Posts tagged: Fognigma

Offensive Cyber

In the 2018 Department of Defense Cyber Strategy, the DoD outlined a change in cyber defense tactics. One of the new strategies is called ‘Defend Forward’  (which we explored in a previous blog post). In short, Defend Forward charges organizations to shore up their cyber defenses and not sit around waiting for someone to attack and test them – to continue to move forward, all while fully defended. Definitely a shift in cyber defense strategy, as offensive cyber operations are on the rise

But the Department of Defense didn’t stop there. They also stated they “will employ offensive cyber capabilities and innovative concepts that allow for the use of cyberspace operations across the full spectrum of conflict.” Yes, the DoD is actually mentioning the need of offensive cyber operations. The new future involves not only arming one’s organization with mobile cyber armor, but also searching out and destroying threats before they can become threats. Fognigma’s patented software solutions are ready to support this new cyber defense strategy. Read on to learn more!

Fognigma Makes You Invisible

We must start by saying that Fognigma is not an offensive tool. It does, however, provide a patented and proven way for you to hide your operations from spying eyes. Fognigma gives you the power to create encrypted, cloaked Mission Partner Networks (MPNs), allowing total protection and anonymity of communications. An MPN is built from strategically leased virtual machines from one or more cloud providers, which work together as one powerful network.

With Fognigma, you completely control your MPN without any third-party interference or oversight. You run it; you own it. You exist now without anyone watching over you. Fognigma also gives you full command over your online presence. By managing your online attribution, you can craft your online appearance to separate who it looks like you are, where it looks like you are, and what it looks like you’re doing from what’s actually going on.

This invisibility of network and communications is paramount for organizations who conduct offensive cyber operations. Too often, offensive ops are compromised by parts being easily discovered and/or associated. A good example (and warning for the future) involves all the new info that’s been revealed about the big 2009-2013 CIA breach. Simple Google searches by third parties revealed sites that had similar aspects to them, leading to the correct assumption that they were, in fact, operated by the same group. This was later used for interception and exfiltration of sensitive information about offensive ops.

As previously stated, Fognigma is built from various virtual machines (VMs). These VMs only know of their immediate neighbors, so the network can’t be compromised should one VM be breached (which is statistically impossible given the nature of Fognigma’s encryption technologies). Also, organizations have the option to use Fognigma’s Portal Proxy technology (also patented) which allows them to create anonymous and disposable URLs for different Fognigma components. With Portal Proxies, organizations can give users their own URLs, so even if multiple people are accessing the same component, from the outside, it will look like they are going in different directions. This disassociates the users from the organization and from each other. And the more disassociation an organization can create during offensive operations, the less chance of activity correlation which could lead to a compromise like the aforementioned CIA operations.

Fognigma Has Global Reach

In order to properly engage in offensive cyber operations, organizations need global access. This is another area where Fognigma shines. Because of Fognigma’s structural nature, all the parts of the network and internal communication components can be built in different areas of the world. If you needed a file share residing in India, you could have just that (built in a few mouse clicks). All users granted access to that file share could access it when they connect to your MPN from wherever they are in the world.

Fognigma also gives you global reach in an intelligent manner. Meaning, it normally doesn’t behoove an organization involved in operations in one part of the world to appear to be coming from another part of the world. Fognigma solves this by the properties of an MPN’s exit points. Without going into too much technical detail here, users leave an MPN by going through admin-created exit points. Once a user goes through an exit point to the Internet, their IP matches the country in which the exit point is located. This is invaluable when not wanting users to appear to be foreign to the part of the world in which they are conducting operations.

Fognigma Provides the Tools for Offensive Operations

But, Fognigma isn’t just an invisible network. Inside your MPN is a suite of communication and collaboration components which allow your operations to stay in constant contact. As soon as your device connects to your MPN, you’ll have access to: traceless telephony (with a misattributable call chain feature for safely communicating with untrusted external parties), protected video conferencing, and secure chat messaging. A file share is also hidden within your MPN for the safe storage and transfer of files.

