Now more than ever, FedRAMP certification will put your cloud services or SaaS solution head and shoulders above the competition.

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, was designed to support the federal government’s “cloud-first” initiative by making it easier for federal agencies to contract with vendors that provide SaaS solutions and other cloud services. Unlike FISMA, which requires service providers to seek an Authority to Operate (ATO) from each individual agency they want to do business with, a FedRAMP ATO qualifies a provider to work with any federal agency.

Cloud service providers aren’t required to comply with FedRAMP unless they work with the U.S. federal government. However, FedRAMP certification is a sound investment for all SaaS and cloud services providers, even if they are not currently federal contractors.

FedRAMP will make your company stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace and reduce your company’s risk exposure

Cloud services and SaaS solutions have exploded in popularity. Everyone is racing to get their piece of the cloud market, and it can be challenging for your solution to stand out, especially if you run a small or mid-sized company. At the same time, consumer anger over data breaches has reached a boiling point, and enterprises are highly concerned about cyber risks, especially risks posed by third-party cloud services and SaaS providers.

Private-sector companies view FedRAMP as a gold standard of data security because they know how companies must meet exacting requirements to obtain it. The FedRAMP certification process will uncover your risks and vulnerabilities, providing a solid foundation for risk assessment, documentation review, and consistent use of internal security protocols that will benefit both your company and your customers.

Completing the FedRAMP certification process will make complying with other standards easier

FedRAMP controls are based on NIST 800-53, which is the basis for other common security regulations and industry standards that your company may have to comply with, including HIPAA, DFARS, PCI DSS, COBIT, ISO 27001, and CJIS.

FedRAMP certification will make it easier for you to sell services to federal contractors

Depending on the services provided, companies that are subcontractors to federal contractors don’t necessarily need to be FedRAMP compliant, but a FedRAMP certification will make your business stand out in this type of scenario as well, especially in this threat environment. The military and other federal government agencies are under attack from nation-state cyber criminals, and in many cases, these hackers target federal contractors and subcontractors. Chinese hackers have already breached U.S. Navy contractors on multiple occasions.

You’ll also have the option of selling services directly to federal government agencies

Federal contracting is stable and lucrative. The U.S. government is the single largest buyer of goods and services in the world, and federal agencies are reliable, steady customers even during economic downturns, when private-sector firms cut back. It’s a particularly attractive market for SaaS developers and other cloud services providers because federal agencies are mandated to be “cloud-first.” A White House directive requires them to evaluate cloud options “before making any new investments.”

Cloud service providers that are FedRAMP certified are listed in the FedRAMP marketplace, so that federal agencies can easily find them when they are looking to buy services.

Become FedRAMP certified at a price you can afford

Enterprises cannot self-certify. FedRAMP certification must be performed by a certified third-party assessment organization (3PAO) such as Lazarus Alliance.

According to FedRAMP.gov, the total median cost for a mid-range cloud services provider to attain a FedRAMP certification is $2,250,000. About half of this is for engineering costs, with the other half spent on the process itself. Additionally, providers can expect to spend about $1,000,000 a year on continuous monitoring to maintain an acceptable risk posture.

Lazarus Alliance understands that these costs are out of reach for most small and medium-sized providers, and we think that’s a shame. Our industry-leading FedRAMP 3PAO services will enable you to expand your business into government markets at a price you can afford. We work smarter, not harder, to drive down your costs by giving you access to Continuum GRC’s proprietary IT Audit Machine (ITAM), the number-one ranked FedRAMP-ready SaaS GRC audit software solution. ITAM utilizes pre-loaded, drag-and-drop modules to simplify and accelerate the FedRAMP certification process. Some of our clients have saved up to 1,000% over traditional FedRAMP assessment methods.

The cyber security experts at Lazarus Alliance have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting organizations of all sizes from security breaches. Our full-service risk assessment services and Continuum GRC RegTech software will help protect your organization from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats.

Lazarus Alliance is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-7580 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help your organization adhere to cyber security regulations, maintain compliance, and secure your systems.

