How StartCom Foiled Comodohacker: 4 Lessons

Comodohacker claims to have exploited six certificate authorities including DigiNotar--yet he failed to break into at least one. Heres how StartComs approach to security worked.

Strategic Security Survey: Global Threat, Local Pain (click image for larger view and for full slideshow)
Based on the boasts of Comodohacker, hes compromised six certificate authorities (CAs) this year, including Comodo in March and DigiNotar in July. Hes also claimed to have exploited at least four more, including GlobalSign.
But the Comodohacker also said that he was
unable to hack
into StartCom Certification Authority, despite managing to access its network and a hardware security module (HSM). I already connected to their HSM, got access to their HSM, sent my request, but lucky Eddy . . . was sitting behind HSM and was doing manual verification, according to a Comodohacker
post
.
In other words, StartCom successfully defended itself, while--at least by ComodoHackers count--a half-dozen similar businesses got hacked.
Asked about what exactly tripped up Comodohacker, Eddy Nigg--founder, COO, and CTO of StartCom--said via email that he didnt want to reveal too much. Thats the way he experienced it, [but] from the technical point of view its obviously a bit different. But I dont want to spoil it and provide unnecessary information, as you might understand.
Technical details aside, what can other businesses learn from StartComs approach to security? Here are four lessons:
1. Assess Your Business Partners.
The attack against Comodo succeeded not in a frontal assault, but by exploiting its reseller business partners. In other words, a business decision by Comodo had security repercussions. They obviously took an undue risk by letting so-called registration authorities (RA) turned resellers issue certificates directly without any further verification. This is what turned it into a successful attack, by misusing a third party and not Comodo itself, said Nigg. At StartCom, we made a conscious decision not to implement such a model.
2. In Trust Model, Be Forthright.
Why is
Comodo
still in business, while DigiNotar is not? The issue isnt necessarily that DigiNotars attacker managed to issue 531 bad certificates, including for Google, Microsoft, as well as the
CIA and MI6
. Rather, its that the entire public key infrastructure model is based on trust, and DigiNotar failed to respect that, because its management team didnt warn anyone until weeks after the breach was discovered. What went wrong [technically] with DigiNotar I really cant say, but the fact that they tried to cover it up was the biggest failure of all, said Nigg. This is a breach of trust without proportions.
3. Think Like An Attacker.
Expect to be hacked. We anticipated and planned for a possible breaches and attacks in various forms. Its naive to assume that the servers, infrastructure, and networks are secure--one must plan for the event that the front layers are breached, monitor it, detect, and react, said Nigg. Ensure that the plan covers not only policies and procedures, but also program implementation and ongoing operations. And when you get attacked, learn from the experience to make the defenses stronger.
4. Watch Infrastructure Closely.
Keep a close eye on infrastructure. For example, we NEVER leave the CA unattended. We control all critical servers physically and logically all the time. We can shut them down within less than a minute if necessary. We monitor all networks in real time, all the time, said Nigg. This isnt something you can teach in a few minutes, its an attitude, a way of life.
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How StartCom Foiled Comodohacker: 4 Lessons