26 The Counter Terrorist ~ August/September 2019
Hardware cyber threats are
perhaps the least thought of or
understood threat, and yet they are
not uncommon. One way to think
of this threat is as an attack on the
supply chain of organizational/
institutional equipment, where
seemingly benign equipment is
turned into a portal of attack on
the informational infrastructure.
This can happen when a device is
deliberately embedded in an object
or piece of equipment intended for
use in the organization (chargers,
charging cables, clocks, speakers,
light bulbs, and more). This can also
happen when the functionality of
technological hardware is “hijacked”
deliberately or by accident to direct
information in a way other than how
it was originally intended.
Imagine a scenario where a meeting
room needs to be secured due to the
sensitive nature of the discussions
that occur there. The walls were
swept for structural bugs and
participants are asked to leave their
phones and computers outside the
room for the duration of the meeting.
There is no internet network within
the room, so seemingly the space is
secured, however the building code
dictates that there is a speaker system
in every public area. Is your room
secure?
It is actually fairly simple for
an experienced hacker to “hijack”
the sound system, turning it into
a listening device, making all
other security precautions taken
meaningless.
Often the damage is caused by
human error, even unknowingly
rather than by deliberate attack.
For example, a visitor makes a
presentation in your organization,
connecting their computer or USB
to your network. The visitor may
be completely unaware that their
computer or USB contains a virus,
but they will nonetheless infect your
entire network.
Israel’s Fibernet Ltd has developed
an array of tools to address cyber
threats via technological hardware
commonly used in offices and
organizations. Any point where
there are connections between
points of information transfer
(USB to computer, mouse tocomputer, computer to screen, etc.)
is a potential portal of attack that
need to be addressed. The IoT is
providing ever-increasing examples
of information transfer within
equipment and between equipment,
creating a tradeoff of convenience vs.
security; when security is paramount,
it is necessary to address these points
as well.
Fibernet’s cyber security solutions
provide the missing stratum of cyber
defense, creating physical barriers that
prevent information from flowing in
the wrong direction or being hijacked
and used inappropriately.