Why do I need Cyber Essentials Plus?

To raise security standards

With Cyber Essentials Plus, your business has a definite standard to plan against. This helps to ensure that investments are properly targeted for maximum benefit to you and your customers.

To trade with the government

Any business planning to bid for public sector contracts must be Cyber Essentials Plus certified. No certification, no government trade.

To demonstrate commitment to your customers’ privacy

As a government-recognised certification, Cyber Essential Plus demonstrates your commitment to customer privacy and security. Potential customers will know that they can trust your business to secure information properly.

To renew your certification

To ensure your business continues to uphold the highest standards of IT security, the Cyber Essentials Plus certification must be renewed once per year.

Our Approach

Questionnaire completion

Cyber Essential Plus is a two-phase process. The first step requires you to complete a self-certification questionnaire. Our team of experienced analysts can help you with the initial paperwork.

Full infrastructure audit

The second phase of the compliance process sees our consultants analysing your network resources and protections to verify they match the answers provided in the questionnaire. We will also identify vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.

In depth testing

Your network security provisions will be tested to confirm that meet the required standard. We will also assess your employees to ensure they demonstrate an appropriate level of awareness of how to store and handle sensitive data correctly.

With you every step of the way

From initial application, through to final certification, Fidus engineers are on hand to guide you through the entire process. We’ll help you bring security up to the required standard and help you plan a strategy for renewal next year.

Why Fidus?

Penetration testing reveals your most sensitive network vulnerabilities – so you need a partner you can trust. Fidus Information Security are an NCSC CHECK Green Light and TIGER scheme approved consultancy. Our cyber security experts hold some of the most recognised certifications in the industry, including CREST Certified Tester and Senior Security Tester. Fidus is also a Cyber Essentials verified company. Every assessment we perform is carried out according to UK industry approved methodologies (OWASP, PETS, NIST) along with our own internal testing frameworks.

Remedial Support

More than just identifying security vulnerabilities, our cyber security experts are on hand to help you fix them too.

Certified Security Consultants

Our CREST and TIGER approved team holds a range of industry-leading security certifications including OSCP, CCT, SST and CISSP

Easy to Understand Reports

We’ll ensure that your executives and technical teams properly understand our assessment findings using plain-English reporting.

Fixed Price Proposals

The price you’re quoted is the price you’ll pay. Our quotes are broken down into a detailed costing table so you know exactly what to expect.

The Industry Average

Other approaches we've witnessed have included convoluted steps and commonly ends with incorrect information being handed to the consultant assigned to the engagement.

The Fidus Way

Our approach to security involves a qualified security consultant through the entire process to ensure quality, accuracy and consistency.

Trusted by

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“Oysta is very happy with the support, service and dedication of the Fidus team. Working with the Oysta team every step of the way, not only did they check all security on the device, they also provided feedback on the quality of the hardware. I will be working with Fidus again.”

Mario Zuccaro, Founder and CEO, Oysta Technology

June 2019

“We have been really pleased with the service provided by Fidus. We have found them to be extremely easy to work with. We also felt their fee structure was reasonable. We would recommend Fidus to anyone looking for a PCI pen testing partner.”

Andy Phillips, Inspired Outsourcing

May 2019

“Great service. Gave us exactly what we needed, as promised.”

Philip Cunnington, TalkPlus NHS

January 2019

“We were extremely pleased with the service, knowledge and professionalism shown by Fidus. After the remediation phase, we then ran a phishing exercise with them to remind staff of the need to be vigilant with external email communications. I would have no hesitation in using or recommending Fidus in the future due to the quality of work carried out at a great price.”

Graeme Thistlethwaite, ICT, Business Change and Business Support Manager

“Fidus provided a high quality penetration service at a reasonable price … communications were great … the Pen test team flexed around us and our other commitments to get the job done. Thanks!”

Darren Crombie, CEO, Upstream Outcomes

October 2018

Breaches 14 January 2018

OnePlus Checkout Hacked? The Dangers of On-Site Payment Processing

Introduction

Recently members of the Fidus team noticed an interesting blog post on the OnePlus forum by an individual discussing recent fraudulent attempts made on two of their credit cards. The forum user states that the only place both cards were used was on the OnePlus website in November 2017, they go on to ask whether other members of the community have had the same issue (spoiler:they had). OnePlus are currently using the Magento eCommerce platform, which is a common platform in which credit card hacking takes place.

These findings do not confirm OnePlus have suffered a breach. Instead, they look into the current structure of the payment flow and how it could have been achieved.

A further update has been posted at the bottom of this blog post.

How could this happen?

