USB security in cloud, on-premise, hybrid and/or air-gapped environments

08/09/2021 – Product overview: secRMM is a Windows security solution that audits and controls access to removable storage devices (i.e. USB drives and mobile devices).  secRMM is very easy to implement in that it can operate on a standalone Windows computer (even XP!) or can be centrally managed for thousands of computers.  It can be configured to have security policies for computers and/or groups of users.

Article details: The ‘secRMM Policy Configurator’ program makes it easy for you to use one ‘User Interface’ (UI) program regardless of the way you want to deploy the ‘USB security policies’ to your endpoint computers.  Even if you have computers that are on an isolated network (the popular computer phrase for this is ‘air-gapped’).  This is common in highly classified environments where the computers may be running in a ‘sensitive compartmented information facility’ (SCIF).  Or even if you have completely standalone computers (i.e no network connection). 

The ‘secRMM Policy Configurator’ supports (today) 4 different modes:

1. Microsoft SCCM (also called: Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MECM))

Microsoft calls this the on-premise solution.

Please note the secRMM also has a fully integrated ‘SCCM Console Extension’ so that you can deploy, configure, report and view ‘live dashboard charts’ from right within the SCCM console.
Which User Interface you use (or both!) is entirely up to you.

_{secRMM Policy Configurator in SCCM mode}

2. Microsoft Intune (also called: Endpoint Manager)

Microsoft calls this the cloud solution.

_{secRMM Policy Configurator in Intune mode}

3. Microsoft Active Directory Group Policy Objects (AD GPO)

This is another on-premise solution from Microsoft.

_{secRMM Policy Configurator in Active Directory GPO mode}

4. Endpoint

This is the term we chose to call when you are operating in an air-gapped or standalone computer mode.

_{secRMM Policy Configurator in Endpoint mode}

As you can see from the screenshots above, each mode has a slightly different set of properties that are required to utilize the mode.  The ‘secRMM Policy Configurator’ handles the differences between the modes so that when you are creating, editing or deleting a USB security policy, it always looks just the same, regardless of the mode.  You can see the common editor in the screenshot below.

_{secRMM Policy Configurator editor}

If you would like to use the ‘secRMM Policy Configurator’ support, you can download it from the Squadra Technologies web site:
 www.squadratechnologies.com->software->secRMM->Download->Optional Downloads->secRMM Policy Configurator as shown in the screenshot below.

_{Where to download the secRMM Policy Configurator}

Closing: We hope you find this tool useful for your environment(s).  Please let us know what you think or if you have a requirement for a different environment/framework.  You can get more details about secRMM by visiting https://www.squadratechnologies.com.

Capture “removable storage device serial number(s)” using Powershell

03/23/2021 – Product overview: secRMM is a Windows security solution that audits and controls access to removable storage devices (i.e. USB drives and mobile devices).  secRMM is very easy to implement in that it can operate on a standalone Windows computer (even XP!) or can be centrally managed for thousands of computers.  It can be configured to have security policies for computers and/or groups of users.

Article details: One of the most popular security policies for removable storage is to only allow certain devices into your environment.  This is done using the removable storage device “serial number”.  Every device has a unique serial number.  secRMM has a property called “AllowedSerialNumbers”.  So, all you have to do is to tell secRMM which devices you want to allow (white-list) into your environment by telling it the serial number of the device(s).  Easy…but how do you get the serial number to begin with?  Well, you can use secRMM to do this.  Just plug in the device and go into the secRMM event log.  There will be an ONLINE event for the device you just plugged in and it will tell you the serial number.  But, somewhat of a pain if you must do this for tens or hundreds of devices.  OK, let’s combine Powershell and secRMM to put the serial numbers into the clipboard so we can just do a paste each time we plug in a device:

Sorry some of the lines wrap in the script but just copy the whole script and save it to a ps1 file.
We named it GetSecRMMOnlineEventsFromEventLog.ps1 but you can name it anything you like, just make sure the file has a ps1 extension so that Windows will associate the file with the PowerShell program.

