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With the frequency and severity of malware attacks growing practically every day, the files and folders on our computers have never been more at risk. Sure, there have been solutions for strong protection available, but they tend to be so cumbersome and inconvenient to use that few of us would bother. Fortunately, a lifetime subscription to the powerful yet easy-to-use GhostVolt Encryption Software is currently very affordable.

GhostVolt will automatically add enterprise-level 256-bit AES encryption to your data and permanently maintains it on your computer or home network. For added security, the program will automatically log you out after a period of inactivity. It will even check your passwords against over 600 million exposed ones.

File management couldn't be easier since the app is designed just like your regular file explorer, so there's no learning curve. You can just add your files and folders as you normally would, and they will also be automatically re-encrypted after any editing. You can both preview and share files securely.

Many convenience features are built-in, including integration with Microsoft OneDrive, light and dark modes, backup encryption keys, and more. The program is multilingual, as well, for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese. Users are really satisfied with GhostVolt, rating it 4.3 out of 5 stars on TrustPilot and 4.7 out of 5 stars on Softpedia.

If you tend to use a laptop more often than a desktop and spend any time at all on public Wi-Fi networks, and want to take even further precautions, you might like this powerful VPN bundled with two extra displays. But GhostVolt will offer you the ultimate in privacy and protection against data or identity theft. Because the encryption will completely obscure all of your personal information, so it will be unreadable to criminals even if it is stolen, hacked, or breached.

You really don't want to pass up this opportunity to protect all of your most sensitive files when it is so easy and affordable to do; getGhostVolt Encryption Software: Lifetime Subscription while it is on sale for only $29.99.

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Get a lifetime of easy, automatic encryption for all of the files on your computer for just $30 - ZDNet

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Brave, the startup behind the eponymous non-tracking browser, has launched a non-tracking video conferencing add-on out of beta letting all users make and receive video calls straight from their browser.

The tool, called Brave Talk, has been in beta testing since May last year. And Brave told us its had some 14,000 daily active users over this period aka, earlier adopters and developers tapping in via Braves test version.

Now its been made open access with Brave making a pitch to internet users of privacy-focused video conferencing.

Many other video conferencing providers, including Zoom, monitor calls, metadata, and images, and the records of that data can be sold or shared without user consent, it writes in a blog post announcing the wider launch.

Brave Talk users can enable multiple layers of encryption on calls, so an eavesdropper cannot listen in on users calls, and our servers dont save metadata, so calls, images, and activities are never recorded or shared without user consent, it adds.

The video calling software is a subscription offering costing $7 per month for premium features (like group calls and call recording) but basic one-to-one calls are free and unlimited. (NB: Braves Android and iOS apps only currently offer Brave Talk Premium but will have the free version too in the coming weeks).

Users initiating a video call must do so from within the Brave browser; however, recipients need only be using any modern browser (so basically Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera etc.) to participate in a video chat.

While Brave is touting its non-tracking credentials as a differentiating plus for the video conferencing software versus mainstream players like Zoom, its worth noting that Brave Talk does not (yet) have end-to-end encryption rolled out.

Brave says its using the Jitsi as a Service open source video meeting platform from 88 which relies on WebRTC open source technology to enable developers to embed HD video directly into the browser.

On encryption it says users can enable different layers in the settings. It describes the current strongest level of encryption available in both free and premium versions of Brave Talk as Video Bridge Encryption.

This setting ensures that the video and audio streams are encrypted using keys generated by the participants, which prevents eavesdropping on the Video Bridge Server, said co-founder and CEO Brendan Eich. Video Bridge Encryption can be enabled under Security Options.

Because we find the phrase end to end encryption to be confusing and overloaded, Brave Talk refers to the setting as Video Bridge Encryption, he also told us, adding: End to end encrypted calls are just one dimension of privacy and security when participating in video calls. Even when using encryption, most of the Big Tech video tools actively collect and store data about your call: Who the participants were, when the call took place and for how long, and a host of other information.

The anonymous credential system employed by Brave Talk ensures that we dont know who users are and who they are talking to, and we cant link them across sessions. Brave Talk is a privacy-by-default tool that does not track users.

Pushed for more clarity on the difference between Video Bridge Encryption (VBE) and E2EE, he also told TechCrunch: The reason that we refer to it as Video Bridge Encryption and not End to End Encryption is that, while VBE does ensure that audio and video remain encrypted from Brave, 88, and any other passive eavesdroppers, we are still working with 88 on a way to make this more robust against active attackers by automatically authenticating meeting participants.

When that work is complete, we will feel comfortable introducing it as full end to end encryption, and it will provide significant advantages over platforms like Zoom, which require participants to read a security code out loud to confirm end to end encryption is working.

