Cyber Security

Well folks, we just completed 12 years at TwelveDot and it has been quite the ride for both the company and myself. We have had  a lot of changes over the years with both the company and how we operate. This was due to a changing focus with our customers and how we had approached offering our services. I would have never thought that I would get to meet so many new contacts, work in new sectors such as aviation, healthcare, and education, and get to travel the world over doing so. To all of our current and former clients thank-you for believing in us. To those we still have to meet, we look forward to the day we can satisfy your cyber needs.

Starting this month and going forward, I will be posting updates as we look to change some of the operational aspects of the business. These are not significant just changing with the times to again meet the demand of the market and need for specialized services.

I will also beginning a series on the CSA/ANSI T200 standard that was published last year. We were pivotal in both developing and writing this standard and we are hoping that it will really become a baseline for all IoT devices to be evaluated using a maturity model approach. This standard already is aligned to the ISO standard on a IoT baseline (ISO/IEC 27402) and the ETSI baseline (303 645) for Europe. We made harmonization a key aspect of this standard to allow vendors to get assessed under one program that would have global recognition. More on this later including the many organizations who are already recognizing this standard for testing and evaluation of IoT products.

I will also be announcing a book I am working on later this year as well. It represents the 10 plus years of work we have done for IoT both as research and as product evaluators.

With the post-COVID generation upon us, we look forward to contributing to more International standards work and projects that help to build on our recognized achievements to date. To our staff, this would not have happened without you and I am grateful for all our staff both current and previous.

//Faud

As a security consultancy firm, our job is to provide guidance on security best practices to facilitate the protection of privacy and data for all the clients we serve. We believe strong encryption should be a global effort for national security, personal security and privacy, and free expression. In particular, the use of end-to-end encryption is currently what keeps our information assets secure across the web. For those who are not familiar with end-to-end encryption and why it is important in all aspects of security, here’s a great video resource https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADg7x2Buw0s

To extend our effort in advocating strong encryption adoption, we would like to vocalize our membership in the Global Encryption Coalition community. As stated by Global Encryption Coalition, “several governments and law enforcement agencies are trying to ban or weaken encryption for everyone”. The premise is that “They (the governments) want to require companies using encryption to create backdoors to catch criminals or wrongdoers”. We believe in a global movement to strengthen and preserve the use of strong encryption. As part of a global coalition, the movement calls on governments and the private sector to reject efforts to undermine encryption and to pursue policies with the adoption of strong encryption.

While members of the Global Encryption Coalition recognize crime prevention as a universal priority, undermining encryption efforts would also mean greater threats in the global economy and at the expense of users’ security privacy.

As Edward Snowden once said, “If you weaken encryption, people will die. This year alone, after the fall of the government of Afghanistan, we saw how crucial encryption is in keeping ordinary people safe. … Encryption makes us all safer. From families protecting photographs of their kids, to personal healthcare information, encryption keeps our private information private”.

The current trend of technical measures proposed to “break” end-to-end encryption all have one thing in common: each of them involves creating a form of “backdoor access” to “moderate” the data sent. The opportunities for misuse of such “backdoors” can be disastrous.

What this means for Canadians

The ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada stated that speech, including controversial or repugnant speech, has social value and should be protected from unjustified state monitoring. We did see attempts, despite criticism, from the government to enact “online harm laws” to restrict yet-to-be-defined “hurtful” online content, with the targeted categories in terrorist content, content that incites violence, hate speech, intimate images shared non-consensually, and child sexual exploitation content. What Canadians need to know is that such law will require internet giants and platforms utilizing end-to-end encryption to inspect all online content traversing. This also means communication between anyone, including privileged communications between physicians and their clients, will need to be examined by “breaking” encryption and thus undermining personal security and privacy. Canadians and businesses need to be aware of how ongoing privacy and security laws relate to the security of their personal data and any client data housed.