#****************************************************************************
#
#  Module: GetSecRMMOnlineEventsFromEventLog.ps1
#
#  Purpose: Get secRMM ONLINE Events asynchronously.
#           The script will put the device serial number into the Clipboard.
#           It can be pasted into the secRMM AllowedSerialNumbers property.
#
#  Copyright (c) 2021 Squadra Technologies 
#   
#****************************************************************************

$secRMM = "secRMM";
$secRMMEventId = 400;
$secRMMPowershellModule = "secRMMParsingPowershell";
$sourceIdentifier = $secRMM;
$messageData = $secRMM;

$WMINamespace = "root\CIMV2";
$WMIClass = "Win32_NTLogEvent";
$WMIQueryFormatString = 
	"select * from __InstanceCreationEvent " + `
	"where TargetInstance isa '{0}' " + `
	"and TargetInstance.logfile = '{1}' " + `
	"and (TargetInstance.EventCode = '{2}')";
$WMIQuery = $WMIQueryFormatString -f $WMIClass, $secRMM, $secRMMEventId;
    
$OutputFormat = "xml"; # csv, xml, html, json

	# [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.Windows.Forms');

$PsModulePath =  [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('PSModulePath',						[System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine);

	if ($PsModulePath -like '*AdminUtils\\SDK\\Powershell\\secRMMParsingPowershell*')
	{
		$AssemblyName = $secRMMPowershellModule + ".dll";
	}
	else
	{
		$AssemblyName = 
		"C:\\Program Files\\secRMM\\AdminUtils\\SDK\\Powershell\\secRMMParsingPowershell\\secRMMParsingPowershell.dll"
	}

	Import-Module $AssemblyName;

	try
	{
		try
		{
			$message = 
			'Waiting on {0} event.  Please hit CTRL-C to stop waiting.' `
			-f $secRMM;
			
			Register-WmiEvent `
				-ComputerName "." `
				-Namespace $WMINamespace `
				-Query $WMIQuery `
				-Timeout 0 `
				-SourceIdentifier $sourceIdentifier `
				-MessageData $messageData;
			
			Clear-Host;

			While ($true) 
			{
				Write-Host $message;
				$event = Wait-Event -SourceIdentifier $sourceIdentifier;
				Remove-Event -SourceIdentifier $sourceIdentifier;
				$TimeGenerated =
				[Management.ManagementDateTimeConverter]::ToDateTime(
				$event.SourceEventArgs.NewEvent.TargetInstance.TimeGenerated);
				$secRMMEventInterface =
				Get-secRMMEventData `
					-Id $event.SourceEventArgs.NewEvent.TargetInstance.EventCode `
					-TimeCreated $TimeGenerated `
					-MachineName $event.SourceEventArgs.NewEvent.TargetInstance.ComputerName `
					-Message $event.SourceEventArgs.NewEvent.TargetInstance.Message;
				if ($secRMMEventInterface)
				{
					$secRMMEvent =
					$secRMMEventInterface.
						Output("OnlyRelevantColumns", # OnlyRelevantColumns, AllColumns
						$OutputFormat);
					if ($secRMMEvent)
					{
						[xml]$Xml = $secRMMEvent;
						$Xpath = "/secRMMEvent/SerialNumber";
						$XmlNodes = $Xml.SelectNodes($Xpath)
						if ($null -ne $XmlNodes) 
						{
							foreach ($XmlNode in $XmlNodes) 
							{
								$innerText = $XmlNode.InnerText;
								if ($innerText)
								{
									Set-Clipboard -Value $innerText;
									# $messageBoxMessage = ("serial number: {0} in Clipboard" -f $innerText);
									# [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show($messageBoxMessage, $secRMM);
									[System.Console]::Beep(1000,300);
								}
								else
								{
									Write-Error "Could not get serial number";
								}
								break;				
							}
						}						
						else
						{
							Write-Error "Could not get secRMMEvent XML";
						}
					}
					else
					{
						Write-Error "Could not get secRMMEvent";
					}
				}
				else
				{
					Write-Error "Could not get secRMMEventInterface";
				}
			}
		}
		catch
		{
			$Exception = $_;
			Write-Host $Exception.Exception.Message;
			$sourceIdentifier = $null;
		}
	}
	finally
	{
		if ($sourceIdentifier)
		{
			Write-Host 'Unregistering event source and terminating.'
			Unregister-Event -SourceIdentifier $sourceIdentifier -Force;	
		}
		Remove-Module -Name secRMMParsingPowershell;
	}

Just run this script (as a local or domain Administrator) and when you want to stop it from running, just hit CTRL-C.

