the most critical challenge in the present context, with many works shifting to digital platforms.

The digital transformation has become an urgency to maintain social distancing and, at the same time, keep the work going. Social Distancing and Work from Home have become the new normal.

However, the rush to produce work has opened windows for attackers, compromising the privacy of many.

The primary reason behind this is the lack of digital literacy and preparedness as well as cybersecurity awareness at the individual level and cybersecurity preparedness at the organizational level.

In this article, we will review some of the most common cybersecurity attacks reported during the pandemic and provide recommendations to protect from such attacks.

Cyber Attacks During the Pandemic

During the pandemic, every country has published reports of at least one or two cases of COVID-19 themed cyberattacks. Let's look at some threats that we are exposed to in the wake of the pandemic.

1.   SMS & Email Phishing

Since employees are working from home, phishing has become a go-to attack for threat actors.

This type of attack tricks email or SMS recipients into believing that the email/SMS is from a reliable source.

These emails can be disguised as health advice from WHO and UNICEF.

When users open such messages, it can either compromise users'' sensitive data by asking to fill a form or install malicious applications on their device.

The worst part is that this all happens without the user's knowledge or consent.

2.   Malware

The trend of attacking devices through malware hidden in mobile apps has increased recently.

The app developers use coronavirus-related keywords to bring these apps to the top search results in app stores.

According to a report from CheckPoint Research, 16 such apps that claimed to offer information on the virus outbreak, contained malware.

3.   Promotional Code Malware

Online shopping has also surged during the pandemic, and who doesn't love to get discounts while shopping online?

While most online shopping platforms are malware-proof, attackers are exploiting this opportunity by promoting tools on the darknet with ''COVID19'' or ''coronavirus'' as discount codes.

4.   Safety Equipment Scams

Some hackers were advertising the sales of sanitizers, face masks, and PPE kits online. It was part of a desperate attempt to launder cash from email scams.

In Europe, the pharmaceutical company got away with €6.64 million, and the buyers never received their deliveries.

5.   Ransomware Attacks

Every individual's data is a gold mine for attackers and data brokers.

There are cases of hospital record system breach where attackers got access to vital information of patients.

By holding such digital information hostage, cybercriminals ask for ransom in exchange for not releasing the data.

What Needs to be done?

According to a survey from 2017, a total of 756 ".np" websites were defaced. Out of these sites, 332 were commercial websites (.com.np) and 160 were government websites (.gov.np).

The first step on the to-do-list to prevent cyberattacks should be assessing the vulnerabilities of digital platforms. It's better to understand first-hand that software or applications are never risk-free. 

Most of the version updates and patches should include a security assessment and fix. The more people use applications, the more issues are identified.

Therefore, testing and maintenance of digital platforms shall never be stopped.

Organizations need to have the capability to eliminate vulnerabilities immediately after their discovery.

Moreover, users and organizations also need to assess if the applications are being used wrong. There may be a more secure way to use them, which is usually valid for most applications that offer premium versions.

The premium versions are always more secure, but again, most users would prefer the free versions of software and digital platforms. An individual's choice of using a free version of a software/tool may not necessarily meet the security requirements of an organization.

Individuals and organizations that are not able to assess risks of cybersecurity attacks may follow best practices and take expert advice in protecting themselves from cybersecurity attacks.

Best Practices to Stay Away from the Harm's's Way

Accelerate System Patching

Critical systems or applications such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), cloud interfaces, firewalls, meeting tools, collaboration systems, and email servers need constant updates. This can help eliminate vulnerabilities soon after their discovery.

Strong Password and Multifactor Authentication

Most users tend to use passwords that are easier to remember, and in doing so, they don't realize that it makes attackers easy to guess the passwords.

Therefore, the use of complex passwords reduces the risk of unauthorized access attacks.

Also, employees working remotely need to use multifactor authentication (MFA) to access network connections and critical applications.

Avoid Mixing Personal and Professional Digital Contents

Mixing personal and professional aspects have never been appropriate - either it's's in life in general or at work.

Saving office work on personal storage or cloud is not a good idea. Users need to establish good cyber hygiene to use official email accounts or cloud storage to store official work.

It prevents the risk of information leak if one of the personal or work services gets compromised, another can remain protected.

Promote & Use Resilient Platforms

There are a few digital platforms that support extensive remote work, while others lack the basic features and security.

For example, an employee without prior experience in extensive remote work using VPN may find it difficult even to set up a client VPN in their devices.

Therefore, it would be better to provide support to the employees in setting up minimum security requirements such as MFA and VPN on their devices.

Similarly, the use of verified tools and services from trusted vendors will have a lesser risk of data breach and cyberattacks.

Awareness is the Key

In phishing scams, the attacker poses as someone or something to steal credentials. This can happen while opening an attachment or clicking a malicious link in an email.

It is of utmost importance for the users to understand and identify such threats.

90% of ransomware attacks originate from phishing attempts.

Therefore, here are some tips to follow to protect from such scams or threats.

●     Avoid opening emails from people you don't know or from senders that seem suspicious in any way.

●     Know which links are safe to click and which are not. To do so, hover over the link to know where it redirects to.

●     There's a high chance that malicious links or attachments may come from friends whose mail may have been compromised as well. Therefore, make sure to verify if you were not expecting such emails.

●     Pay a closer look at the email details. Make sure to check grammatical errors, senders detail, and subject.