While cyber security is a broad discipline and requires collaboration between all stakeholders, we would like to highlight the importance of strong encryption usage in all sectors of business and the user data housed. We recommend reading this article published by the Global Encryption Coalition, where it highlights the security impact of “breaking” end-to-end encryption. You can find the article at this link – https://www.globalencryption.org/2020/11/breaking-encryption-myths/

It was a great privilege to part of this group and lead the discussion. While our discussion was only the beginning, organizations have to wake up to the fact that they are under attack for IP they have or have access to. While they might not be able to see this impact everyday it does exist and the attack surface can be devices or relationship based. As a business executive, educate yourself on how your organization might be targeted and what mitigations you can put in place to minimize the attack surface. Training and awareness for your staff, will be at the core of any program you develop. If you were unable to make the recent Internet Society – Canada Chapter Webinar here are some further details that might be of interest.

Here is the list  our distinguished panelist:

Gentry Lane – CEO and Founder, ANOVA Intelligence
Tyson Macaulay – Chief Security Officer and VP of Field Engineering @ Rockport Networks
Jeremy Depow – Director, Policy and Stakeholder Relations CyberNB
Mary Anne – Intelligence Officer, Canadian Security Intelligence Agency (CSIS)

Here is the link the video:

Protecting Innovative Canadian Sectors from Foreign Threats

I have also included links to resources provided by Gentry Lane, CEO & Founder, Anova Intelligence.

https://admin.govexec.com/media/diux_chinatechnologytransferstudy_jan_2018_(1).pdf

https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=812268

China’s National Cybersecurity Center

For anyone who is part of a startup or even considering one, this book is a must read:

https://startupsecure.io/

Continuing on from our observations from Day 1, we noted several key points at the ETSI annual conference relating to cybersecurity policies.

Some future plans for standards and certifications under CSA include future candidate schemes in areas of IoT and IACS (industrial automation control system). As ENISA develops a candidate scheme for 5G network, several items need to be considered. One is the 5G context. This concerns what subset of 5G architecture, for the certification to be applied. Another is identifying scheme elements that support 5G evaluation and certification. Currently, we can expect a draft version of the NIS Directive v2 soon. Interestingly, the new directive introduces responsibilities for ENISA to be more involved in standardization. In response, ENISA developed its strategic objectives to maintain an inventory of standardization organizations and their activities and products. The goal is to then act as a cybersecurity reference point for the EU and participate in relevant standardization actives.

In the context of EU5G, the Network Equipment Security Assurance Scheme was submitted to ENISA for EU adoption. NESAS seeks to provide a security baseline for network equipment in the scope of mobile infrastructure. In particular, NESAS looks at if the equipment is developed to meet secure by design guidelines and does satisfy defined security requirements. Although NESAS is not a certification scheme, GSMA is currently looking at how certification components can be added.

We are also seeing some trends of transitioning from current schemes to CSA schemes. ANSSI is looking to provide EU-wide recognition for certified products and services. One example is ANSSI seeking to provide equivalent services of EUCS to the market. This may be achieved by leveraging consistency such as CSA levels, resistance tests, and applicable EU legislation.

A framework for European cybersecurity assessment (conformity) was proposed. The goal is to increase involvement and transparency to every member state, even those not offering certification or heavily involved in conformity assessment. The agreed new approach would then push for a horizontal regulation on cybersecurity (i.e. – it will capture all cybersecurity needs during vertical regulations to avoid fragmented conformant assessment across industries.

For SMEs, the SBS SME Compatibility Test for Standards was piloted. It provides an overall perception of SME compatibility of a given standard. As SMEs are essential parts of the supply chain, this may be a necessary starting point for improving standards.

Some updates on RED (Radio Equipment Directive) are the proposed applicable requirements. One interesting update is the essential requirements in article 3(3). Currently, Q3 2021 is the expected Commission adoption of a delegated act under Article 3(3)(d/e/f) of RED. This came from the Commission’s consideration of mandatory requirements to be proposed for market access of certain wireless products. For manufactures, this means they will need to demonstrate features to ensure protection of networks, privacy and data protection, and/or protection from frauds as conditions for market access.

The RED Article 3(3)(i) is the proposed next step after RED 3(3)(d/e/f). It concerns the software for the radio equipment. Currently, ETSI had developed a solution proposal on how to test for the new requirements and communicated it to the Commission.

The topic of cybersecurity policy presented challenges in standardizations. In which, we’d like to highlight that all schemes and legislation must provide some improvements to baseline security. Parallel schemes do not necessarily de-value, rather it is important that any parallel schemes will then allow manufactures to submit evidence transferred from 1 of the overlapping schemes to prove compliance.

