Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP is also known as IP Telephony. It is a method of delivering voice communications and multimedia messages over Internet Protocol networks. The technology converts the voice signals into digital signals allowing the user to make a call directly from a computer, VoIP phone, smartphone or any other digital device with an internet connection and VoIP application.

Switching to a VoIP telecommunication system offers an array of benefits for businesses:

• Low Cost-Per-Call: A VoIP telecommunication system converts the communication data into packets and sends it over the IP network as opposed to the traditional telephonic communication channels. In case of traditional methods, calls are placed using phone lines which means a line is taken up by two callers. Since there is a limit to number of phone lines, the calls are expensive, specifically if they are long distance. On the other hand, in case of VoIP, the use of office internet connection to relay communication data makes domestic as well as international calls cheaper.
• Service Mobility: In case of traditional phone system, a line that runs to a business is assigned its own phone number. This results in limited mobility as user is required to remember right codes for accessing the messages sent to that phone number (when receiving messages on a separate device outside the office). However, VoIP system eliminates the physical limitations and the users can move freely as per the business requirements and avail the communication services on any device equipped with an internet connection and the VoIP application.
• Efficient Client Interaction: Business needs may require employees to travel which may result in missing important client calls or communications, if using traditional phone systems that are wired to the employee desk inside the office. On the contrary, when using a VoIP system, employees can choose where the call rings and how. For example, the system settings can be made in a way that first few rings are sent to the office. If the employee doesn’t answer, further rings can be forwarded to another device, say a mobile phone or laptop. This helps employees to attend important calls irrespective of their location which improves the efficiency of client interactions.
• Multi-Functionality: VoIP systems offer an array of additional communication services like instant messaging, presence status, teleconferencing, video conferencing, etc. The systems also allow the users to receive voicemail and faxes over their email. These services enhance the efficiency of business communication within and across the teams.

For more information on why a business needs VoIP, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.          

Wireless networks have grown a lot from the first generation (1G) to 4G/LTE networks that offer faster speeds. Now, the stage is being set for 5G that will connect a large number of new devices and sensors with future communication technologies while introducing new capabilities and services.

But with great transformation come great risks! Some security professionals are warning that 5G will also empower the hackers with speed and capabilities to launch high-speed malicious activity across larger number of devices in a short span. A survey indicates that approximately 73% of security professionals have shown high to medium concern on potential impact of 5G on cyber security.

Professionals indicate that 5G will introduce new vulnerabilities in:

• Supply Chain: 5G supply chain will be at risk of vulnerabilities such as malicious software and hardware, counterfeit components, and poor designs, manufacturing processes and maintenance procedures.
• Deployment: 5G is expected to use more information and communication technology components, so improperly deployment, configuration or management of equipment and networks may be at risk of disruption & manipulation.
• Network Security: Since 5G builds upon previous generations, it may be expected to carry forward legacy vulnerabilities such as DDoS attacks, etc.

In lieu of potential 5G risks and vulnerabilities, here are some ways to help you manage 5G security challenges:

• Prioritize Security: Organizations with security-first mindset are prepared to adopt 5G and other emerging technologies. But, also focus on your customers and in case they don’t have a culture that prioritizes security, help them adopt solutions and services that cover all the aspects of cyber security including incident response strategy.
• Deploy Standards-Based Devices: Organizations should focus on helping their customers and employees choose IoT devices that are embedded with in-built security features and meet established industry standards for security. It is important to make sure that the devices are capable of offering protection, detection, and mitigation.
• Adopt Virtualization: A large number of connected devices paired with the speed of 5G can act as a perfect playground for hackers and compound the security issues. Organizations can consider introducing virtualized security controls to help their customers in applying security policies across their environment at a quick speed, while employing automated remediation to help mitigate threats.
• Combine Threat Intelligence With AI: New capabilities of 5G will introduce new types of vulnerabilities and attacks. Organizations should infuse threat intelligence with AI or Machine Learning to immediately identify, detect and response at the point of attack.
• Zero-Trust: Organizations should implement zero-trust security policies. It includes verifying everything including user login, data access, incoming data, outgoing data, access requests, etc. without any exceptions.

5G can be used to garner business growth and profits, provided appropriate security measures are adopted.

At Centex Technologies, we educate our clients on the security challenges of 5G and required measures. To know more, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

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Pirated versions of popular games such as Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K19 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 attract a large number of gamers as they can download these versions free from different forums. However, there might be a hidden cost associated with these pirated versions of popular games. It has been reported that threat artists are using the cracked or pirated versions of popular games to distribute malware. This malware aims at secretly mining cryptocurrency using the infected systems.