Avoid Public WiFi

Everybody loves free services. Public WiFi, although open, poses a higher level of security risk. Working from home over the public WiFi should be prohibited.

Public WiFi should be the last resort but is not recommended if users don't have a client VPN setup.

Enabling VPN ensures an encrypted connection between the user's device and the server making it difficult for cybercriminals to access the transmitted data.

Similarly, mobile networks can also be used if client VPN is unavailable.

Monitoring of Accounts/Sensitive Data

It is a top priority to safeguard online accounts and monitor them. Employees'', customers'', and users'' online accounts may be compromised, and sensitive data such as personal details, credit/debit card information, and health information get leaked.

Such a breach of privacy may happen at any time. Therefore, it's better to monitor for suspicious activities and unauthorized access regularly.

Reminding employees, customers, and users about their role in keeping a secure password, using MFA, updating PINs, etc. would help reduce data breach due to cybersecurity attacks.

Conclusion

COVID-19 pandemic has allowed innovative ways of working from home and is bringing digital transformations in many organizations.

However, for attackers, it has created opportunities for security and privacy breach.

Organizations that use digital platforms need to be aware of the risks of adopting digital platforms beforehand, build cybersecurity preparedness, and monitor the platforms for any suspicious activities to provide a safe and secure digital online experience to employees, customers, and users.

Image Source: Source: Threat Report 2017 Nepal From ThreatNix

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For more  details: https://nta.gov.np/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Cyber-Security-Bylaw-2077-2020.pdf

Many IT pros don’t exactly know where to start when it comes to creating a security awareness program that will work for their organization. The program is complete with actionable tasks, helpful tips, courseware suggestions and a management calendar. You also have the ability to export the full program as a detailed or executive summary version in PDF format.

 It's a matter of pride to have you on our team. We will perform many cybersecurity activities in superb cooperation. 

Wish you the best of luck for the journey ahead.

Regards

Chiranjibi Adhikari

Managing Director

#onecover #cybersecurity #informationsecurity

“Given his extensive leadership experience in the information security area.

Dipendra Poudel, a renowned industry veteran brings over one decade of information security and technology management leadership experience.

He most recently served as Managing Director at Kamakhya Trade Pvt. Ltd.

Technology. He has 15+ years of hands-on experience in the IT industry.

 He is closely involved with the world's leading technology companies like gPayments (Australia), Thales e-Security (UK), Hitachi - Payment switch (Colombo), IBM, Dell, Hp, Cisco, Microsoft, VMware.

“We are lucky to welcome Shree Paudel as a member of onecover Private Limited,” said Chiranjibi Adhikari, Managing Director of Onecover Private Limited.

One cover puts its best knowledge and skills to provide security services and solutions in the domain of risk management, IT audit, security solutions, and security research & innovation.

Cybersecurity is the process of protecting internet-connected systems from cyber threats. These systems can be hardware, software, or data. 

It is used to prevent cyberattacks. Cyber threats or attacks aim for accessing, changing, or destroying sensitive information. Cyberattacks extract money from users or interrupt normal business processes. 

Job Type- Internship (Full-Time / Part-Time)

Qualifications: Bachelor's degree completed or running in Computer Engineering or BSc. CSIT or BIT or BCA

Passion in Cybersecurity

Freshers are highly encouraged

Fluent in the English language

working Experience less than a year can also apply

Requirements:

Basic knowledge about cybersecurity

Excellent problem-solving skills

Good attitude towards learning and sharing

good communication and interpersonal skills

Time management skills

Cybersecurity protects systems, networks, and programs from cyberattacks. It focuses on securing the environment for various organizations. Criminals usually access, change or destroy sensitive data. They also use that information to extort money from users. 

Security is in high demand in cyberspace. Most of the institutions now adopt digital systems. Nepal is also growing its digital footprint. Even in Nepal, we have been facing lots of cybercrime incidents.  

Around 2013, Cybersecurity came into the spotlight in Nepal. There's no fixed when the term was first discussed or realized. The Crime Investigation Department of Nepal Police reported 19 cases of social media crimes during that time. Finally, the private sector started efforts to defend and secure cyberspace.

Confused about cybersecurity? Here are 10 interesting facts you need to know.

1.      Pioneers in Nepali cyberspace

LogPoint Nepal Pvt Ltd, the first company that introduced security information. It also used event management (SIEM) products to secure cyberspace. The first ones to start working in the field and give services were Eminence Ways and Rigo Technology. 

2.      Early reported cases in Nepal

Many of the incidents that occurred went unnoticed.  Due to which the exact first incident is difficult to detect. However, some of the reported earlier cases include:

• In July 2013, a young woman ended up transferring money for an online airline ticket booking. In fact, she fall victim to online swindling.  Out of a total of Rs. 110,000 she got back Rs. 15,000 only. She transferred the money with the help of the district court. 
• In Kathmandu School of Law, the first known case of cyberbullying was reported on October 7, 2014.
• In 2016, Nepal Police caught an 18-year-old who operated Anonymous #Opnep. Government websites including Nepal Telecom, National Tuberculosis Centre were hacked.

3.      Common incidents reported in Nepal

Some of the usually reported incidents included ATM attacks, ransomware, spear phishing, privacy leaks. Also, social media-related crimes were reported such as harassment; identity theft, child pornography, and dissemination of false information.