We hope you find this script useful for your environment.  Please let us know what you think or if you have a requirement for a different script.  You can get more details about secRMM by visiting https://www.squadratechnologies.com.

Microsoft EndPoint Manager (SCCM) gets live dashboard for USB removable storage security events

06/10/2020 – Brief Overview: secRMM is a Windows security solution that audits and controls access to removable storage devices.  secRMM is very easy to implement in that it can operate on a standalone Windows computer or can be centrally managed for thousands of computers.  It can be configured to have security policies for computers and/or groups of users.

YouTube Video at: https://youtu.be/vBinHpeqAl8

secRMM can be integrated directly into the SCCM console by installing the “secRMM SCCM console extension”.  The “secRMM SCCM console extension” now includes a “live” dashboard (i.e. charts showing you various aspects of your removable storage environment).  Microsoft has a specific location under the Monitoring->Security folder and this is also where you will find the “Removable Media Dashboard”.

An important note for all of the secRMM customers who do not use SCCM, the “Removable Media Dashboard” is also available without SCCM so you may use it as well!

Well, a picture is worth a 1000 words so below are some screen shots of the SCCM console.

RemovableMediaDashboard1

RemovableMediaDashboard2

If you will notice the green progress bar on each chart (under the title), this is where you can tell the charts to refresh themselves.  They can each be configured to different times depending on your environment.  You can rearrange the charts in any order you like just by dragging and dropping them.

Configuring the charts is also easy.  Below is the Settings window which gives you access to configuring the charts.

RemovableMediaDashboard3

If you want the charts to not refresh automatically (like the other SCCM charts), just set the “Refresh time units” to “None”.

Those of you who are already using the “secRMM SCCM console extension” know that you can configure the “Removable Media security policies” for your environment in the SCCM console->”Assets and Compliance”->”Endpoint Protection”->”Removable Media Policies”.  Now, at that location, there is a new menu button called “Removable Media Dashboard”.  This is if you want to run the “Removable Media Dashboard” outside of the SCCM console.

RemovableMediaDashboard4

If you run the “Removable Media Dashboard” outside of the SCCM console, you have the exact same functionality as within the SCCM console but you can also connect to different data sources (where your secRMM data resides).  The “Removable Media Dashboard” includes the following data sources:

1. SCCM WQL
2. SCCM Database (direct)
3. secRMMCentral Database
4. SCOM Database
5. secRMM Event Log
6. secRMMCentral Event Log
7. Azure Log

RemovableMediaDashboard5

We hope you find this new tool useful for your environment.  Please let us know what you think or if you have a requirement for a new chart.  You can get more details about secRMM and the “Removable Media Dashboard” by visiting https://www.squadratechnologies.com.

Use a Smartcard (DOD CAC card) to access a USB removable storage device

Smart Card

03/25/2020 – Overview: secRMM is a Windows security solution that audits and controls access to removable storage devices.  secRMM is very easy to implement in that it can operate on a standalone Windows computer or can be centrally managed for thousands of computers.  It can be configured to have security policies for computers and/or groups of users.

As of secRMM version 9.9.24.0, secRMM has a security property (named RequireSmartCard) that requires the end-user to specify a Smartcard password before he can access a USB connected removable storage device.  This includes mobile devices and any other type of device that exposes storage to the Windows operating system.

Watch the youtube video at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8HUjUQpYkk.

If you are an IT person, you have probably heard the term “multi-factor authentication” (MFA).  The secRMM RequireSmartCard property is a classic example of MFA because when you turn it on (it is a simple checkbox), the end-user will then need 2 things to be able to access the USB removable storage:

1. A Windows userid/password
2. The password that is associated with the digital certificate on the Smart-Card

Note that a lot of the documentation you will see about Smartcards refers to the password as a PIN.  A PIN is the same as a password in that only the owner of the Smartcard should know it (the PIN/password).

