+44 (0)203 88 020 88

Menu

Search

Cyber Security News & Articles

 

Cyber Security
News & Articles

Trusted Cyber Security Experts
25+ Years Industry Experience
Ethical, Professional & Pragmatic

Avast breached via insecure VPN profile

Anti-virus company Avast has revealed they were breached over several months, after identifying the suspicious activity on their network on 23rd September according to a blog post by their CISO.  Avast think their CCleaner software was the target of a supply chain attack – with the hackers attempting to repeat the 2017 insertion of malicious code into the popular PC maintenance tool.

According to the blog post, Avast made two simple mistakes that were crucial to the success of the attack. Firstly, a VPN profile was left active without 2-Factor authentication being enabled.  The attackers were able to access the VPN by trying various password and username combinations – possibly obtained in a different data breach.  The first access over the VPN was back in May but Avast did not notice the intrusion until September when a Microsoft security alert warned that domain services were being replicated against an internal IP.

The second mistake, Avast admits, was that the warning from the security monitoring systems had been seen before and ignored because it was assumed to be a false-positive alert.

This breach serves as a useful reminder of the importance of monitoring logs and investigating alerts and not assuming breach alerts are false-positive noise.

The activities of the attackers were visible in the VPN logs since May and operations staff saw and discounted the alerts warning that the network’s domain credentials were being maliciously replicated.

You can check the effectiveness of your operational monitoring and logging by engaging a CREST certified penetration tester to perform a controlled hack of your network and check how long it takes your people and systems to spot the intrusion.

 

 

 

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter today

If you’d like to stay up-to-date with the latest cyber security news and articles from our technical team, you can sign up to our monthly newsletter. 

We hate spam as much as you do, so we promise not to bombard you with emails. We’ll send you a single, curated email each month that contains all of our cyber security news and articles for that month.

Why Choose SecureTeam?

Customer Testimonials

“We were very impressed with the service, I will say, the vulnerability found was one our previous organisation had not picked up, which does make you wonder if anything else was missed.”

Aim Ltd Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

"Within a very tight timescale, SecureTeam managed to deliver a highly professional service efficiently. The team helped the process with regular updates and escalation where necessary. Would highly recommend"

IoT Solutions Group Limited Chief Technology Officer (CTO) & Founder

“First class service as ever. We learn something new each year! Thank you to all your team.”

Royal Haskoning DHV Service Delivery Manager

“We’ve worked with SecureTeam for a few years to conduct our testing. The team make it easy to deal with them; they are attentive and explain detailed reports in a jargon-free way that allows the less technical people to understand. I wouldn’t work with anyone else for our cyber security.”

Capital Asset Management Head of Operations

“SecureTeam provided Derbyshire's Education Data Hub with an approachable and professional service to ensure our schools were able to successfully certify for Cyber Essentials. The team provided a smooth end-to-end service and were always on hand to offer advice when necessary.”

Derbyshire County Council Team Manager Education Data Hub

“A very efficient, professional, and friendly delivery of our testing and the results. You delivered exactly what we asked for in the timeframe we needed it, while maintaining quality and integrity. A great job, done well.”

AMX Solutions IT Project Officer

“We were very pleased with the work and report provided. It was easy to translate the provided details into some actionable tasks on our end so that was great. We always appreciate the ongoing support.”

Innovez Ltd Support Officer

Get in touch today

If you’d like to see how SecureTeam can take your cybersecurity posture to the next level, we’d love to hear from you, learn about your requirements and then send you a free quotation for our services.

Our customers love our fast-turnaround, “no-nonsense” quotations – not to mention that we hate high-pressure sales tactics as much as you do.

We know that every organisation is unique, so our detailed scoping process ensures that we provide you with an accurate quotation for our services, which we trust you’ll find highly competitive.

Get in touch with us today and a member of our team will be in touch to provide you with a quotation. 

0

No products in the basket.

No products in the basket.