4.     Common mistakes that make you a victim

The digital transformation leaves behind some obvious factors that lead to cybercrime in Nepal.  Some of the typical mistakes include the use of easy and repeated passwords on many platforms. Also, Poor knowledge and lack of awareness also lead them to phish and scams. Furthermore, the use of outdated and pirated software, application, and hardware also lead to cyberattack. 

5.     2017 was a bad year

•  On June 27, 2017, a group of Turkish hackers hacked the official website of the Department of Passport. They faced threatening notes to reveal the government’s data.
• Paradox Cyber Ghost hacked 58 government websites On July 25, 2017, thus making it one of the biggest breaches of all times in Nepal. 
• An unidentified hacker hacked the SWIFT system of NIC Asia Bank on October 23. From the user accounts to six different countries, the hackers caught USD 4.4 million. Yet, the bank claimed to recover about USD 4 million.
• Onlinekhabar, known as one of the popular online news portals of Nepal, was accessed by a third party On November 28, 2017.  In addition, a JavaScript mining application to mine cryptocurrency called Monero was asked to install.  

6.      Data breach is a serious issue

• On April 8, 2020, a hacker using the Twitter handle, Narpichas @paapi_kto_mah leaked the customer data of more than 160,000 customers of Vianet Communication. They made public data that included customers’ emails, phone numbers, and addresses. 
• A hacker using the Twitter handle, Mr. Mugger, hacked and dumped data of 50,000 users of Foodmandu on March 8, 2020. Data included names, mailing addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.

7.     Nepal Police has a dedicated bureau

Cybercrimes were constantly increasing in Nepal. Therefore, the Nepal Police established a dedicated cyber bureau on June 10, 2018. Its head office lies in Bhotahiti of Kathmandu. 

8.      Number of people working 

About 60 men and about 10 women work professionally in the field. Meanwhile, over 120 people include the students and junior workforce associated with the field. 

9.      Private organizations working today

Eminence Ways, Vairav Tech, CryptoGen Nepal, ThreatNix, One Cover Pvt Ltd., Reanda Biz Serve, and Cynical Technology actively work in the field of cybersecurity. 

10.   Nepali’s in the international scenario

Many Nepali's have created and left their mark on the international hall of fame. In 2015, Sachin Thakuri and Prakash Sharma were included in Facebook’s hall of fame. They reported bugs on the social media platform. Similarly, Hall of fame of Facebook, Google, Sony, Microsoft, HackerOne, and Bugcrowd enlist ethical hackers like Nirmal Dahal, Santosh Bhandari, Nirmal Thapa, Ajay Gautam, Saugat Pokhrel, Aaditya Khati, Bishal Shrestha, etc 

1.    To gain unauthorized access to a system

2.    For the processing or storing of data unauthorized use of systems

3.    Modifying systems firmware, software, or hardware without the system owner's consent.

4.    Either Malicious disruption or denial of service. 

It is said that cybercrime came into the spotlight in 2013. Even though the exact first cyber incident of Nepal is unknown, here are some of the early crimes that took place in Nepal:

• In July 2013, a young woman fell victim to online swindling. She transferred Rs. 110,000 for an online air booking. She got back only Rs. 15,000.
• Reported first Cyberbullying case on Kathmandu School of law on October 7, 2014
• In 2016, an 18-year old boy operated Anonymous #Opnep to hack government websites 
• A group of Turkish hackers breached the official website of the Department of Passport On June 27, 2017.
• Biggest breaches of all times in Nepal, when Paradox Cyber Ghost hacked 58 government websites On July 25, 2017. 
• An unidentified hacker hacked the SWIFT system of NIC Asia Bank on October 23, 2017. Hacker caught USD 4.4 million but the bank recovered USD 4 million.
• Onlinekhabar news portal was accessed by a third party on November 28, 2017.
• Narpichas @paapi_kto_mah, Twitter handler leaked the customer data of more than 160,000 customers of Vianet Communication on April 8, 2020, 
• Similarly from Twitter Mr. Mugger, hacked and dumped data of 50,000 users of Foodmandu on March 8, 2020.
• In September 2020, Five Chinese nationals hacked NEPS (Nepal Electronic Payment System). Nepal police arrested them trying to withdraw cash with cloned debit cards.

Likewise, many incidents have been reported. From famous Celebrity facebook hack to websites and ATM hacks. While many of them still unreported and out of the media reach. According to official statistics from 2018-2019, Recorded cases of cybercrime are 180 were 125 from Kathmandu and 55 from outside the valley.

Cyber incidents Prevention

• Train your staff: ask them to check links, email addresses and double-check before granting requests
• Keep your software and systems fully up to date: don't give a hacker a chance to exploit weakness 
• Ensure Endpoint Protection: Protect your remotely working devices
• Install a Firewall: to block brute force attacks
• Backup your data: to avoid downtime
• Control access to your systems: secure your office environment
• Wi-Fi Security: Hide your Wi-Fi 
• Employee personal accounts have a separate login for each staff member. 
• Access Management: block staffs from accessing or installing network 
• Passwords: have different passwords for every application

Cybersecurity Organizations and Companies in Nepal

The demand of cybersecurity increases with an increase in internet usage in almost all the business. Before investing in cybercrime was considered a waste of money. Currently, there's a cyber bureau to investigate these crimes. About 60 men and about 10 women work professionally in the field. Meanwhile, over 120 people include the students and junior workforce associated with the field. 

Though some reported incidents included ATM attacks, ransomware, spear phishing, privacy leaks. Furthermore, social media-related crimes were reported such as harassment; identity theft, child pornography, and dissemination of false information.