The threat has been identified as Crackonosh and has been found to be active since June 2018. The malware wipes out the antivirus programs installed on the target system and uses the system for mining cryptocurrency.

Understanding Crackonosh

The main aim of Crackonosh is to install XMRig on the infected system. XMRig is a coin miner which is then used by the threat actors to secretly mine Monero cryptocurrency using the cracked software downloaded on the infected machine. Reports suggest that the threat actors have mined over $2 Million, or 9000 XMR in total. As of May 2021, the malware was reported to be still getting about 1000 hits a day.

Here is a brief account of how the malware operates:

Disabling Antivirus

Crackonosh caught the eyes of researchers when a large number of people reported that Avast Antivirus programs were removed from their systems. The malware has the capability to remove antivirus software and disabling security software & updates in addition to the use of other anti-analysis techniques. This makes it harder to discover, detect and remove the malware. Crackonosh can delete antivirus programs that use the command - rd <AV directory> /s /q; where <AV directory> is the default directory name that specific antivirus product uses, for example Adaware, Bitdefender, Escan, F-secure, Kaspersky, McAfee (scanner only), Norton and Panda.

Infection Chain

Here is the brief infection process:

• The target downloads and installs the cracked or pirated software.
• The installer runs maintenance vbs and starts the installation process using msi.
• msi registers and runs the main malware executable serviceinstaller.exe.
• The executable installs a file titled DLL, which extracts winlogui.exe and downloads winscomrssrv.dll and winrmsrv.exe.
• These files are contained, decrypted and placed in the folder.

Disabling Windows Defender

The malware deletes Windows Defender and Windows Update by deleting a list of registry entries. The motive is to stop Windows Defender and turn off automatic updates. Later, it installs its own MSASCuiL.exe instead of Windows Defender, which adds a Windows Security icon to the system tray. This tricks the user and prevents him from discovering the removal of original Windows Defender.

Conclusion:

Crackonosh attack re-emphasizes on the fact ‘when you try to steal a software, chances are someone is trying to steal from you.’ Such attacks can be prevented by steering away from downloading and using pirated or cracked software. Also, stay cautious and download software from authentic developer.

Centex Technologies has a team of cyber security professionals who help clients in understanding latest cyber security threats and formulate an effective defense strategy. To know more about latest malware attacks, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

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“Disaster Recovery As A Service” or DRaaS can be defined as a cloud computing service model which allows an organization to back-up its data and IT infrastructure on a third party cloud computing environment. It also provides disaster recovery through a SaaS solution to help an organization regain access and functionality to IT infrastructure after a disaster.

Benefits of DRaaS:

Cost Efficiency:

The most important components of disaster recovery include:

• Preventive measures that reduce the risk of man-made disasters
• Detective measures aimed at identifying disasters at the earliest
• Corrective measures to restore lost data and allow affected organization to resume business operations at the earliest, in case a disaster occurs
• Disaster recovery planning includes using innovative hardware, software and performing on-time updates.

In order to achieve these goals, organizations need to run regular analysis of potential threats, maintain IT systems in optimal conditions, and seek innovative solutions focused on cybersecurity. DRaaS providers take care of these requirements with high efficiency. They also include cloud-based data management where resources are replicated to many different sites to ensure continuous backup even if one site is not available. This helps in reducing the risk of disaster and reduces the cost incurred due to downtime after disaster.

Increased Employee Productivity: In order to execute a disaster recovery plan, it is important that employees should know their roles and responsibilities. When specific roles and responsibilities are assigned in advance, it will increase effectiveness and productivity of the plan. It is important for organizations to have at least two employees who can perform one task. This allows the organization to implement disaster recovery plan even if one of the employees is not available.  Opting for DRaaS allows the organization’s employees to focus on their own tasks as the disaster recovery is managed by the well-trained team of the service provider. Most managed service providers also train employees of the client to handle disaster recovery plan.

Scalability: When a disaster recovery plan is designed, organizations also take scalability into account. The recovery plan should be able to manage increased organizational resources resulting from business growth. Opting for DRaaS allows easy scalability as organizations are just required to convey increased requirements to the service provider and pay accordingly.

Centex Technologies offers an array of managed services to its clients. The services are aimed at ensuring smooth operations and security of clients. To know more about Disaster Recover As A Service (DRaaS), call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

Protecting data is one of the top priorities for an organization as data theft can lead to leaked user credentials, financial loss, etc., among other notable damages. Cybersecurity teams of an organization need to be proactive in protecting the organization’s data to prevent the repercussions.

