Cyber security for Finance

With millions of dollars passing through their systems every day, financial firms are extremely attractive targets for cybercriminals. More than simply trying to defraud cash, organised gangs are increasingly interested in the personal data, proprietary algorithms and intellectual property that can be exfiltrated from your network.

New developments in financial services have been achieved through a revolution in the corporate data centre. But as new systems are added the network fragments, creating new attack surfaces for hackers to target.

Regular penetration testing and security audits have become an essential aspect of operations, helping to address many of the challenges faced by the financial services industry. Fidus offer a range of services to help you overcome these challenges, including:

Penetration testing to reveal externally-facing vulnerabilities,
Security and permissions audits.
Physical security assessments.
Social engineering tests to ensure your staff are alert to attempts to steal information.
Phishing email testing to check your email security processes are working correctly.
Full red team cyberattack simulation to test how your business would manage in the face of a well-executed attack.
Cyberattack response readiness check of your processes for dealing with a successful breach.

We will help you identify weaknesses in your IT security provisions. Then we’ll help you develop appropriate solutions before they are discovered and exploited by criminals.

Cyber security compliance for Finance

Finance is a heavily regulated industry and your business is obligated to meet a number of minimum standards to protect customers and their money and data. Using out in-depth experience of financial compliance testing and auditing, Fidus can assist with:

SWIFT CSP compliance.
FCA regulatory assessment and compliance.
PCI-DSS self-certification tests.
GDPR auditing and testing.

As well as confirming compliance with these standards, our consultants can assist with the necessary paperwork and applications to ensure you receive the necessary certifications.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What software do you use?

Penetration Testing ‘tools’ are used as part of engagements to help assess, identify and exploit commonly found vulnerabilities. There are numerous different kinds of tools used within every engagement, each with a different use and varying popularity – like most things, people have a preference!

Whilst these tools are effective at finding what they’re able to, it’s important to ensure your provider does not simply run automated tools and issue a report. Many vulnerabilities cannot be identified simply by running an automated tool without some form of manual verification and, in some cases, manual exploitation too. Our consultants at Fidus focus on manual testing where possible and whilst some of these tools are used to aid assessments, they will never be the focal point of the engagement.

Commonly seen tools include; NMap, Metapsloit, SQLMap, Nessus, Qualys, Nikto, SSLScan, Cobalt Strike and many, many more.

What is the goal of a penetration test?

The end goal of a Pen Test varies from client to client and has many underlying factors, such as; complexity of application and/or network, whether there have been previous tests, what kind of data the application/network holds and the size of the organisation.

The most frequent goal we are given by clients is “Can you obtain our customer information?”. However, it is also important to not overlook other issues which could lead to things such as loss of business reputation if the customer facing website is compromised.

Do i pass/fail?

Penetration Testing should NOT become a Pass/Fail assessment for your organisation It should be seen as an exercise to evaluate your current security posture with the aim to make as many improvements as possible.

At Fidus, we ensure the client is able to extract as much value from the assessment as possible. As such, our reports contain sections for both the executive team which is aimed at the risks to the business and a technical section for the development and IT teams. We provide enough information for the C-Level staff members to fully understand the report and enough information for the technical team to be able to locate, reproduce and fix all issues discovered.

What are the stages of a pen test?

Initiation / Scoping – Ensuring the delivery of work is exactly as you require and the correct amount of time is allocated to your engagement.
Pre-Assessment – Confirmation that your environment is accessible and ready for testing and all requirements have been completed.
Assessment – Conducting the engagement as per the Scope of Work.
Post-Assessment – Collection of all results and ensuring the tested environment has been tidied up where possible.
Reporting – Compilation of results for final deliverable.
Remediation Discussion and Support – Discussion and explanation of all issues where required and further support for implementing changes as recommended within the deliverable.

How long does an assessment take?

The time it takes to conduct each assessment is dependent on the scope of the engagement. There are multiple factors which can impact the length of the engagement, such as; network size, complexity of applications, size of organisation and whether the assessment is internal or external.

What are the benefits?

The main benefit of is the proactive approach to finding serious vulnerabilities before attackers do. These vulnerabilities can lead to numerous scenarios such as; reputational damage, loss of user data and financial fines.

Compliance

Penetration Testing is also a key factor to becoming compliant in multiple standards, such as Cyber Essentials Plus, PCI DSS and ISO 27001.

Evaluate Current Security Controls

A pen test allows you to evaluate current security controls which are in place. These could be Intrusion Prevention Systems (IDS), Intrusion Protection Systems (IPS), Firewalls and Web Application Firewalls (WAF). We commonly see mis-configuration of these devices, sometimes rendering them ineffective at their main job, keeping your data safe.

Avoid The Cost of Network Downtime

Have you ever worked out how much it would cost your business if you had even a day downtime because of a cyber attack? This is not simply the loss of a day wages for all employees, it may also include; legal fees, incident response, customer protection and damage control activities.

A security assessment also allows you to establish the level of exposure if a specific area of your company gets breached, such as the main user web application, and ascertain how sensitive the data held within is. Currently, sensitive breaches must be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) with fines sometimes reaching 6 figures. However, with the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law, these fines are set to multiply and only give organisations 72 hours to discover and report a breach. The easiest way to avoid a breach is to proactively defend against one.

How often should we conduct a penetration test?

Penetration Testing should be performed on a regular basis to ensure newly discovered threats and previously recommended implementations are evaluated. In addition to this, penetration testing should occur when there’s a big change to network infrastructure, a new web application is deployed, during/before mergers and Phishing assessments should take place upon expansion of your team.

What kind of test do i require?

The kind of assessment you require has many underlying factors. Some questions such as “We’re about to deploy a new web application, what kind of testing do you recommend?” are much easier to answer than “We’ve never had a Penetration Test before, what do you recommend?”.

For the latter question, there are a series of questions which need to be answered first. Such as; What are your key assets? What would cripple your business if stolen? (Signing keys, source code, customer data etc), How many employees do you have? What is your budget?

It is important to have all of the information to be able to evaluate what would have the best return on investment for your Penetration Test.

If you would like to talk through the different kind of paths you could take, please get in touch.

Request a Call Back

Would you like to speak to us over the phone? Just submit your details and we’ll be in touch shortly. You can also email us if you would prefer – [email protected]

I would like to discuss:

“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

IT Security for Finance