Some of the private organizations working in cybersecurity

1.    One Cover Pvt Ltd. It provides services like Security Consulting, Incident Response, Security Assessment, and Managed Security.

2. npCert: Information Security Response Team Nepal

Cyber Security in Nepal

Promote security awareness across industry, academia & public sector

Research and analysis of cybersecurity incidents

Gather and disseminate technical information on cybersecurity

3. Center For Cybersecurity Research and Innovation

CSRI can clearly determine cybersecurity issues and turn out applicable solutions and justify those solutions during an approach that everybody will perceive.

For more details: Click Here

Background

Boot camp is usually defined as a training program. It is an intense training session designed to prepare students for the practical reality of developments. Similarly, boot camp is also taken as a program or a situation that helps people become much better at doing something quickly.

In short, it’s a short intensive course of training there are different types of boot camps with different functions. However, cybersecurity boot camps are one of them. Let’s have a quick discussion on the topic of cybersecurity boot camp.

Introduction

Cybersecurity boot camp is a special course that teaches students all the necessary technical skills or certifications needed to land cyber securities employment. These boot camps are usually certain intense often competed within 12 to 14 weeks. Cybersecurity boot camp focuses on hands-on learning with a priority on skills over theory. There are several cybersecurity boot camps all over the world. Some of them are listed below:

Flatiron school

Divergence academy

Full-stack academy

Georgia tech boot camp

Secure set academy

Tech launch

Claim academy etc.

All these academics and institutions teach students the skill to become a cyber-security analyst or cybersecurity engineer by teaching skills like networking, system administration, threat management, etc.

Objective

1. For increase knowledge and to upskill

2. To generate ideas

3. Develop concrete implementation strategies for ideas

4. To expose to resources

5. Build networking

6. To prevent or mitigate harm or destruction of a computer, networks, application and, data’s

7. Ensure that you are equipped with the focus and practical knowledge and skills that you need to meet your career goals

Important of cybersecurity boot camp

Though boot camps are more expensive, you’ll learn the skilled employee is looking for. You’ll be held accountable for your work and progress .these boot camp classes embrace collaboration and working with others. Advisors and instructions are always available to help you where you’re stuck in case of participating in the boot camps. You’ll be on a strict schedule to ensure you stay on target. Moreover, Career services are available at the best boot camps so you execute a smart job search. Cybersecurity boot camps play a vital role in graduating you with a full portfolio to show employers. As well as many boot camp focus on learning how to learn so you’ll continue to improve as your career progress.

Roles of cybersecurity boot camps on career enhancement:

Cybersecurity boot camps are worth it if you want to change your career and are willing to work hard. Boot camps are expensive, however, many of the best boot camps offer tuition flexibility and different payment options. 

As we mentioned earlier, you get out of a cyber-security boot camp what you put into it. Diligence, confidence, and perseverance are all important in a boot camp because boot camps are tough. But if you do commit to learning and keep your eye on the prize, there is no better and more efficient way to start a cyber-security career than to attend a cyber-security boot camp.

All in all, cybersecurity boot camps are worth it if it is the right choice for your career goals and development. This industry is rapidly growing so the investment is worth it when you land that first job following completion of the program. Cybersecurity professionals are paid very well and average higher salaries than most tech roles throughout the US.

Being a Cyber Security professional requires a strong mix of hard and soft skills as these folks are often tasked with implementing techniques to keep their company safe from threats as well as educating the rest of the company on how to comply with best practices that are taught in cybersecurity boot camp.

Background

The Workshop is usually a brief intensive education program for a relatively small group of people that focuses especially on technique and skills in a particular field. Similarly, a workshop is also taken as a program or a situation that helps people to become much better at doing something in a short period of time.

In short, it’s a short intensive course of training there are different types of workshops with different functions. However, a cybersecurity workshop is one of them. Let’s have a discussion on the topic of the cybersecurity workshop.

Introduction

Cybersecurity workshop based on to secure your personal information, conduct online activities use of webcams and public WI FI. This workshop tasks participants through the main feature of online scams, social engineering techniques, and phishing activities. In cybersecurity workshop, participants will learn about common cyber threats and counter defense tools on how to keep accounts and credentials safe. Also how to avoid the common, yet dangerous threats and malicious scams. List of organization of the world that conduct cybersecurity workshop:

·        Peter Kiewit Institute

·        The SANS Institute

·        Computer Operations, Audit, and Security Technology (COAST)

·        CERT Program

·        The Computer Security Institute

·        The Institute for Security Technology Studies (ISTS)

·        National Security Agency Science of Security Initiative

Objective

1.   Exchange information and experiences related to the development and implementation of criteria

2.   To bring together research, practitioners, the private sector, and donors that have been working on efforts to promote cybersecurity.

3.   For network

4.   Expose to resources

5.   Increase skills

6.   ensure that you are equipped with the focus and practical knowledge and skills that you need to meet your career goals 

7.   to build a culture of security

Important of cybersecurity workshop

Though previous knowledge in cybersecurity would be helpful but not essential that’s why workshops makes clear and essential. You’ll learn about the challenging objectives that you may come across in your role. Advisors and instructions are always available to help you where you’re stuck in case of participating in the workshop. You’ll be on a strict schedule to ensure you stay on target. Moreover, Career services are available at the best workshop so you execute a smart job search. As well as individuals will be able to enhance their capability and knowledge during this career.

These workshop classes embrace collaboration and working with others.