Internet users wanting to kick the tyres of Brave Talk which was previously called Brave Together will first need to download the Brave browser in order to initiate a call. Receiving calls doesnt require using Brave, as mentioned earlier.

Per Eich, Brave recently passed 36 million monthly active users across its suite of anti-tracking products which also includes a search engine and a Firewall+VPN.

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Braves non-tracking, browser-based video conferencing tool is out of beta - TechCrunch

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INDUSTRY INSIGHT

It is no surprise that governments around the world are among the most highly targeted and impacted victims of ransomware. Last years SolarWinds data breach in the U.S. was a reminder of the ability of cyberattacks to penetrate public-sector agencies and unleash damage across a federal agencies.

According to new independent research from Sophos, over the past year, 40% of central governments and non-departmental public bodies across the globe were attacked by ransomware. This put central governments and NDPBs fourth in a ranking of industries most afflicted by ransomware, surpassed only by retail, education and business/professional services. Considering that federal governments employ trained IT staff, the fact that four in 10 were unable to stop a ransomware attack speaks to the ability of cyber attackers to penetrate even the best defenses. More than one-third (34%) of local governments also reported experiencing a ransomware attack over the past year curious, considering that local government agencies would presumably have a fewer resources to defend their systems.

Extortion-style ransomware disproportionately aimed at central governments

One disturbing trend seen in ransomware over the past year has been the emergence of extortion-style attacks. Ransomware typically involves encrypting a victims data and then exchanging the decryption key for payment. Lately, extortion-style attacks where the attacker steals the data rather than encrypting it and threatens to release it (either to the dark web or to the public) in exchange for a ransom payment have started to pick up steam.

This is especially acute in the government sector. Central governments and NDPBs experience extortion-style ransomware at nearly double the rate of all industries. That said, encryption-based attacks still remain the most dominant strain of ransomware, comprising almost half (49%) of attacks faced by central government and NDPBs.

In ransomware attacks against local governments, 69% of victims saw their data encrypted a staggering 20 points greater than what central governments had experienced. These numbers point to an interesting split: Ransomware attacks against central governments are slowly moving from encryption-style to extortion-style attacks, while encryption-based attacks against local governments remain extremely high and extortion-based attacks rare (2%). This difference may be because central governments have relatively higher-value data to steal and hold for extortion, and local government agencies, on the other hand, dont have the kind of national secrets that central governments do, perhaps sparking less interest among attackers.

Why its not worth paying the ransom

In the heat of a ransomware attack, its easy to see why just paying the ransom to get data back (or prevent public release) can feel like the path of least resistance. Thats what attackers are counting on, after all. But its not necessary. The survey reveals that most (61%) central governments and NDPBs hit with ransomware restored their data from backups. Only 26% ended up paying the ransom to get their data back. In total, nearly all (96%) of central government victims ended up with their data restored. These findings speak to both the need to back up data proactively and how unnecessary it is to pay the ransom to get data returned.

The findings may also point to central governments awareness about data backups that may not be shared by their smaller counterparts. Among local government organizations that were hit by ransomware, there was an even split between those who restored data through backups and those who paid ransoms to get their data back 42% for both indicating that smaller agencies perhaps have a greater need to pay ransoms in order to restore their data, as well as a lack of backups to draw from.

Five ways to stay ahead of government-targeted ransomware

Governments are some of the least prepared organizations in the world to recover from a major malware incident like ransomware. Among all industries surveyed on their malware incident recovery planning preparedness, both central and local governments ranked at the bottom of the list. This cannot continue to be the status quo particularly when so many central and local governments have either been attacked by ransomware already or expect to be attacked in the future.

Staying ahead of the ransomware curve calls for more preparedness. Here are five easy steps that central and local government agencies take now to mitigate the probability of a ransomware attack and improve their chances of recovering from one.

About the Author

Dan Schiappa is the chief product officer at Sophos.

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5 ways to stay ahead of government-targeted ransomware - GCN.com

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Hardware security modules are specialized computing devices designed to securely store and use cryptographic keys. Lets break down what HSMs are, how they work, and why theyre so important to public key infrastructure

Demand for hardware security modules (HSMs) is booming. Data from Entrusts 2021 Global Encryption Trends Study shows that HSM usage has been steadily increasing over the last eight years, increasing from 26% in fiscal year 2012 to 49% in 2020. According to data from 360 Market Updates, the HSM market is expected to reach $2.75 billion by the end of 2026.

What is an HSM and what does it do? Why are so many companies using HSMs? And what are the practical uses for HSMs in enterprise environments?

Lets hash it out.

Encrypted data isnt secure if the keys you use to encrypt it are exposed this is where HSMs can save the day. Hardware security modules (HSMs) are tamper- and intrusion-resistant hardware components that organizations use to protect and store their cryptographic keys while still making them available for use by authorized users. Their purpose is to control access and limit risk to your companys sensitive private keys.