Marriott Starwood breach compromises 500 million customers and has far-reaching implications

The Marriott Starwood breach, which exposed the personal data of 500 million guests, was not the largest data breach in terms of size; Yahoo still holds that dubious honor. However, because of the nature of the data stolen, it has the potential for a very long reach and highlights multiple cyber security and data privacy issues.

The importance of cyber security due diligence in M&A transactions

The target of the Marriott Starwood breach was a reservations system for Starwood Hotel & Resorts, which Marriott acquired for $13 billion in 2016. A few days after the acquisition was announced, Starwood disclosed to Marriott that it had discovered malware on its point-of-sale systems at 26 locations but also indicated that the problem had been resolved.

Unfortunately, what no one knew about at the time was that Starwood’s reservations system was the target of an advanced persistent threat that had been going on since 2014 – two years before the deal closed. Hackers remained in the system for two more years before Marriott discovered them. This raises serious questions as to whether Marriott exercised cyber due diligence during the acquisition, especially since its own security team was breached in 2017.

The dangers of advanced persistent threats

The Marriott Starwood breach was an advanced persistent threat, a type of attack where hackers gain access to and remain inside a network undetected for a significant period of time and to achieve a specific goal; in this case, to harvest the personal and travel data of Starwood customers. ATP’s are highly sophisticated attacks that are often launched by nation-states or very large organizations – and at the time of this writing, it is believed that nation-state actors, possibly from China, are responsible.

Why would foreign spies want to breach a hotel’s reservations system?

The value of hotel customer data to real-world and cyber criminals

In addition to personal identifying data and credit card information, hotels aggregate data on travel preferences and patterns, including where a business or leisure traveler goes, who travels with them, and when and where they stay. Hotels may also collect and store passport data, which is the case in the Marriott Starwood breach, car rental information, even information on what meals guests have sent to their rooms, what other hotel amenities they made use of, and the locations they visited while in the area.

Starwood properties are primarily luxury hotel brands, including St. Regis and W Hotels, that cater to very affluent business and leisure travelers, and Starwood’s very popular customer loyalty program was one of the reasons why Marriott was so eager to acquire the company. Starwood customers tend to be frequent travelers who stay at Starwood properties whenever possible.

The Marriott Starwood hackers are in possession of a treasure trove of information on C-level executives, celebrities, politicians, other high-net-worth travelers, and possibly their families. They have everything they need to profile victims for a variety of cyber and real-world crimes, from social engineering schemes to blackmail to stalking.

No wonder Marriott Starwood is now the target of multiple class-action lawsuits, including a $12.5 billion lawsuit filed in Oregon. Marriott Starwood also faces penalties for non-compliance with PCI DSS, various state-level data privacy laws and, because European customers are involved, the GDPR.

The poor handling of data breach disclosure by major corporations

Many organizations are guilty of handling data breach disclosures very poorly, and Marriott Starwood is no exception. The company sat on the breach for three months before disclosing it, and when they finally did email affected guests, they did so using a domain named “email-marriott.com” instead of their primary domain. In addition to being confusing to recipients, who may have thought the emails were fake, this domain is easily spoofed – so easily that many security experts, alarmed, took it upon themselves to register misspellings lest they fall into the hands of cyber criminals, who seek to capitalize on major breaches.

Get ready for a federal data privacy law

Even before news of the Marriott Starwood breach broke, consumer anger over data privacy violations and organizational hand-wringing over the logistics of complying with dozens of different state privacy laws was putting pressure on the federal government to pass nationwide data privacy legislation. Marriott Starwood has added fuel to this fire, and organizations should expect action when the new Congress convenes in 2019.

The cyber security experts at Lazarus Alliance have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting organizations of all sizes from security breaches. Our full-service risk assessment services and Continuum GRC RegTech software will help protect your organization from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats.

Lazarus Alliance is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-7580 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help your organization adhere to cyber security regulations, maintain compliance, and secure your systems.