Roles of cybersecurity workshop

A Cybersecurity workshop is worth it if it is the right choice for your career goals and development. This industry is rapidly growing so the investment is worth it when you land that first job following completion of the program. Cybersecurity professionals are paid very well , and average higher salaries than most tech roles throughout the US.

As well as Cyber Security professional requires a strong mix of hard and soft skills as these folks are often tasked with implementing techniques to keep their company safe from threats as well as educating the rest of the company on how to comply with best practices which are taught in cybersecurity workshop.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity is a complex subject whose understanding requires knowledge and expertise from multiple disciplines. But not limited to computer science and information technology, psychology, economics, organizational behavior, political science, engineering, sociology, decision sciences, international relations, and law. In practice, although technical measures are an important element, cybersecurity is not primarily a technical matter, although it is easy for policy analysts and others to get lost in the technical details. During the program of the workshop, the trainees were able to have a piece of good knowledge about the core security techniques, Monitoring and detection, incident response and threat hunting, and security management. At the end of the program, the trainees were honored and handed over knowledge to attendance.

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Insurance is a legal agreement between two parties i.e. the insurance company and individual.in this, the insurance company promises to make good the losses of the insured on happening of the insured accidents. An accident is an event that causes a loss.it can be the death of the policyholder or damage of the property. It’s called an accident because there’s uncertainty regarding the happening of the event.

Objective of insurance

1.   Granting security to people

2.   Minimization of losses

3.   Diversifying the risk

4.   Reduces the anxiety and fear

5.   Generation capital

Types of insurances

1. Life insurance

2. Health insurance

3. Car insurance

4. Education insurance

5. Home insurance, etc.

Cyber insurance

Every business requires a special type of insurance, policies that insure against a specific type of harm or risk faced by a particular business. There are several types of insurance, among all cyber insurance is one of them. Cyber insurance basically covers your business ‘liability for a data breach involving sensitive customer information, such as social security number credit card number account number driver’s license number, and health record.

Cyber insurance help in notifying the customer about a data breach, restoring the personal identities of the affected customer. Similarly, cyber insurance recovers compromised data as well as repairs damaged computer systems.

Moreover, cyber insurance is also known as cyber liability insurance or policy that helps protect organizations from fallout from cyber-attacks and hacking threats. Having a cyber-insurance policy can help minimize business disruption during the cyber incidents and their aftermath. Meanwhile it also potentially cover the financial cost of some element of dealing with the attack and recovering from it.

Important of cyber insurance

Cyber-insurance is a risk management technique by which network user risks are transferred to an insurance company, in return for a fee, i.e., the insurance premium. Examples of potential cyber-insurers might include ISP, the cloud provider, traditional insurance organizations. Promoters of cyber-insurance believe that cyber-insurance would lead to the design of insurance contracts that would shift appropriate amounts of self-defense liability to the clients, thereby making cyberspace more powerful. Here the term ‘self-defense' implies the efforts by a network user to secure their system through technical solutions such as anti-virus and anti-spam software, firewalls, using secure operating systems, etc.

Conclusion

Hence, Cyber insurance is a form of insurance for businesses and individuals against internet-based risks. The most common risk that is insured against is data breaches. Cyber insurance typically includes losses from network security breaches, theft of intellectual property, and loss of privacy.

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Source: The Himalayan Times

Here is the link: NATO Cyber Defence

Download the link: National Cybersecurity Policy 2016

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Are you a Developer? Do you use open-source code repositories?

If you use PyPI, GitHub, RubyGems or any other open-source code repositories, then you have to be aware of the threads and malicious package those could trigger a supply-chain attack jeopardizing your information.

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The Colonial Pipeline Company reported on May 7 that it was the victim of a “cybersecurity attack” that “involves ransomware,” forcing the company to take some systems offline and disabling the pipeline. After the incident The US government has also recently formed a Ransomware Task Force, while the UK's National Cyber Security Centre warns that ransomware is the biggest cyber-threat to UK. That’s why the European Commission has announced plans to build a Joint Cyber Unit to tackle large scale cyber-attacks. European Commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas said last month's hack on US fuel supplies was 'the nightmare’ scenario that we have to prepare against.

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No matter what security measure we are using, there always be a new way to penetrate through that system. And its good to know that researchers are helping to find vulnerability in these type of systems. This will help to deal with problems existing in security systems.

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The consumer organization and privacy foundation are demanding that TikTok pay damages to Dutch children and delete what they call unlawfully collected personal data. They say if TikTok does not comply, they will take the company to court.

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According to the Avast security company, it’s already on tens of thousands of devices around the world and spreading to roughly 800 more systems a day.

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Recently, Kaspersky researchers discovered two new spam campaigns. The first campaign (DotDat) spread ZIP attachments and in the second campaign, spam emails included links to hacked websites with malicious archives named documents[.]zip0, doc-XX[.]zip, document-XX[.]zip.

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Cybersecurity experts reacted to the sneak peek of Windows 11 security measures and offered preliminary feedbacks. Security experts pointed out some smart decisions and some security flaws made by Microsoft on its security majors. Hopefully, this will help to improve the Windows 11 security even more.

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Since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2019 there have been reports of scams impersonating public authorities such as the World Health Organisation, and organizations such as supermarkets and airlines targeting support platforms such as PPE and offering COVID-19 cures. They often target the public, who are now socializing and spending more time online in general, as well as the increased population of people who are working from home.