At the recent ETSI annual conference, several cybersecurity domains were discussed. In this article, we’ll look at the latest development in IoT.

With the increasing adoption of 5G technology, the European Commission had requested ENISA to develop a candidate European Cybersecurity Certification scheme for 5G network. The EU 5G will be an extension of the EU toolbox for 5G security as it seeks to address certain risks, as part of a broader risk mitigation strategy. While ENISA is still processing both ECUU and ECUS schemes, we can expect the finalized version of ECUS in Q4 2021.

As the European Commission and Cybersecurity Group under the CSA start the discussion on a candidate for a cybersecurity certification scheme for connected devices, we can expect such scheme will be aligned to EU legislative frameworks and other European Cybersecurity Certification Schemes. In the EU, it’d be consistent with EU Cybersecurity Certification Schemes such as the European Common Criteria Scheme and the European Cloud Services Cybersecurity Certification Scheme. We believe combining multiple schemes may provide a holistic approach to certification. For example, using the IoT scheme for products and the EUCS scheme for supporting services may complement the standalone IoT scheme approach. As of now, we are expecting the URWP for European Cybersecurity Certification to be published in Q3 2021 where we can then understand how the European Commission would issue the request to the EU Cybersecurity Agency. Right now, we know the scope for such scheme will capture IoT devices in residential, industrial, and any other settings. The assurance levels will be the same three levels provided under the CSA. As the European Commission emphasizes the need for standardization, standards development in EU member states and internationally will need to be integrated into the EU Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for IoT.

We are also seeing exciting updates to EN303 645. EN provides a common baseline across the European and global markets for all consumer IoT. Currently, the focus for Q2 2021 is on developing assessment specifications (TS 103 701) to test against provisions of EN303 645. As this standard matures, we can expect alignment to standards and legislation under development for IoT.

General cybersecurity assessment frameworks often serve as a horizontal solution; however, to cover the general assurance requirements (such as assurance levels defined by the CSA) and to the specific field of application such as IoT, some guidance is provided on how to integrate EN17640 into a certification scheme. EN 17640 as a general evaluation methodology that when integrated into a certification scheme to fit the scheme assurance requirements, it raises some interesting questions. One is the extent of assessments required for each level. Currently, dEN 17640 editors and CEN/CLC JTC 13/WG 3 are working to publish this standard in September of 2021. Interesting to note is the future outlook of possible application in the Radio Equipment Directive Certification scheme.

The GCF also had some interesting updates on its Consumer IoT Security Accreditation programme based on EN303 645. Currently, its phase 1 provides self-accreditation for non-constrained devices. This involves the manufactures submitting a security compliance declaration covering the first 3 IoT Security Provisions defined by ETSI Cyber (EN 303 645). We are expecting development work for phase 2 to focus on extending assessment coverage to include constrained IoT and using TS 103 701 Test Specification as a baseline for conformity assessment to EN 303 645. For now, product manufactures should make sure no universal default passwords are used, implement a way to manage reports of vulnerabilities, and keep software updated for phase 1.

Another aspect of EN303 645 adoption is from the Cybersecurity Labelling Scheme from CSA Singapore. This scheme consists of 4 tiers. Although participation is voluntary, security-critical devices such as Wi-Fi routers will obtain at least tier 1 in Singapore. As more nations launch their schemes, we have to more mindful of fragmentations. For this particular scheme, it is done by leveraging EN303 645 and TS103701 for tier 4 testing.

Our observation was the importance of the collaborative effort in developing mutually recognized standards. For product manufactures in the global market, this provides value in that manufacturers do not have to choose which standard to be compliant for to operate in many jurisdictions.

Ottawa, ONT (March 9, 2021) – I am very pleased to announce a new partner and joint team relationship with Debbie Mishael Consulting and Mr. Ifeanyi “Frank” Ogochukwu.

I first meet Ifeanyi back in 2015 when we were both working on the ITU project for a specification for monitoring aircraft for transoceanic travel. However, since this point we have been a panelist on the CIO MasterClass Africa series to help CIO and executives in the African region with support and guidance for dealing with COVID. We look forward to our continued joint collaboration on projects related to aviation, IT, and cybersecurity in the future.