And then there’s Fognigma’s superpowered Virtual Desktops (VDI). Fognigma’s VDIs have all the features of normal VDIs plus many more that only Fognigma can deliver. For instance, you can now transfer files from a USB directly to your VDI, completely bypassing the host computer. If there is a file on the host computer you wish to transfer, you can copy it to your VDI as easily as dragging and dropping it. Fognigma VDIs can be used as a super anonymous and temporary way to access other MPN. For example, you could initialize a VDI, connect to a video conference inside your MPN (assured that the audio is also safe, as Fognigma ensures all audio is proxied to ensure no IP leak), communicate with your team, and then destroy the VDI when done. When any part of an MPN is destroyed, the components are wiped clean and completely overwritten by the cloud providers, eliminating all digital forensics. It’s as if none of it ever really happened.

Fognigma is the Base Offensive Operations Need

A secure cybersecurity base for offensive operations needs to be a multi-tool, a transformer, and a cloaking device which can fit in your pocket. It needs to make the world think you are doing one thing, when you are actually doing something else. It needs to separate the connected and connect the separated. And, most of all, it needs to do all of this without anyone realizing it’s doing anything at all. That list is a good summary of reasons why Fognigma was created. We wanted to give organizations that toolbox, that utility belt, that base on which to build their operational success. And more than that, Fognigma was developed (and continues to be developed) to give the US Government and its military forces the advantage on the world stage. Fognigma puts the power of cybersecurity in the hands of those who will use our technology to make the world a safer place for all of us.

The Threat is Inside the Building!

Often, Cybersecurity is thought of as a process of looking out to the world and searching, scanning, and bracing for what might be out there. It’s an ongoing process – a valiant mission – to plan for the worst. It’s a constant battle against external threats discovering things about you and using those discoverings against you. Unfortunately, if you are only looking for and protecting against external threats, you’re only doing part of your job. Cybersecurity should always be viewed as looking in two directions at once: external and internal. It is imperative you don’t ignore the possibility of internal threats.

Internal threats, of course, come from inside your organization. They are your employees, your coworkers, and sometimes even your friends. It is hard to imagine they would willingly do anything to betray your organization. But wait! Internal threats are not always the criminal, calculated schemes that feed our movies and television shows. Many times, internal breaches are due to a variety pack of non-nefarious reasons. Let’s explore more, shall we?

Non-Malicious Insider Threats

Quite often, the employees who become non-malicious insider threats (NMIT) don’t even know they are doing anything wrong. These are the people who check work email on public computers and then forget to log out of their applications. These are the employees who do work while at coffeeshops on unsecure networks. These are the ones forwarding work emails to their personal email addresses, so they can continue working from home.

Or perhaps the employees are, in fact, willfully doing something wrong, but they justify it as necessary to get their job done.  The Government Research Council (GRC) did a study on government employees’ use of approved mobile devices. The GRC found around one-third of respondents were using personal devices to do business work on. Of that third, 94% of DoD and military employees, and 64% of civilian employees, were using personal devices that had not been approved by their agency.

Better cybersecurity education can really go a long way to stopping many NMITs from forming in any organization. Employees should be taught not only what is acceptable and what isn’t, but also why certain online behaviors are dangerous. They should be taught how immense their impact is in the organization’s cyber security plan and how cyber security is a company-wide endeavor.

There is one other way to severely hamper both malicious and non-malicious insider threats, something Fognigma excels at: granular user controls.

Fognigma Networks Protect Against Insider Threats

Fognigma gifts network administrators with granular user controls. Quite simply, granular user controls allow the admin complete control over every little aspect of a user’s permissions inside a Fognigma-created Mission Partner Network (MPN). From which components to which files to which entry and exit points, admins will be able to make sure each user has access to only those things they need to access. This method of precise control is accomplished by creating groups.