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Facebook is a very popular social media platform. It would be very beneficial for both banks and customers with an official Facebook page of the bank to engage in the banking relationship. But there is no official Facebook Page of NRB. However, there is an unofficial page named 'Nepal Rastra Bank' on Facebook. The public can be easily be confused by this page. The post and contains can create delusion information about the NRB in the general public.

The Nepal Rastra Bank has nothing to do with this page. The Bank has issued a notice not to believe in any content on that page. Also, the bank has notified that the action will be taken against the responsible person or group following prevailing cybersecurity law.

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GitHub Copilot understands significantly more context than most code assistants. It converts comments to code, autofill for repetitive code, tests without the toil, and many more. GitHub Copilot works with a broad set of frameworks and languages, but this technical preview works especially well for Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby and Go.

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Today the official website of Purbanchal University, Biratnagar, Nepal, has been hacked by Hunter Umer.

The hacker has left a Facebook account with a message that says,

"Website Hacked By Hunter Umer (Click Me For Proof)

Students Don't Worry For Change Your Results Just Contact With Me...

https:///www.facebook.com/hunter.umar786"

Currently, the hacked website has been taken down. You can not reach the Purbanchal University webpage right now.

Hacker's Facebook account: Click here

Researchers detected that this recent variant is disguising as a dating app known as Trendbanter, as well as the Signal app, for non-resident Indians. The spyware mimics other apps to fool unsuspecting users. Moreover, through third-party app stores and other mediums, including malicious URLs and SMS, the attackers had accomplished their propagation goals in which they distributed multiple spyware.

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Microsoft also confirmed that this nasty was distinct from CVE-2021-1675, which was all about a different attack vector and a different vulnerability in RpcAddPrinterDriverEx(). The June 2021 Security update dealt with that, according to Microsoft, and did not introduce the new badness. That had existed prior to the update.

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Common assumptions are anything related to cybersecurity, a security issue or security initiative resides with the security team and the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Phishing attacks? That’s a problem for the security department. Vetting vendors and third parties? That belongs to the vendor management team. Data regulation compliance issues? That’s the cybersecurity team’s problem.

The reality, however, is that security is a team sport and we all have a role to play and a responsibility.Every company needs to build a risk portfolio, have incident response plans for every line of business and automate the risk management process as much as possible. Cybersecurity visibility is at the core of all of this.

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The DoS vulnerability was discovered by researcher ‘afewgoats’ and disclosed through a GitLab bug bounty program run by HackerOne. CVE trackers have been requested for both high impact vulnerabilities, but identifiers are yet to be assigned. Ethical hacker ‘afewgoats’ told The Daily Swig that they've been working on a way to attack services that offer webhooks.

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On Tuesday, the Windows maker issued an emergency out-of-band update to address CVE-2021-34527 (CVSS score: 8.8) after the flaw was accidentally disclosed by researchers from Hong Kong-based cybersecurity firm Sangfor late last month, at which point it emerged that the issue was different from another bug tracked as CVE-2021-1675 that was patched by Microsoft on June 8.

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These malicious apps have been removed by Google from the Play Store. However, this is not the first instance of malicious apps making their way into the Google Play Store. Malicious apps are getting detected regularly on legitimate app stores, which shows that users can not entirely rely on app stores for ensuring their security. Before and after installing any app, users must stay vigilant for unusual activity and permissions required by the apps.

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Droppers are a well-known type of malware that has been around since the early days of trojans. Besides downloading and installing malware, droppers have been observed exhibiting different behaviors that set it apart from other malware. These include searching for available security controls, connecting to suspicious websites, and attempting to hide connections with sites. Moreover, with the increased ransomware and ongoing malicious emails threats, it is expected that the growing presence of loaders is likely to witness a rise.

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The use of malicious PDF files in phishing emails is prominently displayed in several recently observed attacks. A lot of incidents have witnessed attackers using PDF files to target unsuspecting users. Phishing emails spoofing the names of well-known software to fool recipients is a common yet effective threat. A common set of security hygiene measures can greatly reduce the risk of infection from this threat. Companies can protect themselves by providing training to their employees about spotting phishing attacks. Moreover, they can use anti-phishing solutions and use security products with anti-phishing components.

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Hackers have been seen taking CDR data from telecom servers to APT 41 and APT 71. It has also been found that the data stolen from the telecom server has been kept on the dark web for sale. The CDR call data record of the telco was put for selling on June 29.

NTC Managing Director Dilli Ram Adhikari says the company's main server is secure. Speaking to reputed outlets, he said: "Hackers might have breached into a dated server of CDMA. The company's team of expert technicians are looking into the matter to trace the culprits. Our main server is protected by a highly secure firewall and remains safe."

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Kaspersky alerts of Black Widow movie-themed malware. The movie was released in the United Kingdom on July 9th while it is yet to be released in several other countries. However, researchers have identified malicious files under the guise of the new Black Widow movie that are already circulating across the web.

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It’s not the first incident that happened in the past few months where a well-established ransomware group had shut down its operations. There have been multiple ransomware gangs shutting their shops. It is not clear why all of a sudden these websites went offline. If the group has decided to no more engage in encryption-based extortion, the news of shutdown for a prominent gang like REvil is indeed a positive development for the security community. Nevertheless, it will be too early to feel relieved. If the gang happens to sell its attack infrastructure to other cybercrime groups, you may want to stay alert and informed.