HSMs enable your employees to use of your organizations private keys without needing direct access to them. Basically, your software (for example, hosted on a web server) can execute cryptographic functions and authentication without loading a copy of your private key into memory on your web server (where it could be vulnerable to attack). The cryptographic functions are all done within the confines of an HSMs secure environment. Performing these operations within this secure little bubble keeps your sensitive data from becoming compromised by keeping the private keys hidden away in a secure location.

To better understand this concept, think of an HSM like a vending machine. A vending machine stores drinks and food items within an isolated internal environment. Its designed to accept user inputs (i.e., your item selections) and generate outputs (i.e., pop out a tasty snack), and you cant access the inside of the vending machine or alter its functions.

Similarly, an HSM accepts user inputs and generates outputs (such as signed certificates or software) without users (or applications) seeing, accessing, or altering your cryptographic keys. Thats because its functions are executed within the confines of its secure environment, and no key can be wholly exported, extracted or removed from an HSM in a readable format. So, like a vending machine, you can use it to get your desired output but you cant see or access the internal workings of the device and all of its individual components that made it possible.

Heres a quick overview of how hardware security modules work:

You may be wondering why you need to use a hardware security module at all. I mean, why should you go through the hassle and cost of setting up an HSM when you can simply use your web servers built-in functionalities?

Well, for one thing, an HSM provides significantly more secure key storage than what youd get from using a traditional web server. When companies use their web servers to run many applications, this can result in vulnerabilities that cybercriminals can exploit. HSMs are devices with limited usages and attack vectors. This is why:

Using an HSM helps you secure your private code signing keys and avoid exposure issues like what HashiCorp faced earlier this year. On April 22, HashiCorp informed customers that the GPG private key they use to sign official product downloads and updates was exposed as the result of a third-party (Codecov) security incident.

Basically, the crux of the situation is that an unauthorized user exploited a vulnerability that gave them the ability to export sensitive data from Codecovs continuous integration (CI) environments. HashiCorps CI environment which housed the companys GPG private key and other sensitive secrets among were among those exposed CI environments. If HashiCorp stored their key in a secure HSM instead of the CI, then it wouldnt have been exposed.

There are also many other purposes and uses that HSMs serve in terms of PKI and general cybersecurity. You can use an HSM to:

Heres a breakdown of the top 10 HSM use cases in 2021, according to data from Entrust and the Ponemon Institute:

Having options for secure cryptographic storage is important for all businesses, particularly as their needs evolve with the growth of their operations. The good news is that HSMs vary in terms of both their physical sizes and applications. Some HSMs are small plug-in cards or USB devices while others are large external devices and appliances that companies store on premises within secure locations.

Hardware security modules can be very cost-prohibitive for many businesses. A 2018 article in SecurityToday.com says that the cost of deploying a single HSM can range upwards of $40,000 and that price doesnt include other related costs such as additional hardware, support, and maintenance. So, doing everything yourself may not be a viable option.

But just because your company cant afford to buy one or more of these devices outright doesnt mean that you cant still enjoy the advantages of using HSMs. Some vendors (such as Thales and Amazon Web Services) now offer cloud-based HSM products and services.

There are a few different options when it comes to using cloud HSMs:

The idea here is rather than having to buy an expensive physical appliance that you need to protect on site, you can instead rent a dedicated physical appliance or pay for access to the functionalities of one controlled by a third-party vendor for less cost.

As you can imagine, there are advantages and disadvantages to each approach, but youre ultimately the one who needs to decide which approach is best for your organization or business. Just be sure to carefully read the service level agreement (SLA) to ensure theyre what you need.

Of course, there is a way you can have your cake and eat it, too meaning that you can use an HSM without having to buy or rent one. This is possible when you partner with a managed PKI (mPKI) service provider. For example, DigiCert is an mPKI provider whose platform was built using an HSM. When you use their platform, you can capitalize on their secure HSM on the backend without having to buy or rent this expensive hardware.

If you think that an HSM sounds a lot like a trusted platform module, or TPM, there are a couple good reasons.

But are these two devices the same? No. TPMs are device-specific components within individual devices whereas HSMs are external devices with wider applications at handling operations relating to many or all devices and applications across an organizations network.

TPMs are basically computer chips that physically attach to individual devices motherboards to secure their PKI keys while keeping them separate from the devices CPU memory. They help to ensure device integrity and provide an isolated environment for the devices cryptographic operations.

HSMs, on the other hand, are hardware devices that arent limited to individual machines. Theyre intended for use at-scale by applications and servers across your organization.