While we are on MFA, you should know that secRMM offers another form of MFA for mobile devices.  That secRMM property is named RequireSmartPhoneLogin (although more accurately should be named RequireMobileDeviceLogin because it works just the same for tablets as well).  To implement RequireSmartPhoneLogin, the end-user’s mobile device needs the secRMM Login app which is in the Android, Apple, BlackBerry and Windows App stores (see https://www.squadratechnologies.com/Products/secRMM/secRMMSmartPhoneApps.aspx)

Back to RequireSmartCard, let’s look at what the end-user will see when they insert a removable storage device into their Windows computer.  In the screenshots below, you will notice that we are using a self-signed digital certificate to show you how the software works.  In production environments, you will have a certificate that comes from a “trusted certificate authority” (CA).  Trusted certificate authorities are companies (but can also be a server within your company) that are trusted and validated to issue security digital certificates to your company/organization.

The screenshot below just shows how to turn on RequireSmartCard.  Whether you are performing this on a standalone computer or centrally, it is just a checkbox to check.

secRMM RequireSmartCard

Now, let’s see when the end-user plugs in a thumb drive into the computer.  The end-user gets prompted (Yes or No) to proceed with authenticating their access to the thumb drive with their Smartcard.

secRMM RequireSmartCard

If they choose No, then the thumb drive is not available and a pop-up message is sent to the end-user (see screenshot below).  Note that this text is customizable for your environment.

secRMM RequireSmartCard

As a security administrator, we would like to know what the end-user did, so an event is sent to the secRMM/security event log indicating the end-user clicked No as shown in the screenshot below.

secRMM RequireSmartCard

In addition, we get an error in the secRMM/security event log indicating a more detailed event which includes the details of the device that the end-user tried to mount (as shown in the screenshot below).

secRMM RequireSmartCard

Now, let’s look at the end-user’s experience when they click the Yes button.

secRMM RequireSmartCard

secRMM RequireSmartCard

Once the PIN is entered, then they can access the thumb drive as they normally do (probably using Windows Explorer).  What the security administrator sees are the following 2 screenshots below.

secRMM RequireSmartCard

secRMM RequireSmartCard

Since the Additional Smart Card Info is on a single line, we have expanded it below.  The values are the details about the security certificate on the Smartcard.

Additional Smart Card Info:
CertName: SquadraRoot,
ContainerName: SquadraRoot-524f3017-2e9b-4cbd-a5-00974,
SerialNumber: ff1a97dc6dc1149b4e47bf356b06b072,
Issuer: SquadraRoot,
Subject: C=US, S=NV, L=Las Vegas, OU=Development, O=Squadra Technologies, CN=SquadraRoot,
Valid from: Saturday, January 1, 2000 12:00:00 AM,
Valid to: Thursday, January 1, 2099 12:00:00 AM
(Pacific Daylight Time [GMT-7])

We hope this secRMM feature helps you secure your environment when it comes to removable storage access by your end-users.  Please let us know if you have any questions.  You can reach us at:  support@squadratechnologies.com

Squadra Technologies Launches New Security Information and Events Management (SIEM) integration Powered by Microsoft Azure Sentinel

For Release 08:00 AM PST
01/27/2020

Squadra Technologies secRMM continues Microsoft security services integration

Las Vegas, NV. — 01/27/2020 — Using the services provided by Microsoft Azure, Squadra Technologies announces the availability of secRMM integration with Microsoft Azure Sentinel.

The secRMM integration with Azure Sentinel supplies Azure Sentinel customers with secRMM generated events and alerts to further enrich Azure Sentinel investigations, particularly where USB is a vector for Initial Access and Exfiltration.

“Our customers use Microsoft security services and need us to integrate into the various Microsoft security services and products.  secRMM’s integrations with Microsoft help our customers understand USB removable storage usage within their environment and then to define security policies to restrict USB removable storage usage where possible,” said Anthony LaMark, Chief Technology Officer at Squadra Technologies.

secRMM integration with Azure Sentinel has also earned  Squadra Technologies membership in the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA).

“secRMM has been a valuable add-on security component to Microsoft Endpoint Manager over the past years.  By integrating with Microsoft’s  cloud-native SIEM, secRMM will help security teams to easily identify removable storage usage/incidents both in the cloud and on-premises,” said Adwait Joshi, director, Azure Security at Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft security stack with secRMM

For more information:

Kevin Furgal
760.846.6844
kevin@squadratechnologies.com

For more information on Squadra Technologies secRMM:

http://www.squadratechnologies.com

Combining secRMM with Windows Remote Management and Powershell

01/14/2020 – secRMM is tightly integrated into most all of the Microsoft enterprise security tools:  SCCM, Intune (now combined into Microsoft Endpoint Manager [MEM]), Active Directory Group Policy Objects (AD GPO), Azure Sentinel and Security Center via Azure Log Analytics, etc.

