Hostile elements can also launch a CyberAttack on the event of Independence Day i.e. 14th August 2023 for disruption of services and defacement to tarnish the international photo of Pakistan, warned the National Telecommunication and Information Security Board (NTSB).
The Board has issued an advisory, “Prevention against Website Compromise on the Eve of National Days” which referred to that adversarial elements/state-sponsored malicious actors usually target authorities departments/ ministries and defense sector websites on the eve of the National Days for disruption of services and defacement to tarnish the world photo of Pakistan.
It is likely that adverse factors can also launch a cyberattack on the event of Independence Day i.e. 14th August 2023.
Accordingly, an advisory is being dispatched to sensitize internet site administrators and Service Providers to take extra security precautions (such as internet server hardening, traffic/ integrity monitoring, etc) to avoid possible website defacement/ hacking attempts.
NTSB has issued 47 advisories in 2023 so a ways with admire to cyber-attacks, hacking, fraudulent/fake e-mail etc, and protection hints for individuals, authorities personnel as well as websites.
Further, NTISB referred to that net server administrators be made mindful of cyber protection tips including;
- Upgrade OS and web servers to the contemporary version.
- The internet site admin panel has to only be reachable by white-listed IPs.
- Defend your website in opposition to SQL injection attacks by using an enter validation technique.
- Complete evaluation and penetration testing of the software is carried out to identify plausible threats.
- The complete website be deployed on inland servers together with the database and web infrastructure.
- HTTPS protocol be used for conversations between clients and internet servers.
- Application and database be established on special machines with acceptable security hardening.
- Sensitive information is stored in an encrypted structure with no direct public access.
- DB user’s privileges be minimized and restrained to get entry to be granted inner the programming code.
- Proper safety hardening of endpoints and servers be performed and no useless ports and applications be used.
- Updated Antivirus tools/ Firewalls be used on both endpoints and servers to protect from plausible threats.
- Enforce a sturdy password utilization policy.
- Remote administration services like RDP and SSH need to be disabled in a production environment.
- Deploy net software firewalls (WAF) for protection against net attacks.
- Employ secure coding practices such as parameterized queries, suited enter sanitization, and validation to remove malicious scripts.
- Keep device and network devices updated (q) Log retention policy need to be devised for at least 3x months on separate units for attacker’s reconnaissance.
