Hackers are looking to hack your company’s network. The company network can be found if you are not online and have no internet connection. IT professionals are responsible for protecting and strengthening their network’s defenses. They need to know how visible they are and if there are any obvious and easily fixable holes. Here are 10 ways you can test the defense of your network.
NOTE: You must get approval before you do anything. It could be considered a violation company policy.
1. Use ShieldsUp
ShieldsUp! This service scans your public IP address to detect open ports. This is one of many incredible free tools and services offered by Steve Gibson, a noted software engineer and IT security expert.
2. Shodan scans public addresses
Shodan will scan all of your public IP addresses and reveal what the rest of the world can see about you IP surface. You might be surprised at what your system’s default communication settings can reveal about you.
3. Use vulnerability and DAST scanners
DAST stands for dynamic application security testing. There are many online DAST scanning services that can scan your public systems for vulnerabilities. These include TinFoilSecurity and Pentest-Tools. While some services offer a partial or free scan, others require registration and subscriptions to use their scanner. Before you commit to a contract, make sure you contact the provider and request a free trial. You can set up a scan from an outside system, which simulates being on the internet, and scan all your publicly exposed systems. I would recommend running multiple scans with different products. There are many free products that can be used in place of the excellent commercial products.
4. Run a network sniffer to analyze traffic
Do you know which protocols are being used at the network’s boundary? Do you know if there are any plaintext protocols? Are you aware of what information is still being leaked from your organization, despite the security protocols in place? A network sniffer such as Wireshark and Fiddler can help you quickly learn more about your network communications.
5. Use an exploitation framework
An exploitation framework is a tool that can exploit vulnerabilities in targets. These tools often have a large number of exploits and attacks that can either be used manually or automatically. MetaSploit and Core Impact are just a few examples. This class of tools can cause harm so be careful.
6. SSL Labs can help you check your websites
Many remote attacks and intrusions can be made against or through a company’s website. You need to be aware of when your encryption is not up to par. Qualys offers a service called SSL Labs that allows you to evaluate the SSL and TLS security for your company’s public-facing Web services. You should stop using SSL and support the latest versions of TLS 1.3, 1.2, and possibly 1.1.
7. Do several nmap scans
The command-line tool nmap does more than just scan ports. It also has amazing capabilities such as operating system identification, application/service discovery, vulnerability scanning, attack/exploit capabilities, and operating system detection. Its scripting capabilities make many of these capabilities possible. Nmap contains over 600 pre-made Scrip