However, some environments may not have these enterprise tools at their disposal.  After all, one of the main points about secRMM is that it is fully functional on a standalone Windows computer (from XP up to W10 and all server versions).  So if I were an IT admin in a small networked environment, I would still desire to be able to manage secRMM on multiple computers from a central location just like SCCM, Intune and Active Directory provide.  The way to do this is to use “Windows Remote Management” (WinRM).

Powershell and WinRM are integrated and combined, it lets you run scripts on one or more remote computers.  This is the perfect technology to “roll our own” SCCM or Intune or AD GPO functionality for secRMM!

Watch the youtube video at : https://youtu.be/05U8Zw2NBdU.

So, here is an example of how we can do this.  Below are 2 powershell scripts named RemoteSecRMMDriver.ps1 and SetSecRMMProperty.ps1.  As the name implies, RemoteSecRMMDriver.ps1 will be our driver program and it will call SetSecRMMProperty.ps1 via the Invoke-Command so that SetSecRMMProperty.ps1 will be executed on the remote computer(s).

The relevant PowerShell command to make note of are:
New-PSSession
Invoke-Command
Remove-PSSession

RemoteSecRMMDriver.ps1:

$RemoteComputerNames=”Computer1, Computer2″; 

$secRMMProperties = @{
   “BlockProgramsOnDevice” = “$TRUE”;
   “AllowedSerialNumbers” = “123;ABC”;
   “RequireSmartPhoneLogin” = “$TRUE”;
};

$ScriptToRun=”SetSecRMMProperty.ps1″;
$AdditionalData = -join(“ran remote script “,
   $PSCommandPath,
   ” from “,
   $env:computername,
   ” on target computer(s): “,
   $RemoteComputerNames);

$PSSession = New-PSSession -ComputerName $RemoteComputerNames;

If ($PSSession.State -eq ‘Opened’)
{
   $RemoteCommand = -join($PSScriptRoot,”\”,$ScriptToRun);

   foreach ($secRMMProperty in $secRMMProperties.GetEnumerator()) {
      $PropertyName = $secRMMProperty.Name;
      $PropertyValue = $secRMMProperty.Value;
      Invoke-Command -Session $PSSession -FilePath $RemoteCommand `
      -ArgumentList $PropertyName, $PropertyValue, $AdditionalData;
}

   Remove-PSSession $PSSession;
}
else
{
   Write-Host “Error opening remote session to $RemoteComputerNames”;
}

SetSecRMMProperty.ps1:

param([string]$PropertyName_in,
[string]$PropertyValue_in,
[string]$AdditionalData_in=””,
[string]$UserSID_in=””)

$PropertyName = $PropertyName_in;

if ($PropertyValue_in -eq “$TRUE”) {
   $PropertyValue = $TRUE;
} elseif ($PropertyValue_in -eq “$FALSE”) {
   $PropertyValue = $FALSE;
} else {
   $PropertyValue = $PropertyValue_in;
}

$AdditionalData = $AdditionalData_in;

$objSecRMM = new-object -comobject secRMMInterface;
$objSecRMM.SetProperty($PropertyName, $PropertyValue, $AdditionalData);

Write-Host “$PropertyName set to $PropertyValue”;

We hope these secRMM Powershell scripts help you easily manage your USB security data when you may not have the luxury of using enterprise management tools.  Please let us know if you have any questions.  You can reach us at: support@squadratechnologies.com.

USB Devices: “Analyzing security”: “what is happening in my environment” using Excel Charts

02/08/2019 – secRMM is Windows security software that records all the events related to USB storage devices.  This includes thumb/flash drives, external hard drives, SD-Cards and mobile devices.  With secRMM, you see the who, what, when, where and how about all the USB storage in your computer environment.

secRMM comes with a utility to help you analyze the data in an easy way.  The utility is called the secRMM Excel Add-In.  As the name implies, it extends Excel.  Microsoft offers Office Add-Ins for most of the programs in the Office suite.

secRMM Excel Add-In Ribbon Bar (click to enlarge screenshot)

As you can see in the screenshot above, Excel has a tab in the ribbon bar named secRMM.  The secRMM section contains various methods for you to pull the secRMM data into the Excel Worksheets.  Once you have loaded the secRMM security data, you can use all the native Excel features (filtering, finds, macros, etc.).