Debbie Mishael Consulting has offices in both Nigeria and South Africa.

Engr. Ifeanyi a licensed Air Traffic Safety Electronics Specialist, IT Ambassador, Microsoft Hero, has over 30 years’ experience in Strategy, Aviation and IT/ Telecoms Critical Infrastructure Management, Implementation and Operations, Project Management, Security and SME Business;. He is an Aeronautical Telecommunications Engineering and Business Administration graduate from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology and the University of Abuja respectively; also received with distinction a Master’s degree in Communications Management from the University of Rwanda and United Kingdom Telecommunications Academy; Masters in Information Technology and Post Graduate Diploma in Transport Management from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho; a Post Graduate Certificate – IT and Telecoms Law from Buckinghamshire University, United Kingdom and IT Business Manager Certification from Belmont University and MDE Enterprises. Engr. Ifeanyi is also the Chief Technology Strategist, Debbie Mishael Consulting; Regional Director Africa, Sasaran Technologies; Instructor/ Lecturer – Digital Bridge Institute, International Centre for Communications Studies, Lagos Campus, Nigeria and Convener, CIO MasterClass Africa

Over the years, He has attained higher executive management responsibilities and broadened my corporate and social responsibilities. As the General Manager/ Chief Information Officer, Nigerian Airspace Management he delivered innovative safety mission critical systems, infrastructure and platforms for the safety and security of air navigation including capacity building. He was the Project Co-ordinator, NAMA multi million dollars (USD) World Bank West Central African Air Transport Safety and Security Program and International Telecommunications Union (ITU): Chairman/Lead Working Group 4 (WG 4) of the Focus Group on Aviation Applications in the cloud for Flight Data Monitoring ( FG AC).- Flight Tracking and Data Streaming Managed a team comprising of experts from a multi-stakeholder international global aviation, airlines, telecommunications, and satellites organizations focused on “feasibility of using recent developments in commercial aeronautical data link services, as well as reusing existing infrastructure, for real-time flight data streaming where appropriate”.

He was the Lead in the design and implementation of the NAMA TRACON Radar VSAT Network, Aviation Regulator Airport Metro Fibre Project; Airspace Security Vulnerability Assessment; Business Process Automation; ADS – C/CPDLC and Project Manager, SITA ATC Communications Consultancy amongst others. Global Advisory Board Member – EC Council (The International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants ); Consulted for AIREON on Nigeria Spaced based Automatic Dependent Surveillance ( S-ADS-B) Initiative; Consulting for Unify on Unmanned Traffic Management System (UTMS).

His professional qualifications include but not limited to the following: Satellite Communications, ATSEP License Rating (Surveillance Systems: Rating 1: Secondary Surveillance and Processing Systems and Rating 2:Mode S Radar and ADS-B), Aviation Critical Infrastructure Testing and Quality Assurance, Advanced Performance Programme, Implementation Course on Safety Management System (SMS), Performance Based Navigation (PBN) , Aeronautical Information Management (AIM), Communications Navigation Surveillance /Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) for Engineering, Aviation Security and Critical infrastructure Protection, Prince 2 Project Management Certification, TRACON Sky Wan (Installation Basics, VSAT Station Commissioning, VSAT Network Commissioning, VSAT Network Operator, Configuration of IP over SkyWan VSAT, Configuration of Frame Relay over Sky Wan VSAT), Data Communications (LAN, TCP/IP, Wide Area Network, ATM) and Certified Management Trainer; PMI Agile Project Management Programme, PMI Project Management Professional Programme, Certified Information Security Consultant (CISC); Certified Professional Hacker; Certified Professional Forensic Analyst.

Ifeanyi has led several engagements with expertise encompassing: Organizational Strategy; Technology Strategy, Implementation and Operations; Aviation Infrastructure Development and Implementation; Security Strategy; IT Management, Operations and Support; Revenue Assurance; Human Capital Development; Policy/Regulatory Development and Advisory.

For more details please contact us at info(at)twelvedot.com.

 

 

The encryption debate is in full swing as we once again face the real challenge that governments need access to all of our data, on all devices in real-time including the ability to monitor all communications for signs of a threat to citizens and the nation.

