Identity and access management

Panama Paper Leaks: Is Data Security at Risk in the Future?

Shantha Kumari

By now, you have probably heard about the Panama Papers Leak, which leaked (and continue to leak) the names of high-profile persons who used fake companies to hide their wealth and/or avoid taxes.

The huge data leak, around 1.5 million documents were leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca, which exposes how the rich and powerful allegedly hide their money across the globe.

The 11.5m files, which date back as far as the 1970’s, were obtained from an anonymous source by Süddeutsche Zeitung – a German newspaper. They were then passed on to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a US-based group, and then distributed to various journalists and media organizations worldwide for analysis.

Panama Paper Leaks

How these files were obtained remains a mystery. But it’s safe to assume that it was an inside job, which required privileged access to  this huge amount of data. The anonymous source offered the 2.6 terabytes of data, which surpassed the combined total of the Wikileaks Cablegate, Offshore Leaks, Lux Leaks, and Swiss Leaks.

Prevention is better than cure; so you might as well get in touch with Sysfore to know more about securing your cloud data.

So how safe is your Data??

Can anyone with IT privileges and access get hold of your data? Where does your organization’s data security figure in this chaos? There are too much data, and too many ways for security breakdowns to occur. What will your company do to prevent these breakdowns?

It is this question that should be garnering more attention, especially for anyone who has to handle IT or security duties.

One possible theory circulated on how the Panama Papers breach happened is due to the sloppy patches and outdated plug-ins.

Mossack Fonseca uses WordPress on its main website and Drupal on the customer portal for sharing sensitive information, and both Its Drupal and WordPress sites were outdated, according to an extensive analysis by the team behind WordFence, a WordPress security plug-in.

Lessons learned from the Panama Paper Leaks:

There are fundamentally two key aspects to securing data:

  • Access – who has the right to the data. Broadly speaking, this is authentication (user id, password, and perhaps other methodologies and validations).
  • Protection – who is the guardian of the data. Who is responsible for the data. What precautions are taken, should someone break into a server, or an unscrupulous employee copy the data.

This wake up call to data security has made organizations take extra precautions and upgrading their existing security measures.

Prioritize your data – Know what data is valuable to you and your customers; set data protection depending on it. Set up Identity and Access Management (IAM) for all levels of your personnel and ensure it is not violated. You can use either Amazon or Azure Cloud IAM.

Data Redundancy and Replication – Spread your data across multiple infrastructures and locations to protect your information. Ensure latest technologies is employed and phase out your old legacy defenses and networks.

Educate employees – Train your employee about the latest security software, its use, recognize and spot the leak, block and report any suspicious attack.

The Panama Paper Leak is just the tip of the iceberg. If organizations want to safeguard their data in the future, the must bolster the perimeter, engage different authentication methods, educate employees and understand the strategy needed in a world where data, specifically stolen data, could be the end for your business and reputation.

You can employ Sysfore’s expertise in Cloud Security to boost your data security measures.

Give us a call at +91-80-4110-5555 or mail us on info@sysfore.com, to know more.

5 Big Cloud Security Features for Enterprise Use

Shantha Kumari

The cloud computing is still an emerging technology with people discovering its true potential. One important feature which draws attention is Cloud Security.

Cloud computing can help businesses cut costs in any number of ways, but the information that cloud systems handle is varied, confidential with high security measures in place.

Talk to Sysfore’s Cloud Specialists and we’ll ensure your Cloud Security is top grade. Book an appointment now.

Here are some of the biggest actual security features that cloud providers use to protect client data, and make systems effectively secure against hacking and unauthorized access.

Cloud security

Multi-Factor Authentication

It’s a major source of user security for cloud systems, which often get deployed across many different business locations and individual access points. Essentially, multi-factor authentication just means authenticating users in a combination of ways. Using multiple authentication strategies or factors creates better security for digital systems.

In general, multi-factor authentication involves combining different categories of security inputs. One category is the password, which is an intangible concept that someone creates and uses for access. Another category is a physical possession, such as a traditional key, a key card or even someone’s mobile device.

A third category of security is called biometrics. This focuses on things that are inherent to an individual body. Unlike the above two categories, biometrics security components cannot be lost or misplaced. Biometrics uses things like fingerprint scanning, voice recognition and facial imaging.

Multi-factor authentication requires two or more of these different security components to work together, which makes systems much more secure.

Identity and Access Management

This category of security is closely related to authentication, but it works a bit differently. Here businesses have a way to assign access and privileges to individual identities that will be authenticated within the system. If multi-factor authentication is the method of access, then identity and access management is the assignment of clearances or the “permission vehicle” for letting people into the system.

Cloud services should incorporate this design, so that managers can think carefully about what information people need access to, and assign access based on those considerations. It’s important that people who are doing the work can get into the system to do their jobs, but the system must also keep a lid on sensitive data and ensure that it’s distributed to as few people as possible.