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As the year commenced, BazarBackdoor got a makeover. Now, the threat actors behind it are getting more sophisticated and using new ways of disseminating the malware. This makes it a worrisome threat and requires continuous monitoring from security agencies.

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According to the complaint filed by Microsoft last week (more details available in the court order), they used the domains registered via NameSilo LLC and KS Domains Ltd./Key-Systems GmbH as malicious infrastructure in BEC attacks against Office 365 customers and services.

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According to Mr. Dhakal, the suspect threatened to hack the system of Rastra Bank, Nepal Bank, & Nabil Bank in english. He added,"We are aware about this threat. All banks are requested to check their system and imply measures to avoid possible threat & attacks." The group behind this message are still unknown and further investigation on this case are underway.

In the message the hackers stated that all banking process system had been completely compromised. They warned of withdrawing money by hacking the banking systems of Nepal Rastra Bank, Kumari Bank, Nepal Bank, Nabil Bank, Rastriya Banijya Bank, Machhapuchchhre Bank, NMB Bank, NIC Asia Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, Citizens Bank International, Sanima Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Everest Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, and Himalayan Bank. The hackers had warned not to take this message lightly.

This ensures that only the account owner can sign in and blocks malicious takeover attempts which try to guess, use stolen credentials, or reset the password.While some high-profile Twitter accounts were successfully hijacked last year despite having 2FA enabled after attackers gained access to internal admin systems, you should still toggle on 2FA to be protected against less-sophisticated hacking attempts.

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We are very pleased to share that Ujjwal Gautam has identified "Sub domain takeover" vulnerability in the asset of United Nation. Currently intern at One Cover Pvt. Ltd. Ujjwal Gautam is a self-motivated, confident, and highly energetic individual with a passion for information technology and cybersecurity. He is a team player with a positive attitude and high dedication. He is currently pursuing a BSc(Hons) Computing degree from Islington College (affiliated to London Metropolitan University).

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Discord’s CDN and API provide a flexible architecture that is frequently abused by cybercriminals. Further, attacks are not just limited to gamers anymore as the messaging app is being used by other groups and online communities as well. Therefore, all users are recommended to take caution and not follow any suspicious links or download any file shared on Discord servers or chats.

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The enthusiasm for Windows 11 is expected to stay until it is officially released (in early 2022) and attackers are suspected to take full advantage of it. Microsoft is running the Windows Insider program through which interested people can register for the upcoming OS version. Therefore, it is recommended that users avoid downloading installations from third-party websites.

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The report makes sobering reading because it highlights the huge problems that Android users face when it comes to securing their smartphones. And it's not just free apps and games. The problems are across the board and affect apps such as banking and payment apps. Predictably, the category of top-free games was the worst, where 96% were found to contain vulnerable components. Following closely behind were top-grossing games and top-paid games.

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Cybercriminals are always eager to exploit vulnerabilities for their malicious intentions. Therefore, security agencies recommend organizations patch and update their systems. Following a proper patch management policy can reduce the attack surface.

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Vultur and Oscorp attempt to gain full remote access to the infected device and perform unauthorized bank transfers. Both the malware abuse Android Accessibility Services to stay undetected and perform malicious tasks, indicating malware developers are getting advanced in developing new malware as well as updating existing ones.

During the attack, once the adware infects a Mac, it installs a Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) web proxy to hijack search engine results. Ads are later injected into web pages for financial gain. Following infection, it gains persistence on compromised Macs by installing LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents. In some instances, user cron jobs are executed every two and a half hours.

Hundreds of unique samples of well-known AdLoad adware were circulating in the wild undetected for almost ten months, which calls for immediate attention. It indicates that attackers are getting smarter with every passing day and emphasizes the need for additional layers of security to protect Mac devices.

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Google Workspace phishing and scams derive much of their power from manipulating legitimate features and services to abusive ends, says independent security researcher Matthew Bryant. Targets are more likely to fall for the attacks because they trust Google's offerings. The tactic also largely puts the activity outside the purview of antivirus tools or other security scanners, since it's web-based and manipulates legitimate infrastructure. 

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One of the critical factors of such an attack is that no physical access is required for the objects. OPAD attacks can transform any known digital results into real 3D objects. OPAD showed that organizations developing AI technologies should stay alert regarding potential security problems from within the AI models. Also, they should invest more in the security and testing of AI technology before real-world use.

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Phishing is one of the most basic methods employed by threat actors to steal credentials, compromise organizational networks, and hijack accounts. Furthermore, the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies and subsequent attacks on them, drive home the need for stronger and proactive cybersecurity defenses. The threat landscape is evolving way too quickly and enterprises need to plan appropriately.

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Recent developments show how quickly and actively cybercriminals attempt to cash in on any opportunity that arises. Moreover, such vulnerabilities are easy to abuse and can be embedded inside malware code. Therefore, vulnerable device users are recommended to apply patches as soon as possible.

The likelihood of scammers being successful is a game of numbers - the more targets they get, the higher the chances of being successful. Security specialists need to strengthen their defenses to combat all these frauds. Because of their inexorability, scams and frauds have become a serious issue. Every quarter, the number of reported cases keeps rising. Since these are here to stay, it goes without saying that users should stay vigilant.