From a policy perspective, we as consumers and citizens need to better understand the risks and exposures we might face. First of all, we are not talking about lawful access where a warrant is used to monitor the activities of a specific user or target of interest. We are talking about the open blatant use of techniques that will allow for wholesale capture and recording of all of your data transmissions.

Governments are asking that tech companies add a capability that will allow them to gain unfettered access to these servers to capture data at will and share or process this data with unknown sources including not having to provide notification to the end user. Psst some companies have already been doing this for years and just not telling you. This started in the 70s using an obscure ruling as precedent to now have all companies collect data as the “owner” of the data. It is buried in the EULA in pure legal speak that you clicked on to get access to their service.

Think about that for a second, would you like the government to monitor all of your banking transactions? What about the sexting with your spouse or significant other, or your company files stored on personal cloud storage services. Could this be used against you? Could you be charged or arrested? These are the big unknowns of such a broad data collection and history has proven that data collection schemes were used for nefarious reasons when needed by governments of questionable intentions.

We need to ask for openness on the intention of the data capture, who is impacted, what does this mean for service providers, and who it is the data being shared with. A policy framework should require that all proposed encryption schemes being recommended be peer evaluated to ensure that the design does not lead itself to backdoors, data collection, or meta data deciphering.

I would advise all citizens and business owners to learn more about this topic and get engaged in the discussion. These laws will change your life regardless if you realized it or not.

We need to have voice our concern before it is too late, in some jurisdictions it already might be. I also want to lying to stop and agencies to just come open on the topic. Just be truthful to Canadians of the data collection and when and where it is happening so we can make informed decisions to use the technology or not.

Here are some links worth checking out:

  1. Government recommendations for security and privacy – What is government of CA really asking for?
  2. Keys under door mats – What top crypto experts think of the issues at hand and potential risks
  3. “I have nothing to hide” – Good insight to personal privacy in the digital age

Please reach out to your MP or MPP and ask them what their stance is on the topic and what they are prepared to do to protect your privacy.

To everyone that attending the IoT Ottawa Virtual Meetup thank-you for taking the time to attend this session and for participating. It was a good discussion and I hope it was helpful for those of you that attended. It is good to see that events like these can still be held despite the current conditions.

For those of you that were not able to make it to the Meetup here is the abstract of the presentation:

One of the biggest barriers for the adoption of the IoT products is the potential security and privacy risks. To help overcome this reluctance vendors need to ensure that they are clearly demonstrating to the market they have implemented security and privacy in their solution. This workshop will provide an understanding how to secure an IoT solution leveraging a risk based approach using standards. We are going to present how IoT projects should be approached to ensure both security and privacy requirements are included at design time and be validated during the development lifecycle. This is based on countless projects where we have worked on evaluating IoT products in multiple sectors to identify design and process issues including formal testing to T200 and UL2900.

We will share the best practices for the following:

  1. Design considerations
  2. Setting up a governance function
  3. How to operate a Secure Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
  4. Operational Considerations
  5. Testing and Verification

Other topics of discussion include:

  1. Latest developments in the global market for security and privacy requirements
  2. Strategy considerations

This session will be provided as a workshop to help SME’s hopefully address their security and privacy issues. Please bring your questions and concerns.

As mentioned, I am providing the presentation, the IoT attack surface poster and worksheet for the presentation. I am also hoping to provide the video of the session available at a later date as well.

Note: I will be posting the worksheet a bit later but wanted to share the presentation and poster right away.

Please reach out for any clarifications or questions you may have and most of all be safe everyone!

IoT Threat Poster

IoT Ottawa – Blueprint for IoT Security

 

It is hard to believe that we are days away from the 10 year anniversary of our humble beginnings. We have come so far from the company that I started in my basement. Back then it was just a dream of starting something small as an independent consultant but wanting to share my expertise in cyber to help clients. Now we have grown to a team of 7 and have offices in a great part of town in Ottawa, Canada and global clients. We are bursting at the seams and have already expanded our office footprint. With next year poised for more growth we will be expanding again and adding more R&D capacity in the process.