To learn more about what trusted platform modules are and how they work, be sure to check out our other article relating to that specific topic.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication Recommendation for Key Management: Part 2 Best Practices for Key Management Organizations (SP-800-57 part 2, rev 1) describes hardware security modules as critical key management components. Theyre part of the physical infrastructure that makes secure key storage and cryptographic operations possible.

HSMS are used by organizations across virtually all industries, some of which include:

Thats quite a spread in terms of industries, am I right? This variation is, in part, due to the fact that hardware security modules come in two main varieties (which well explore momentarily) for organizations various usages.

Hardware security modules are typically used for securely storing cryptographic keys and payment-related information. However, their uses span the gamut in terms of current and future applications. Here are some of the ways youll currently find HSMs in use globally:

When we talk about HSMs here at Hashed Out, were typically talking about general purpose HSMs. However, its important to note that this isnt the only category of HSMs Thales Group describes a second category of HSM devices as Payment HSMs. Now that we know what HSMs are and some of their applications, lets explore the two types of HSMs a bit more in depth.

General purpose HSMs are those that all types of organizations use as part of their organizations overall cyber security. These are like the devices we described in the What Is a Hardware Security Module (HSM)? section near the beginning of the article.

These devices typically use vendor-neutral APIs to facilitate communication and cryptographic services for your applications. Thats because general purpose HSMs rely on the public key cryptography standards #11 (PKCS#11), which are a group of standards that outline how applications and HSMs can interact and communicate for cryptographic operations. (This enabled interoperability between applications and devices from various manufacturers.)

They also must meet geographic or industry security validation and trustworthiness requirements and standards such as:

As you can probably guess from the name, this second category of HSMs focus on the payment industry and are more specialized. Like general purpose HSMs, payment HSMs are also tamper-resistant hardware components that enable businesses to store and protecting keys and data. However, these keys relate to financial applications and transactions and do jobs such as storing customer PINs

Payment HSMs are designed to meet many different standards and use various interfaces. They also require different protocols and certifications from their general purpose HSM counterparts, some of which include the Payment Card Industry PTS Hardware Security Module (PCI PTS HSM) Modular Security Requirements and FIPS 140-2 validation requirements (level 3 or higher), and various regional security requirements.

For the purpose of this article, were primarily focusing on general purpose HSM functionalities, so were not going to get into the nitty-gritty of payment HSMs here. However, weve put together a quick side-by-side comparison table to help you better understand the differences between the two types of hardware security modules:

We touched on some of the uses of general purpose HSMs within organizational environments. Now, lets explore some practical applications.

A hardware security module provides the foundational security and trust your PKI needs. This is why it should be part of your organizations public key infrastructure from the get-go and not just added later on. (Technically, you can add an HSM to your private PKI architecture later however, it does require a lot of extra work and configurations that you can avoid by making the device part of your initial PKI.)

HSMs allow you to store your organizations cryptographic keys and create the PKI certificates that are necessary to enable user, device and software authentication. Furthermore, the authentication processes themselves can occur within the HSMs internal environment. This keeps the keys secure by not requiring them to be accessed directly, copied or moved.

You can use your hardware security module for cryptographic offloading (such as for SSL/TLS). The purpose of SSL/TLS offloading is to ease the burden on your web server that stems from encrypting and decrypting traffic by shifting those functions to another device (such as a load balancer).

If you opt to store your private keys in an HSM instead of your web server, you can shift the cryptographic functions relating to that traffic to your HSM.

The Open Web Application Security Projects (OWASP) Key Management Cheat Sheet specifies that if you choose to secure your cryptographic keys offline or in devices such as HSMs, you should encrypt them using key encryption keys, or KEKs.

If you want to avoid the costs and responsibilities associated with in-house management of an HSM for your private PKI, then choose an mPKI provider whose platform was built using an HSM. Doing this enables your authorized users to use your organizations HSM-stored keys remotely without accessing or touching the keys. For example, users can sign EV code signing certificates without the necessary risk of keeping individual tokens on hand that could get lost or stolen.

While HSMs are great security tools, they require you to take steps to keep them (and the keys the contain) secure. This includes physical security measures as well as digital access.

The first aspect entails keeping your hardware security modules stored in secure physical locations (such as a secure data center or server room). Your HSM should never be stored in an open or insecure location where unauthorized individuals can access it.

HSMs require strong access controls, policies and processes to keep your cryptographic keys secure and ensure that only authorized users can use it. This way, no unauthorized employees or nefarious external parties (i.e., cybercriminals) can use your cryptographic keys against you to digitally sign data, applications, or certificates.

Also be sure to monitor your HSM event logs. This way, you know who tries to access or use your cryptographic keys and how they used them.

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What Is a Hardware Security Module? HSMs Explained - Hashed Out by The SSL Store

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