A guide to advanced persistent threats (APTs), a highly sophisticated, highly destructive form of cyber attack.

What is an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)?

“Advanced persistent threat” is a broad term used to describe a cyber attack where hackers covertly gain access to a system and remain inside it, undetected, for a significant period of time and to achieve a specific goal. Perhaps the most well-known example of an APT is the Stuxnet virus, which infected the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Iran, slowly, silently, and gradually destroying centrifuges over a long period of time.

APTs are highly sophisticated, and the targets are carefully selected and thoroughly researched. They require significant financial resources and the participation of a group of skilled, experienced hackers, so they are usually launched by nation-states or very large organizations. The targets are generally government institutions, critical infrastructure, or very large private-sector enterprises.

The goal of an APT is usually cyberespionage: the theft of valuable intellectual property, sensitive data or communications or, in the case of a government target, classified information. APTs can also be used to steal cash from financial targets, execute full system takeovers or, as in the Stuxnet attack, damage or destroy systems or critical infrastructure.

Characteristics of an Advanced Persistent Threat

What makes an APT different from other cyber attacks?

• They are custom-tailored to be used against a specific organization for a specific purpose. Most attacks employ malware and methods that work pretty much the same way regardless of who the target is. APTs are designed from the ground-up.
• They’re not automated. An APT requires a lot of manual work.
• They’re not “hit and run” attacks; they unfold slowly, over an extended period. Once they infiltrate a system, hackers remain hidden inside, first carefully mapping the system and expanding their footprint, then exfiltrating as much data or doing as much damage as possible.

Advanced persistent threats unfold in stages:

Initial reconnaissance: A target is selected, and the goals of the APT are determined. A team with the appropriate skills is put together, and the target is researched to determine its strengths and weaknesses and to gather information for use in social engineering schemes. An initial infiltration plan is developed.

Infiltration: The target is compromised using malicious uploads, phishing or other social engineering schemes, and/or SQL or RFI injections. To distract security personnel and further weaken defenses, hackers may simultaneously launch a DDoS or another “smokescreen” attack.

Mapping and expansion: Once inside, hackers install a backdoor Trojan to ensure uninterrupted, covert system access. They poke around, exploring the system, mapping its infrastructure, locating the target, and determining the best way of getting to it. They will look for other vulnerabilities that can be exploited and to compromise employees with appropriate access levels.

Exfiltration/execution: The data theft or system damage commences. During the exfiltration process, they may employ another smokescreen to cover their tracks. Multiple attacks/thefts are conducted over a long period.

Detecting & Preventing Advanced Persistent Threats

By their nature, APTs are exceedingly difficult to detect; hackers go to great lengths to cover their tracks and use sophisticated, next-generation malware that evades antivirus software. Warning signs of an APT include:

• An increase in logins late at night or at other unusual hours. Hackers may be hoping to access the system at times when no one is around.
• Unexpected data bundles. Hackers often steal data piecemeal, storing it in another part of the system until they have amassed enough to exfiltrate it.
• Large data flows, to other parts of the system or to external sources, that significantly deviate from the norm.
• Lots of backdoor Trojans.
• Spear phishing attacks aimed at high-level employees. This is a red flag that an APT is being planned or is already underway.

Visibility across the enterprise IT environment, including the network and all endpoints, is key to preventing advanced persistent threats. Enterprise networks must be continuously monitored to establish a baseline for system activity and enable security personnel to detect aberrations from that norm. Other preventative measures include:

• Keeping all systems and software up-to-date.
• Filtering incoming emails.
• Improving endpoint security using methods such as 2FA and VPNs.
• Protecting web applications against attacks such as XSS and SQL injections.
• Training employees on basic cyber hygiene, including how to spot phishing and other social engineering schemes.

The cyber security experts at Lazarus Alliance have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting organizations of all sizes from security breaches. Our full-service risk assessment services and Continuum GRC RegTech software will help protect your organization from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats.

Lazarus Alliance is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-7580 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help your organization adhere to cyber security regulations, maintain compliance, and secure your systems.