Groups exist for each part of a Fognigma network. With just a few mouse clicks, users are added to very specific groups, which give them access to specific components, features, and even entry and exit points. And just as easy as they are added, users can be removed from groups.

We can explain this better by using an example. Our example company is called The Company and boasts 400 happy (and imaginary) employees. The Company has deployed Fognigma and is enjoying the protection and anonymity it provides. A new employee is hired: Jay. The Company’s HR team is on point and have already completed an IAM (Identity and Access Management)  assessment for Jay. As a new accountant, Jay needs access to certain things and shouldn’t see other things.

The network admin who handles all permissions begins adding Jay to groups inside their MPN. He gets added to the company-wide telephony system group, the company-wide message server group, and the company-wide file share group. Jay is then added to the accounting fileshare group and accounting private channel on the company-wide message server group – each consisting of the CEO and the four-person accounting department. No other employees can access these groups, which thus limits the exposure of sensitive financial data to just 1.25% of the company.

Jay is not added, however, to the dev file share or the dev private messaging channel group (which Jay doesn’t even know exists). Jay doesn’t need access to any of the development team’s research or discussion. Not that he would (he’s a good dude), but this limited access prevents Jay from even contemplating leaking company development secrets – he just can’t get to them.

And here comes the really cool part. Imagine, after a few months, Jay realizes a new computer process would greatly help accounting with their accounts payable work flow. He mentions it to the CEO, who loves the idea. A new private messaging channel group is formed. Inside that group are Jay, the CFO, and two developers assigned to the task. No one else in the company can access this messaging group. Inside, these four employees can discuss and develop the new process.

Three months later, the process is rolled out for the company to use. The accounting department is thrilled. The private messaging group is no longer needed, so is easily  deleted. And the rest of the company? Well, they didn’t need to know about any of this, so they didn’t. Everyone is containerized within their own little spheres, preventing each user from having too much access to what goes on inside the company.

This example serves to illustrate just a fraction of how Fognigma’s use of groups can limit user access and temptation. And by limiting access, Fognigma’s granular user controls prevent problems before they even can develop.

An Elderly Network Structure is Rife with Vulnerabilities

Many times, there is an inherent problem with how government and/or larger/older agencies build their infrastructure. It makes sense how it happens, so it seems like it should be able to be prevented. But alas, normally budget and time prevent the proper formation and revision of infrastructure. What are we talking about here? In a word: Frankenstein’s monster.

Frankenstein’s monster, as everyone knows, was put together by using bits from various systems (a nicer way of saying body parts, which works better for this analogy). Attached as needed and jerry-rigged together, all the components eventually formed one functioning whole. In Frankenstein, the whole (monster) worked fine, but was rejected by society. That is, it worked but was quite vulnerable to outside threats. See where we going with that?

Unfortunately, the infrastructure of many larger and older agencies has also been put together as needed over time. Also, many times software applications are built or adapted to do one task in the organization, and it’s just easier and more cost effective to continue as per (business as) usual than migrate data into new programs and processes. The longer the agency exists, the more parts might get retrofitted together in a tenuous web that works . . . but just barely.

Frankenstein in Armor

Now, try to imagine fitting Frankenstein’s monster with a custom suit of armor. It might seem easy to surround the creature’s piecemeal form, but it won’t offer all the components perfect protection. Once an enemy knows how to penetrate your armor, the whole monster is going down. It’s the same with cybersecurity for our example agencies with antiquation issues. You might be able to get some form of network security around the network, but it really won’t completely protect the components.

That’s because each component has its own unique features (read: issues) and doesn’t always talk to other programs well.  We’ve all had that experience of saving a file from one program the only way possible and then having to do a bunch of leg work to import it into the program you actually use to analyze the data. Again, it works . . . but just barely. And if anything goes wrong along the way, the whole system falls apart.

So, what can the Fognigma enterprise software do to help? In short, it can make sure all your processes, software, and data (no matter how antiquated and/or unique) are protected from evildoers and available to your users.

