Posts by Rapid7

3 min Komand

SOC Series: How to Choose the Right Skills for Your SOC

Do you have the right mix of skills in your security operations center (SOC) [https://www.rapid7.com/fundamentals/security-operations-center/]? Whether your SOC is brand new or has been around for years, you need to be sure it’s built to meet the demands of today’s complex security landscape. In this post, we’ll define the most important skills any SOC should have today so you can be sure to have the right mix of people to safeguard your business. Effective Team and Communication Skills Regard

3 min Automation and Orchestration

How to Password Protect Apache Directories with mod_authn_dbd and MySQL on Ubuntu Linux

Synopsis The mod_authn_dbd is an Apache module that provides the functionality for Apache to authenticate users with MySQL database. This module provides authentication front-ends such as mod_auth_digest and mod_auth_basic to authenticate users by looking up users in MySQL tables. Apache’s mod_authn_dbd supports a wide range of drivers such as, ODBC, MSSQL, SyBase, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL and SQLite. This module allows execution of arbitrary SQL for user / password matching and also support al

3 min Automation and Orchestration

How To Secure Apache with Let's Encrypt on Ubuntu Linux

Synopsis Improving your website security has generally been most complicated and expensive task for every Linux administrator. Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority that provides free X.509 certificates for Transport Layer Security encryption via an automated process. It is very complex process to install and add an SSL certificate to a web server. You can make it easier with the help of Let’s Encrypt. You can easily encrypt data [https://www.rapid7.com/fundamentals/

4 min Automation and Orchestration

How to Secure SSH Server using Port Knocking on Ubuntu Linux

Synopsis Port Knocking is a method used to secure your port access from unauthorised users. Port Knocking works by opening ports on a firewall by generating a connection attempt on a set of prespecified closed ports. Once a correct sequence of connection attempts is received, the firewall will open the port that was previously closed. The main purpose of port knocking is to defend yourself against port scanners. Changing your default ssh port is not a secure method to protect your server, becaus

3 min Automation and Orchestration

How to Secure MySQL Server on Ubuntu Linux

Synopsis Now a day database server is very critical and necessary component for any applications. Databases can be found in everything from web applications, web server to smartphones and other devices. Most of software applications rely on a database to store its data. This is the reason why databases are the number one target of any attackers. Among all the databases MySQL and MariaDB has become the world’s most popular open source database due to its fast performance, high reliability and eas

4 min

Introducing Web Server Agents

We at tCell are excited to announce the availability of tCell’s Web Server Agent (WSA). The WSA joins our stable of agents for JavaScript, Java, Ruby, Python, Node.js, and .Net, extending our monitoring and protection capabilities to common web servers (NGINX is available now, and we’re accepting requests to join the tech preview for Apache and IIS.) But first, why this move? For that, I’ll need to take you back a few years, when people were All About that Bass and yelling “Timber”. In the

2 min Detection and Response

The Legal Perspective of a Data Breach

The following is a guest post by Christopher Hart, an attorney at Foley Hoag and a member of Foley Hoag’s cybersecurity incident response team. This is not meant to constitute legal advice; instead, Chris offers helpful guidance for building an incident preparation and breach response framework in your own organization. A data breach is a business crisis that requires both a quick and a careful response. From my perspective as a lawyer, I want to provide the best advice and assistance I possibl

23 min Komand

An Interview with Rebekah Brown, Co-Author of Intelligence-Driven Incident Response

We recently interviewed Rebekah Brown for our Defender Spotlight series [/2017/08/09/defender-spotlight-rebekah-brown-rapid7/] on the topic of her life as a cybersecurity defender. When we spoke with her, she also talked in-depth about how threat intelligence can inform and improve the incident response lifecycle. Rebekah practices these concepts in her day-to-day life as a defender, and she’s even co-authored a book on this very topic called Intelligence-Driven Incident Response [http://shop.o

3 min Automation and Orchestration

RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman)

Synopsis Rivest, Shamir & Adleman (RSA) is the public key cryptosystem.  The phenomenon of data transmission is secured through it. The letters “RSA” are the initials of the inventor of the system. Four steps are incorporated in this algorithm: Encryption, Decryption, Key Distribution and Key Generation.  After the development of public-key cryptography, the most famous cryptosystem in the world is RSA. In order to maintain proper security, the decryption exponent of RSA must be greater than cer

3 min Automation and Orchestration

What is Data Encryption Standard (DES)?

Synopsis The Data which is encrypted by symmetric key method is called Data Encryption Standard (DES). It was prepared by IBM Team in 1974 and declared as national standard in 1977. Government was also using cryptography, especially in diplomatic communication and military. Without cryptography it’s difficult to interpret military communication. Cryptography was also used in commercial sector. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) was also working on DES. FIPS was integrated with comput

4 min Komand

How to Use Your Threat Model as a Guidepost for Security

The threats you face are unique to your company's size, industry, customer base, and many other factors. So your approach to protecting your organization's digital data should be unique, too. In this post, we’ll cover a framework to develop an effective threat model that will fits your organization's unique needs. The Factors that Determine Your Unique Threat Model There are many factors that can determine your threat model. And while this will vary from company to company, we've identified th

9 min

How to Prevent XSS Attacks

In my last post, we covered what is XSS and why it’s so hard to prevent, which can seem overwhelming, given what we know now. With even major web sites making mistakes should the rest of us just give up unplug our internet connections and go read a book? Of course not, there are a number of techniques that the community has developed to mitigate the risks of XSS. Here’s what we can do to prevent XSS attacks. Training The first line of defense is Training the developers. At this point, it is

3 min Automation and Orchestration

Exploring SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm)

Synopsis In computer cryptography, a popular message compress standard is utilized known as Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA). Its enhanced version is called SHA-1. It has the ability to compress a fairly lengthy message and create a short message abstract in response.  The algorithm can be utilized along various protocols to ensure security of the applied algorithm, particularly for Digital Signature Standard (DSS).  The algorithm offers five separate hash functions which were created by National Sec

3 min Automation and Orchestration

Triple DES, 3-DES Network Encryptor

Synopsis Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (3DES) is an advancement of the popular DES standard.  3DES utilizes symmetric key block cipher. Using three unrelated 64 bit keys, 3DES was created to encrypt 64 bit blocks of data.    In DES block, each key is utilized as an input. Without creating an entire new cryptosystem, 3DES can highlight the apparent defect in DES. Through exerting the algorithm three times in progression with three unlike keys, 3-DES simply enhances the key size of DES. As DES

3 min Automation and Orchestration

Understanding Dynamic Multipoint Virtual Private Network (DMVPN)

Dynamic Multipoint Virtual Private Network (DMVPN) is a solution which enables the data to transfer from one site to another, without having the verification process of traffic.