I have learned lots during my tenure as both a business owner and executive, and have made some good and bad decisions along the way. I never shy away from admitting my mistakes especially some questionable partners and sub-contractors – but life and business are about learning and I am grateful for the lessons.  I am humbled and blessed by our staff, clients, and partners we currently have as without you none of this would exist.

We will be refining our services as we shift the company from consulting to formal testing and evaluation and secure product development.Our capabilities will be expanding in the next year including our Hut6 platform to offer more services. With our growth in education, healthcare, and industrial our next 10 years looks very promising and with our current team in place we are definitely going to make this happen.

For all of you who believed in me and my dream thank-you! Lets make the next 10 years better than the first as we enter the teenager years of the company.

//Faud

The last few months have been hectic as many of the standards groups are pushing to get security and privacy aspects of IoT under control. As we get ready to whine down the year lets look at where we are:

a. ISO/IEC 27030 IoT Security and Privacy – This standard has now moved to Committee Draft (CD) and as the editor I am really proud of my editing team and global experts to get us her rather quickly. I believe this international standard will set the bar for IoT products globally and is highly anticipated by many groups and organizations globally.

b. ISO/IEC 27042 IoT Basline – This standard is currently a New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) and will be going to voting in the next few months. This is the result of a Adhoc Group that studied this and determined that we need a baseline for vendors who are entering the IoT product field. The goal is that this would be just a starting point and not the finish line for securing the product and organization but would provide regulators the guidance they need for products.

c. IoT Platform is group that has developed as result of work completed by the Internet Society in Canada. As a result of this work, a platform of regulators has formed and continues to expand how to ensure that IoT products are secure both now and in the future. As a result of this many nations will be making formal announcements to aspects that products should have. In Canada this has posted by Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA) and details are located here. I believe that this is good starting point but an hope that vendors will realized these aspects alone do not make a secure product that only happens when security and privacy become an embedded part of the organization and is driven into the development processes. I also hope that our regulators hold vendors to a higher sense of responsibility for security and products going forward.

d. CSA T200 has been released as an Express Standard and over the next 24 months we hope to develop the final version that will be used as the baseline for products and organizations in Canada and the US for meeting or exceeding regulatory requirements for IoT products. In the future we are looking for the implementation of a cyber label on products for security. More to come on this in the future.

e. IEC 30149 IoT Trustworthiness is still very much a work in progress as many experts are still trying to determine what consitutes trust. While one faction believes it is result of SDLC, I am very much of the opinion that this is not the case but view of the organization that includes the development processes. The approach must be based on an approach such as ISO 42010 that will allow any organization to determine the specific attributes to trust for their company and products being developed.

Here is the content for the IoT Checklist:

1. Ask how the device is collecting, using, and sharing your data

  • Is the device collecting my data? How is the device collecting my data?
  • Is the device using my data? How is the device using my data?
  • Is the device sharing my data? How is the device sharing my data?
  • With whom is the device sharing my data?
  • Is the device collecting data I do not want shared, such as my location?
  • Is there an option for me to opt out of the device collecting, sharing or using my data?
  • Will I be able to opt out of additional or future features that collect data, without opting out of security updates?

2. Ask about the device’s lifecycle, if it can function offline, and if there is product support available

  • How long can I expect the device to work?
  • How long are security patches and upgrades expected to be available for this product?
  • What kind of support is available should I experience problems with the device or suspect the device has been compromised?
  • Will the device work without an Internet connection? Can I use the product if the Internet is down? What features work offline?
  • Will the device work if the manufacturer ceases to exist?

3. Ask if the device you are buying is from a reputable manufacturer

  • Does the company have a good track record when it comes to protecting its customers’ privacy and security?
  • Check for media coverage online about whether or not this company has experienced a security breach in the past. If so, what was the impact on its consumers? What measures did the company take to prevent future security breaches?
  • Are there independent user reviews of the product I can consult?

For more tips on how to approach a business or manufacturer about your privacy and security concerns, check out this tip sheet.

Lots of progress this past year and lots more to come. I do see a shift that regulators globally are moving towards requirements for IoT companies. I hope it is a wake up call for vendors that due to the lack of security controls and the growing attack surface that IoT vendors will see a day where their products will undergo formal testing and evaluation to enter certain markets globally.