Rogue Devices Detection

Rogue devices are unauthorized hardware that operate on networks without the consent or control of IT administrators. These devices pose significant security risks and can compromise the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of a network. Rogue devices are often undetected by IT security teams, as they are typically maliciously tampered with by hackers to target network assets. These devices are modified to exploit their Ethernet or USB Human Interface Device (HID) interfaces to carry out a cyber attack.

Sepio’s platform offers a comprehensive solution for hardware security and rogue device detection. It integrates advanced machine learning, device visibility, risk prioritization, and granular access controls. Our rogue device detection software is designed to identify and neutralize risks associated with unauthorized and potentially harmful hardware on a network.

Rogue Devices Research

Recent research by TAG Cyber and Sepio, makes the case that Rogue implants represent a particularly intense threat to financial institutions. This indicates an increasing need for proficient cyber security in financial institutions. Several example threats, such as ATM Jackpotting, illustrate how rogue devices can generate negative consequences for the financial services sector and other critical infrastructure sectors. Our research report (pdf) includes detailed case studies showcasing the practical use of this hardware attack tools.

Security Challenges in Financial Institutions

Financial services are crucial to economic growth, driving business operations and providing essential services to individuals and organizations. As a result, financial institutions store vast amounts of sensitive data, including personally identifiable information (PII), making them prime targets for cybercriminals. In fact, financial firms are targeted 300% more often than businesses in other sectors. Consequently, it’s reasonable to assert that financial services organizations face billions of attempted cyberattacks annually.

Rogue Devices Overview

Rogue devices are tampered hardware pieces that remain undetected by traditional IT security tools. posing a significant threat to network security. Hackers manipulate these devices, often peripherals like cameras, chargers, mouses, and keyboards, to exploit interfaces such as Ethernet or USB Human Interface Device (HID) for malicious purposes.

Operating at the physical layer, rogue devices evade conventional detection methods. For example, a USB HID attack might use spoofed peripherals that appear legitimate to the system, facilitating undetected data breaches or system manipulation. Similarly, spoofed man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attacks leveraging network devices often bypass existing security measures.

The covert operation of rogue implants significantly increases their threat level. By utilizing hardware-based attack techniques, they not only evade detection but also execute damaging exploits that compromise critical assets, highlighting the need for advanced security measures to counter this growing risk.

Rogue Devices Cybersecurity Threats

The range of cybersecurity threats posed by rogue devices is surprisingly vast. This is due to the flexible nature of the implants, which can be designed to carry out various types of attacks. Hackers, drawing from conventional methods—including nation-state sponsored techniques—learn malicious exploit strategies. These exploits are then embedded into manipulated devices, allowing them to communicate with the external environment via interfaces such as USB HID or Ethernet. Below is a summary of the specific security threats that rogue network implants can pose.

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT): APTs, often linked to nation-state actors, are prolonged attacks designed to infiltrate and remain hidden in systems. Rogue devices offer a stealthy entry point, bypassing traditional defenses.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): Rogue IoT devices can launch internal DDoS attacks, overwhelming critical systems within a network. Vulnerabilities like those in Bluetooth protocols (e.g., BlueBorne, Bleedingbit) further increase the threat.

Ransomware: Poorly secured IoT devices serve as entry points for ransomware campaigns, with limited patching options exacerbating risks.

Consequences of Rogue Device Threats

Rogue devices can pose considerable threat implications for financial services firms. Particularly when capable adversaries like nation-state actors carry out the attacks. While one must always expect soft consequences like reputational damage after an attack of this type, the more tangible implications of rogue device security attacks on the financial services industry include the following:

Direct Financial Loss

Rogue devices pose a significant threat to various systems, including ATMs, where they can be used for activities such as ATM Jackpotting. When used in ATMs cyber attacks and other systems that can dispense cash immediately, the financial losses are direct and immediate. It is not difficult to imagine this being done at scale and in a manner that creates a large aggregate loss.

Indirect Financial Loss

When a bank or another financial institution discovers and reports rogue devices, it can negatively affect present and future consumer and commercial business. Even a small percentage hit can result in a considerable loss.

Response Costs

Preventing is easier and cheaper than finding and addressing their consequence after an attack. The incident management costs of rogue devices attacks can thus lead to considerable operating expenses to respond, report, and remediate.

Compliance Costs

Financial service firms face considerable compliance costs when reporting, fixing, and providing evidence to external entities for rogue device attacks. Detecting these attacks will have lower compliance costs than responding to them.

Rogue Device Detection – Sepio’s Platform

Unlike software-based attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in software and can often get resolved with patches and updates, hardware-based attacks involve using rogue devices. Which go under the radar of existing security solutions by operating on the physical layer. How to detect rogue implats on your network?

Sepio’s physical layer-based Asset DNA technology relies on device existence rather than behavior. Discovering and identifying all managed, unmanaged, and hidden devices. Sepio rogue device detection software approach and complex machine learning algorithms, get to the true source of asset risk, untainted by misleading profile perceptions and behavioral assumptions.
Sepio’s platform prioritizes assets based on their risk level and enforces granular hardware access controls. Automatically blocking those that breach the preset rules or get identified as known attack tools.

Seeing all network assets is a critical prerequisite for hardware defense. But what you see is only as useful as what you can do with this knowledge.

Sepio’s policy enforcement mechanism enables hardware access control, by enforcing a strict set of policies based on the device’s identity. It instantly detects any devices which breach the pre-set policy. It automatically instigates a rogue device mitigation process to block the device. Thus, preventing malicious actors from successfully carrying out hardware-based attacks.

Mitigate Rogue Device Risks

Talk to an expert. It will help you understand how to use Sepio’s patented technology to gain control of your asset risks.