We stepped through the payment process on the OnePlus website to have a look what was going on. Interestingly enough, the payment page which requests the customer’s card details is hosted ON-SITE. This means all payment details entered, albeit briefly, flow through the OnePlus website and can be intercepted by an attacker. Whilst the payment details are sent off to a third-party provider upon form submission, there is a window in which malicious code is able to siphon credit card details before the data is encrypted.

Straight away there are two issues that stand out:

OnePlus do not appear to be PCI compliant, nor do they mention this anywhere on the website.
OnePlus mention they do not handle any card payments made. Whilst card payments are handled by CyberSource, the processing form is still hosted on the OnePlus infrastructure. If an attacker had write access to this page, JavaScript could have been inserted to compromise data entered into CyberSource’s payment form on the client-side.

Breaking the payment flow

Credit card fraud is not new to the Magento eCommerce platform. Sucuri blogged about this very issue back in 2015.

There are two methods used by attackers to siphon credit cards away from eCommerce stores. The first of which is through the use of Javascript which takes place client-side. This is achieved through malicious JavaScript hosted on the web page which causes the customer’s machine to silently send a crafted request to a server in control of the hacker. This request includes all billing information along with all credit card details. We looked through the page source on the OnePlus checkout and there was no sign of any malicious JavaScript being used. However, it is possible JavaScript code WAS at one-point used to steal data, however, if so, has since been removed. OnePlus has since confirmed this was indeed the method used to steal 40,000 sets of credit card details.

The other method commonly used by attackers, as described in the Sucuri blog, is modification of the app/code/core/Mage/Payment/Model/Method/Cc.php file. This method requires shell access to the server and indicates a serious compromise.

The Cc.php file handles the saving of card details on the eCommerce website. Regardless if card details are actually saved or not, the file is called regardless. Attackers are able to place code within this file which allows for payment details to be compromised and sent to an off-site location controlled by the attacker. Since this takes place within the prepareSave() function within Cc.php, the card details are not yet encrypted and are at risk. An example of malicious code can be seen below:

The below image highlights exactly where an attacker is able to compromise raw credit card data.

The Impact

As it stands, the poll on the OnePlus forum regarding affected users has over 39 users complaining of recent fraudulent attempt. Numerous users of Reddit have also complained of the same issue.

Users of twitter have also started to question this potential issue.

How to protect yourself with Penetration Testing and other methods?

The safest option to prevent credit card fraud is to use an OFF-SITE payment processor, or a processor who offers iFrame integration with checkout pages. Third-party payment providers have created PCI compliant sandboxes for the very purpose of securely taking card payments; utilise it.

It is worth noting that whilst iFrame integration is a safer option that hosting the payment pages yourselves, it is vulnerable to JavaScript attacks. iFrame integration does however combat malicious code within Magento source code; such as Cc.php.

Furthermore, it is highly recommended to conduct regular penetration testing assessments against your eCommerce websites to highlight any security risks.

Further Update – 16th January 2018

Upon further review of the payment system, it should be noted that OnePlus are currently making use of the CyberSource Magento add-on, as can be seen below.

CyberSource note on their Magento marketplace page that all data submission is done within the client’s browser and never touches the eCommerce infrastructure (Fidus do not currently have an environment to test this statement).

If this is true, this leaves 2 potential avenues for attack and rules out the Cc.php theory:

Malicious JavaScript was hosted on the OnePlus eCommerce website and has since been removed. Attempts were made to validate this theory using Archive.org, however the payment page was not indexed.
CyberSource themselves have been the victim of a cyber attack. If this statement is true, the issue is far bigger than expected.

It is also worth noting CyberSource have a statement within their Data Sheet PDF which states:

Secure Acceptance Silent Order POST limits your exposure to payment data, which reduces your PCI DSS scope, because many of the controls may no longer be applicable. For certain businesses, this can mean having to complete the PCI-DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) versus a full scale audit. No payment solution, however, negates the need to validate compliance. You should consult with your acquiring bank to uate the level compliance required for your organization.

How CyberSource process payments and how this could be exploited.

When a customer clicks the order button, the customer’s browser sends a request to the OnePlus eCommerce server.
The OnePlus eCommerce server responds to the server with HTML including a payment form.
The customer enters his/her payment details into the browser and clicks the submit button.
The payment data travels directly from the customer’s browser to CyberSource.

At the point in which the OnePlus eCommerce server responds to the customer with an HTML page containing a payment form, malicious JavaScript could be injected to compromise any inputs which the customer makes; including credit card data.

Further Update – 19th January 2018

An update posted on the OnePlus website and an e-mail sent out to affected customers has confirmed a breach did occur and 40,000 customers had their payment details stolen.

14 January 2018

Cyber Essentials Plus

What is Cyber Essentials Plus?