Fognigma Surrounds Your Current Network with Encryption and Invisibility

The deployment option for Fognigma we’ll feature here is the Hybrid Deployment. This takes your existing network (which you already have working and running the software you need) and surrounds it in a cloaked shield of security. Your network will now be behind an ever changeable, always adapting, cloud-based network with two layers of AES-256 encryption between components.

What makes a Fognigma Mission Partner Network (MPN) different is that it’s built in parts across multiple cloud providers, with these parts working as one network. As a result, you have an invisible network built on public cloud infrastructure. A network you can manually or schedule-y burn down and rebuild whenever you want. You are replacing the armor around Frankenstein’s monster repeatedly in different configurations.

And don’t worry about the parts after burning. An MPN is made up of randomly leased pieces across multiple cloud networks. When you burn down your MPN, those fragments get wiped and returned to the pool to be used (and further overwritten) by some other project. When you rebuild your MPN, you’re using all new, randomly leased cloud bits. This is what makes your network invisible: the parts are random, and they change to other random parts. Interlocutors won’t even know to look for something to invade and exploit.

So, does Fognigma fix your antiquated process and/or software? Nope, only your agency can do that. What Fognigma can do is make sure the old vulnerabilities of your network are enveloped in a protective coating of encrypted, traceless, random goodness. To tie this back to our original example of Frankenstein’s monster… okay, so there really isn’t a way to tie it in. Frankenstein’s monster is never given the ability to blend into normal society and become invisible. But wait! Since this is fiction and we can set our own rules, Fognigma wrapping up your network is like Frankenstein’s monster wrapping himself in ever-changing armor and then draping all that in Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak (assuming it was long enough). Boom – puttin’ on the Ritz!

Fognigma Makes Your Communication and Collaboration Invisible

Fognigma is a super-secure communication tool that automatically builds and creates encrypted, cloaked networks (called Mission Partner Networks, or MPNs for short), which allow total protection and anonymity of communication traffic. Basically, with Fognigma, you can communicate with your team without any worry of leaks, hacks, or traces. Fognigma turns you into a communications ninja – strong, undetectable, and able to vanish in an instant.

Your Fognigma-created MPN is a randomly generated set of components which work together and are spread out across multiple clouds. No one can tell where your network exists, because it exists in parts in many places at once. And communication between parts is secured using two layers of AES-256 encryption.

At the heart of your network is the Wheel. The Wheel is the central hub where all your communication tools (telephony, voice and video conferencing, chat messaging, file transfer, remote workstations, etc.) live. The Administrator has complete control over which tools are available and to whom.

Data, Users, and Traffic are All Encrypted and Disassociated

Users securely connect to the Wheel by going through an entry point of your network and then through zero to three dissociating joints (depending on how you’ve built your MPN). Dissociating joints help to anonymize your connection and can be located in a different region or cloud. Upon exiting the Wheel, users again go through one or more dissociating joints (also, possibly in different regions or clouds). This makes discovering the actual location of the user impossible.

Data, video, chat, files, speech, and any other information transmitted through a Fognigma-created network go through these same dissociating joints. And the entire network is protected by cascading AES-256 encryption between components.  Also, each Wheel is uniquely keyed, so even if someone could break the encryption of one Wheel, no other Wheels would be compromised.

Fognigma Creates Secure Networks in Mere Minutes

Administrators can use Fognigma to quickly launch a network within minutes. They can monitor use and manage assets, while letting the network handle its own maintenance. The MPN can also randomly move components across regions and clouds to avoid threats. And if you have a less-than-trustworthy contact that needs to be added, it can easily and safely be done (with restrictions on access, so as not to jeopardize your data, users, or network).

And just as fog can come and go in an instant, so can a Fognigma MPN. When it has overstayed its welcome (or as a routine cybersecurity program), an MPN can be completely burned to the ground as if it never existed at all. And no one can ever find what was never there!