Encryption Standards and Key Handling Tools

Encryption is a core component of cloud security. In various ways, cloud providers encrypt data so that it can’t be stolen or leaked as it makes its way to and around the cloud. Each cloud company will have its own security encryption standard, where better encryption generally means better security.

Encryption standard along with key handling should be the focus of the enterprises. Encryption systems typically use sets of encryption keys that allow for authorized use of the data. Businesses can now opt for Amazon Web Services or Azure which offers a set of key management tools. Some cloud providers also offer key management services of their own that not only encrypt data, but also preserve the right kinds of access.

Cloud Encryption Gateways

It’s also important to figure out how and when data is encrypted and when it is decrypted, because again, without decryption, valuable data can become useless to those who need to handle it.

A cloud encryption gateway is very much like a virtual private network or VPN system. It provides a secure tunnel for data from one specific point to another. In VPN systems, data is often encrypted as it leaves a private network and makes its way through the public Internet. It’s decrypted on the other side, which is why people refer to it as a “security tunnel” for data.

A cloud encryption gateway acts the same way. It provides a consistent means and method of encrypting data as it leaves the private network and enters the cloud. It’s going to serve as both an effective means of security, and maintaining compliance if regulators start looking into how a company handles its data.

Mobile Platform Security

Cloud security also needs to address the rapidly growing area of IT that so many of us are now using to do all kinds of computing and perform all kinds of transactions: mobile. The mobile arena is becoming more and more a part of our lives, and cloud services need to anticipate the challenges of keeping data safe while it’s going to and from mobile endpoints.

Cloud mobile strategy needs to look at effective encryption, any vulnerabilities inherent in mobile operating systems or commonly used mobile applications. They should be able to explain to clients in a way that doesn’t make their heads spin.

You can contact us at  info@sysfore.com or call us at +91-80-4110-5555 to better understand the requirements of the Cloud Security for your Enterprise use.

Nothing Cloudy About The Identity Access Management (IAM) future!

Shantha Kumari

The future of the Cloud Identity Management (IAM) is shiny & bright, with both SMBs and enterprise businesses pouring in money to protect their data and digital assets.

A new report by Allied Market Research projects that the global cloud IAM market would garner revenue of $2.8 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 26.2% during the forecast period 2015 – 2020.

Join in this Cloud evolution with Sysfore and secure your business!

Cloud IAM

Varied technological environments, increasing cyber-attacks, strict regulatory compliances, and increasing digital identities across organizations, are propelling the need of IAM services for information security. With this high stake involved, it’s natural for businesses to look towards the cloud to manage their digital identities, both inside and outside an enterprise.

Traditional concepts for Identity and Access Management that have been focused on the internal IT are no longer sufficient. We still need some of these, but they cover only a fraction of the future scope – and for some organizations already today’s scope – of Identity and Access Management.

The following measures for future Identity and Access Management might help organizations shape their own strategy and roadmap for Identity and Access Management.

#1: More than humans – It’s about Identities of things, devices, services, and apps

In this connected world, everything has an identity – whether it is something like a smart meter, one of the various connected elements in connected vehicles, or wearable tech. All of them require access to be managed through apps, services, devices, etc.

The numerous identities has changed the way in which they are accessed and interfaced with other humans, things, devices, services and apps. It requires authentication and management of relationships between identities.

#2: Multiple Identity Providers – Varied options

There is no central directory anymore, neither for humans nor for all the other things and services. It’s impossible to manage millions of customers spread across the world. Plus, the customers want to re-use identities across apps, services and companies encouraging the BYOI (Bring Your Own Identity) concept.

#3: Multiple Attribute Providers – Information on identities

The Identity and Access Management, will now be the source of information for Cloud, Mobile, and Social Computing, OT (Operational Technology) security, APIs (through which the apps, services and systems interact with each other through and which need to be protected) and the apps, and the Internet of Things. There will be many sources of trust for various attributes.

#4: Multiple Identities – Many users with different identities and flexibly to switch

A single user may have multiple identities within a same organization. He could be an employee, a freelance contractor, and a customer of the same corporation all at the same time. Organizations have to understand that it is still the same person, when he switches from one account to another.

#5: Multiple Authenticators – There is no single authenticator that works for all

There are so many different types of identities and related elements, that it’s not feasible for a single method of authentication which will guarantee security of your identity. There is no single approach that we can rely on. IAM will have to support different authentication mechanisms such as Risk Based Authentication, biometrics, single sign on etc, while understanding the risk and making risk-aware access decisions.

#6: Context – Identity and Access Risk varies in context

A key concept of Future Identity and Access Management is context. Which device is someone using? Which type of authentication? Where is the device used? There are many elements that make up the context. Depending on that context, risk varies. Identity and Access Management has to become risk-based and, with the ever-changing context, dynamic. While today’s static access controls implicitly reflect a risk understanding in a static context, future access controls and decisions must become dynamic to adapt to the current context.

Keeping these fundamental measures in mind, Sysfore can help you build a secure, and protected cloud environment for your business. You contact us at  info@sysfore.com or call us at +91-80-4110-5555 to know more.