Here are five data protection steps to protect your business:

• Identify What Needs To Be Protected: When formulating a data protection strategy, it is first important to know what you are protecting. There might be some hidden or lost assets connected to the organization’s network. Employ an IT asset management system and run a discovery of organization’s environment to identify every asset that can be a potential source of vulnerability. Additionally, be aware of any software downloaded by employees on their devices and keep a track of shadow IT. Shadow IT on home computers or remote devices used by employees may pose a threat as these are not managed by IT team of organization. IT teams need to learn about software being used by employees and how to protect it.
  
• Patch & Update: Installing latest updates helps to keep a software protected as the updates contain patches to any vulnerabilities present in previous versions. Unpatched vulnerabilities are a significant problem. A study has indicated that unpatched vulnerabilities account for approximately 60% of all data breaches. Create a well-defined policy to evaluate and schedule updates and patches. This helps in minimizing downtime and increasing protection.
  
• Review The Tools: Efficient integration of information security tools such as antivirus, firewalls, and IDP/IPS into systems can improve data protection. Another important factor is to scale the protection as per the environment, for example consumer grade antivirus software used for securing a home computer would not be effective in case of an organization’s network. Organizations can monitor their environment using a SIEM tool aided by 24/7 security operations center.
  
• Spread Security Awareness: The famous Colonial Pipeline data breach was most likely caused by a phishing email. Employees may act as an entry point for a malware and are often targeted by cyber criminals by sending phishing emails or messages. Phishing emails are designed to look more realistic and the sender’s address is usually spoofed to look like a co-worker’s. It is important to educate employees to be able to identify phishing signs and take the required steps. Organize cybersecurity training at every level of hierarchy to keep employees updated about changing cybersecurity protocols.

Centex Technologies assists organizations in identifying their cybersecurity needs and provides services to strengthen the IT security of its clients. To know more about ways to protect an organization’s data, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

A hybrid cloud model combines a private cloud with one or more public cloud solutions. In a hybrid cloud model, proprietary software enables communication between distinct services. This type of cloud computing model can help gain security advantage provided some critical challenges are addressed.

Following are crucial cybersecurity risks that need to be identified and addressed before implementing the hybrid cloud model:

• Compliance: A hybrid cloud model involves data movement between high-security private cloud and comparatively less secure public cloud. Such data movement may induce compliance issues and make data vulnerable to breaches. Businesses need to take extra measures to ensure that the hybrid cloud model meets compliance requirements. It may be achieved by ensuring that individual private and public cloud networks meet standard data security norms such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Also, it is important to make sure that the data transfer mechanisms adhere to regulatory requirements.

• Data Privacy: The essence of hybrid cloud model lies in flexible data movement between public cloud and private cloud. In such movement, there are high chances that the data can fall prey to intruder attacks that challenge the organization’s data privacy rules. Organizations should employ measures such as endpoint verification protocol, robust VPN, and strong encryption policy. These measures help in encrypting and protecting data from security breach incidents.
  
• Distributed Denial of Service: DDoS is another serious cyber-attack that can be initiated from multiple sources to target a single location. Since the attack has various source locations, it becomes difficult to trace and detect. This increases the risk factor. To tackle this, organizations need to maintain a strict monitoring system that can track the inflow and outflow of data. It is important to make sure that the monitoring system should be scalable, responsive, and able to handle multi-vector attacks.
  
• Service Level Agreements (SLA): Employing a hybrid cloud solution means handing over data governance and accountability to its public Cloud Service Provider (CSP). If the security of such a public cloud is compromised, it can be a severe issue and may lead to critical data loss. To avoid such issues, be careful while signing Service Level Agreements with the service provider to ensure data confidentiality. Make it a point to understand security limitations and strictly define accountability factors.
  
• Risk Management: Organizations should employ adequate risk management and preventive safety measures to protect their intellectual property from potential risks. Organizations can use tools such as IDS/IPS to scan malicious traffic. Also, maintain a log monitoring system with advanced firewall and security management features.
  
• Data Redundancy: Organizations should adopt a well-defined data redundancy policy to ensure timely backup of critical data. This can be achieved by maintaining multiple data centers. It also helps in continuing business services during data center outages.

For more information on various cloud models, contact Centex Technologies at (972) 375 – 9654

Cyber-attacks have become sophisticated and are now capable of causing long-term effects on organizations. Thus, businesses need to prepare comprehensive cybersecurity policies. The first step to drafting a cybersecurity policy is to be aware of the threats.