We have added a new feature into the secRMM Add-In.  This is the “Charts” feature.  While you can manipulate the data in any way you want to make your own Charts, we made an automated way for you to see the most common scenarios with just a couple of mouse clicks.

secRMM Charts button (click to enlarge screenshot)

Once you have some secRMM data loaded and you click the Charts button, you will be presented with a dialog (see below) that will let you specify the start/end times and the chart(s) you want to generate.  You can also specify what type of Excel chart to create for each chart.  Microsoft offers many Excel chart types.  The Excel chart type is totally up to you.

secRMM Charts input form (click to enlarge screenshot)

Once you specify your time range, which charts and chart type, you will see the charts on the “Charts” worksheet (see below).

Currently, the automated charts are for:

1. secRMM events
2. Users
3. Computers
4. USB Devices

As you can see in the screenshots below (btw, the data at the axis has intentionally been chopped), you can easily see the: who (users), what (events), when (via time range), where (computer) and how (devices) of USB security activity occurring in your environment.

We hope the secRMM charts help you easily analyze your USB security data.  Please let us know if you have any questions.  You can reach us at support@squadratechnologies.com.

secRMM Events Chart (click to enlarge screenshot)

secRMM Users Chart (click to enlarge screenshot)

secRMM Computers Chart (click to enlarge screenshot)

secRMM Devices Chart (click to enlarge screenshot)

Combine “Mobile Device Management” (MDM) with USB Plug/Play “Data Loss Prevention” (DLP) using SCCM and/or Intune

01/29/2018 – secRMM has a security property that applies specifically to mobile devices. secRMM can verify when a mobile device is connected to a Windows computer over a USB cable if that device is enrolled in your organizations MDM. If it is not, secRMM can either unmount the device or prevent files from being copied to it. secRMM gets the list of mobile devices from either Microsoft Intune (Microsoft’s MDM) or from Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (a complete enterprise configuration management and security tool) (SCCM). Below, are some of the relevant screenshots of how the components get tied together and just what they look like if you have not seen them.

SCCM and Intune exchange mobile device information thru a data connector. You define the data connector in the SCCM console (screen shot below).  Microsoft calls this a “Microsoft Intune Subscription”.  This terminology matches up with how you buy Intune (as a service subscription).

SCCM/Intune data connector

The next screen shot below is of the Intune console within Azure. It is a list of the mobile devices that are defined in our organizations cloud instance. This instance is used for our development purposes only.

Microsoft Azure Intune portal

When the Intune/SCCM data connector is active, then you can see the mobile devices in Intune show (and are managed) by SCCM (see screenshot below).

SCCM console for mobile devices

From the SCCM console (with the secRMM SCCM Console Extension installed), you can use SCCM to configure secRMM so that when the mobile device is connected to a Windows computer over USB, secRMM will see if it is enrolled in either Intune or SCCM.

The screenshot below shows how to tell secRMM whether to use Intune or SCCM data to verify if the mobile device is enrolled.

SCCM console to configure ‘RequreMDMEnrollment’

One important configuration item is the secRMM MDM Cache. Using the secRMM MDM Cache improves runtime performance and minimizes the number of times it will call into Intune or SCCM.

The last configuration step is associating the mobile device as it is defined in Intune or SCCM with the mobile device firmware serial number that secRMM uses when it is connected to a Windows computer over a USB cable. To make this association, there is a secRMM “link mobile device” utility (see screen shot below).

secRMM link mobile devices utility

secRMM link mobile devices utility

You get the firmware serial number that secRMM uses to identify the mobile device from the secRMM event data (screen shot below).

secRMM ONLINE event for a mobile device

If the mobile device is not enrolled, the end user will get a pop-up error (screenshot below).

mobile device is not MDM enrolled user pop-up error message

As the system or security administrator, you will see an error generated by secRMM as shown in the secRMM Excel AddIn utility (screenshot below).

secRMM error ONLINE event for mobile device not MDM enrolled

We understand there are many pieces to line up. Feel free to contact Squadra Technologies support to help in getting this powerful security feature up and running in your environment. Visit http://www.squadratechnologies.com for more information about secRMM.