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Recently, Microsoft linked a limited and highly targeted attack on SolarWinds with a Chinese threat actor – DEV-0322. It begins abusing Serv-U servers by connecting to the open SSH port and then, sends a malicious pre-auth connection request to run its malicious code and take control of exposed devices. Some Serv-U binaries were not protected by the ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) feature, thus allowing attackers to exploit them. Microsoft did not provide information regarding post-infiltration activities of the actor, such as cyberespionage, intelligence collection, or cryptomining. But, it provided technical details regarding the zero-day flaw exploitation by the attackers. The flaw, whose patch is out now, was tracked as CVE-2021-35211.

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The recent attack is complicated and carried out with the aim of achieving the token-signing certificate to gain entry to a specific target network. Therefore, experts suggest implementing additional layers of protection for SAML certificates, and in case of compromise, re-issue certificates on the ADFS twice and force re-authentication for all users.

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India recorded 50,035 cases of cyber crime in 2020, with aa 11.8 per cent surge in such offences over the previous year, as 578 incidents of "fake news on social media" were also reported, official data showed on Wednesday.

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Financial industry leaders, along with their security teams, need to find a workaround to mitigate threats and minimize attack surfaces by addressing flaws in systems. Besides adopting newer technologies to offer a seamless banking service, it is imperative that organizations dole out funds to upgrade and fortify their security posture as these threats will only grow in the coming times.

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Education Qualification to Be a SOC Analyst

To start your career in this domain, you should have a bachelor’s degree in the field of computer science or other similar sectors. Further, you must also go through proper training from a well-reputed institute, gain certification, and become a Certified SOC Analyst (CSA). This is the first step that you need to take to become a member of the SOC team in any company.

Skills to Be a SOC Analyst

You need to have some specific skills to land your job in this field and move ahead in your career. Following are the skills that you need to acquire to become a CSA:

1. Network defenders:

You need to be able to defend the network as it is one of the primary responsibilities of CSA in any company. It will allow you to monitor, discover, and analyze any possible threats through the Internet that can disturb the network. It is easy for hackers to attack the network as they are connected to the Internet actively and can easily explore vulnerabilities. You should have the skills to keep the network traffic in check and respond to any skeptical activities.

2. Ethical Hacking:

SOC professionals with expert skills in Ethical Hacking have the required knowledge to find probable threats and report the vulnerabilities so that the company stays protected from attacks. Moreover, they have an understanding of perpetration testing to test systems, networks, web applications, and more and find vulnerabilities.

3. Response to incidents:

You must have the skills to manage various effects of breaches to reduce their impact and suggest changes in the security controls to prevent the company from any future security breaches.

4. Computer forensics:

As a SOC professional, you should be familiar with computer forensics to successfully prevent any form of cybercrime in your organization. With an understanding of this module, you will be skilled enough to collect, analyze, and report security data. Besides, you must also find and analyze evidence to prevent any future possible security breaches.

5. Reverse engineering:

With skills in reverse engineering, you will be able to understand and read the performance of given software program such that you will be capable of patching a bug.

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The IBM QRadar SOC responsibilities are at the operational aspects of an organization to ensure the continued operations of the organization’s information security protection. IBM QRadar SOC Offerings are provided through experienced professionals and from Cloud infrastructure that is certified for various Security Standards. IBM QRadar SOC services make it possible for companies to focus on doing what companies do best — focusing on promoting their own products and services and offloading security to trained professionals, From small to enterprise businesses.

IBM SOC primary goal is to ensure any potential security incidents are identified correctly, analyzed accordingly through a thorough investigation, with any steps to reduce any immediate impact if possible implemented. The reporting of incidents is vitally important as incorrect reporting could end up making a security incident worse.

IBM has developed complete SOC processes like Monitoring procedure, Notification, escalation process, Compliance monitoring procedure, Incident investigation procedure, and strictly follow the process in the SOC operation.

SOC Services:

·       24/7 Security Monitoring, Data aggregation, Correlation and Analytics

·       SOC Analysts

·       Automated analysis

·       User and Entity Behavior Analytics with Real-Time Threat Hunting and Detection

·       On-demand/Scheduled reporting as per various industry standards to ensure regulatory compliances    

SOC provides:

·       SOC Monitoring

Monitoring involves checking system for cyber security threats and involves using specialized cybersecurity tools to pick up suspicious patterns. These cyber security tools link into a centralized management system with dashboards that provide any alerts to suspicious activities and patterns.

SOC monitoring is watching and analyzing an organization’s systems and environments for security events and organization’s network service databases to its websites endpoints like computers and more are in scope for security monitoring specialist security tools like breach detection tools are used to protect systems.

With some tools providing immediate responses that is in real-time to breaches such as intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and intrusion detection system (IDS). With other tools providing delayed responses like the SIEM tool. As these tools work by ingesting logs and analyzing these logs with the delay in getting these logs being responsible for these tools not to be able to work in real-time.

·       Analysis:

The analysis will determine how systems were breached by trying to find out the entry point where hackers managed to get in.

Ø  Check if SIEM alerts are real or just false positives

Ø  Rate the SIEM alerts as; High, Medium to Low Risk

Ø  Raise incidents as P1, P2, P3, etc.

·       SOC Incident Management

Incident Management is dealing with alerts to suspicious activities and patterns involving trying to determine firstly the criticality of the threat and then running through various incident management processes to try to neuter the threat. The processes generally involve people to manage them and technology to help pinpoint more information about the threats and try to stop it.

The goal of the SOC team is to analyze and respond to anomalies and potential cyber security incidents through a combination of technologies and processes. Employees work closely with the organizing team to ensure that security issues are resolved quickly after they are detected.