Sensitive data sits at the heart of your educational establishment. Fidus can help you make sure it stays there.
Much of the data stored in education data systems is of little interest or value to hackers. Schools, colleges and universities are still potential targets for criminals however.
Sensitive personal data like student records or payment details can still be stolen from education networks for instance. And universities are a goldmine of intellectual property and sensitive research data. If criminals believe data is saleable, they will steal it.
Colleges and universities are also at risk from internal threats. Inquisitive or disaffected students may attempt to break into systems for fun – or to cause damage.
Fidus provide a range of cost-effective security assessment and advisory services to help you better protect your IT systems – and the sensitive data you store in them:
• Penetration testing – How secure is your network perimeter? Your internal safeguards? We’ll show you the loopholes and exploits that hackers would use to break in.
• Permissions and accounts audit – With potentially thousands of logins to manage, are your credentials and permissions being managed properly? We’ll help you find out.
• Phishing email security – Are your teaching and non-teaching staff ready to deal with fake emails and attempts to steal logins?
• Physical security provisions – Can you keep intruders out of your data centres?
• Red Team scenarios – Using proven hacking tools and techniques, we’ll simulate a full-scale cyberattack – and test your responses to the incident.
At the end of the process, we’ll provide you with a full report that shows where your systems are – and are not – performing optimally. We’ll also supply you with a series of recommendations for future improvement, so you have everything required to apply for additional IT security funding.
Educational organisations have a legal and ethical duty to protect information stored in their IT systems. Of particular interest are your obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You must properly secure personal data against loss or theft – or risk a fine of up to €20m.
Fidus can help you prepare your systems for GDPR compliance, applying the necessary safeguards to ensure unauthorised users cannot break in. From penetration testing to firewall reconfiguration, our fully qualified consultants are with you every step of the way.
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.
Other approaches we've witnessed have included convoluted steps and commonly ends with incorrect information being handed to the consultant assigned to the engagement.
Our approach to security involves a qualified security consultant through the entire process to ensure quality, accuracy and consistency.
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In this post, we’re going to detail some of the issues our team identified with the an extremely common Alarm & GPS device used by vulnerable people around the world (at least 10,000+ in the UK). The device in question is manufactured in China and seems to be purchased in bulk by numerous providers who […]
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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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.