Here are the types of cyber-attacks that an organization is most likely to face:

• Brute Force Attack: Under this type of attack, the attackers adopt a trial and error approach to guess the password to a system or user account. They try every possible combination of passwords or passphrases until the account is unlocked. Brute force attacks are expedited by using software or tools that can push many possible passwords in a short time. Some of the tools used by cybercriminals include Aircrack-ng, Crack, Hashcat, Hydra, etc.
  Safety Tips:
• Use complex passwords and change them regularly
• Set a limit on number of login attempts
• Enable captchas
• Employ multi-factor authentication
• Credential Stuffing: Credential stuffing cyber-attack is based on the assumption that users tend to keep the same password across multiple accounts. Attackers use a database of compromised credentials (password breach database available on the dark web containing stolen credentials from data breaches) to gain unauthorized access to an account. The attackers use bots for automating and scaling up the attack. The hacked accounts can be used for financial theft, fraudulent transactions, misuse of stored data, etc.

Safety Tips:

• Employ multi-step login process throughout the organization
• Blacklist suspicious IP addresses
• Use techniques such as device fingerprinting
• Phishing & Spear Phishing: Phishing is one of the most common cyber-attack types. Attackers frame an email that looks legitimate with a seemingly trusted source to trick targets into providing personal details. The emails generally include matters that would require a user to act in a hurry; for example, the email may mention that the user needs to verify his details within a few minutes to avoid being charged a penalty or account suspension by his financial institution. The attackers use technical knowledge in conjunction with social engineering to design a successful phishing attack. Spear phishing is a more targeted attack where the attackers research the target to prepare a more personalized message or email.

Safety Tips:

• Be wary of emails from unknown sources
• Before clicking on a link, hover over it to see the destination
• Pay close attention to email headers
• Malware Attacks: Malware is a broad term representing attacks where malicious software is downloaded on the target device to steal, encrypt, or delete sensitive data for business or financial benefits. Majorly known forms of malware include adware, bots, ransomware, and Trojans.

Safety Tips:

• Use a dedicated tool for adware removal
• Install firewall and keep the system up-to-date
• Perform frequent backup
• Avoid downloads from unknown sources

Centex Technologies is committed to helping clients understand cyber-attacks and formulate an effective strategy to stay protected. For more information, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

DevOps methodology has significantly improved software development by breaking down the traditional barrier between development & IT teams. This collaboration of distributed teams helps in reducing the timeline of software development. However, the ultimate goal of DevOps – which is 100% automation across Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) – remains unachieved. Some business organizations still seem to be struggling with how to integrate DevOps in overall business processes.

These challenges can be maneuvered by adopting AI. The highly distributed nature of AI toolsets helps in reducing operational complexities of DevOps methodology. AI also improves the accuracy, quality and reliability of DevOps by streamlining and accelerating different phases of software development.

Ways in which AI transforms DevoPS:

• Testing: DevOps includes a number of testing processes such as unit testing, regression testing, functional testing, and user acceptance testing. These testing processes generate a large amount of data and analyzing this data can be overwhelming for the DevOps team. AI implements pattern recognition to make it easier to analyze and categorize the data. After analyzing, it also provides insights on poor coding practices and errors to help code developers identify areas for better performance.
• Data Access: The productivity and efficiency of DevOps team is highly stalled by lack of adequate access to data. This hinders the team’s ability to leverage data for decision-making. AI-powered data mapping technologies integrate a myriad of data from different sources & streamline it for consistent & repeatable analysis. It helps teams uncover valuable insights for decision-making.
• Real-Time Alerts: Prompt alerts are helpful in promoting rapid response. However, when DevOps teams receive multiple alerts with same level of severity, it becomes difficult for them to react effectively. In such situations, AI helps in prioritizing most critical issues by collecting diagnostic information pertaining to every issue. In addition to prioritizing the issues, AI also suggests prospective solution based on magnitude of alert, past behavior, & source of alert. This facilitates faster remediation of the issue.
• Automation: Integration of AI with DevOps significantly improves the automation quotient by eliminating or reducing the need for human intervention across processes from code changes to deployment.
• Security: DevSecOps is an extension of DevOps that ingrains security into DevOps workflow. It automates core security tasks across software development lifecycle. AI based anomaly detection techniques help teams to accurately spot threats to their system and secure it proactively.
• Collaboration: AI plays an important role in improving collaboration between DevOps teams by facilitating a single, unified view into system issues across DevOps toolchain.
• Software Quality: AI improves the quality of software by auto-generating and auto-running test cases on the code. AI-based testing tools eliminate test coverage overlaps and fasten the process from bug detection to bug prevention.

Centex Technologies offers software development services for organizations. To discuss your software requirements, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.