GDPR – COMPLIANCE WILL REQUIRE ADDRESSING USB DATA LOSS – PART 2

Two weeks ago we wrote about GDPR and the requirement to address USB Data Loss.  This week we will be diving deeper into the specifics of GDPR, our interpretation and how secRMM can help.

As a recap, GDPR is the new regulation to protect EU citizens’ personal data, replacing the current directive from 1995 and establishing a single set of rules across the European Union.

GDPR outlines a set of obligations organizations have with respect to data encryption and storage, handling personal data as well as record keeping and breach notification.  Failure to meet those obligations can be costly, with fines ranging up to €20 million, or 4% of a company’s total worldwide sales, whichever is greater. Non-European companies don’t escape the reach of GDPR either.  By having even a single European customer a non-EU based company is required to meet the GDPR requirements.

Below we will highlight the specific GDPR articles that relate to USB Data Loss, our interpretations of the requirements and how we can help.

Article 30 – Records of Processing Activities

GDPR specifies: 1. Each controller and, where applicable, the controller’s representative, shall maintain a record of processing activities under its responsibility. That record shall contain all of the following information. g) a general description of the technical and organizational security measures referred to in Article 32(1).”

 

“2. Each processor and, where applicable, the processor’s representative shall maintain a record of all categories of processing activities carried out on behalf of a controller, containing d) where possible, a general description of the technical and organizational security measures referred to in Article 32(1).

 

Out interpretation: Records are fundamentally audit logs.  When it comes to copying data on and off USB devices it is critical that very detailed audit records are created and stored.

How secRMM can help:  secRMM has unrivaled audit capability.  All data being copied to USB devices is fully audited and stored to the windows event log.  From the source perspective, this includes full path information, including network path as well as machine and user identifiers.  From the USB destination perspective this captures device identifier and manufacturer.

 

Article 32 – “Security of processing” – Part 1 a,b

1. Taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing as well as the risk of varying likelihood and severity for the rights and freedoms of natural persons, the controller and the processor shall implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk, including inter alia as appropriate:

(a) the pseudonymisation and encryption of personal data;

=> Article: 4

(b) the ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services;

 

Our interpretation:  As it applies to USB devices, this part of article 32 fundamentally means encryption.  Confidentiality is about protecting the information from disclosure to unauthorized parties.  When it comes to USB, the best mechanism to do that is to block copying of data to removable devices or to ensure that any data copied to those devices is encrypted.

How secRMM can help.  secRMM has robust controls to manage access to USB and attached removable devices.  secRMM has the capability to deny write access to non-encrypted storage.  You have the ability to block or allow devices by vendor ID and device ID.  With smartphones replacing thumb-drives as an easily accessible removable media, you can even require on-device authentication using the secRMM app to be sure that only authorized users are able to copy files to only authorized removable devices.  Additionally this allows you to continue to support USB and not completely block use of it so that you do not hamper employee productivity with unnecessary roadblocks.

 

Article 32 – “Security of processing” – Part 2

2. In assessing the appropriate level of security account shall be taken in particular of the risks that are presented by processing, in particular from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.

Our interpretation:  This part is about preventing data leakage. From a USB perspective this is a requirement to prevent the “USB device found in parking lot with customer data” from happening in the future.

How secRMM can help – secRMM is a Data Loss Prevention solution for USB and Removable Media.  Similar to above with confidentiality which is ultimately about preventing unauthorized disclosure.  Using secRMM’s capabilities to require encryption, specific supported secure devices and on-device authentication via our smartphone app will allow you to meet this requirement when it comes to USB and removable media.  Additionally, secRMM has controls to prevent writing of data to USB devices by file type or name, providing an additional level of control to prevent unauthorized copying of personal data to removable devices.

Article 32 – “Security of processing” – Part 4

4. The controller and processor shall take steps to ensure that any natural person acting under the authority of the controller or the processor who has access to personal data does not process them except on instructions from the controller, unless he or she is required to do so by Union or Member State law.

 

Our interpretation: From a USB and policy point of view, this requires that actions taken to move personal data to USB removable storage are done so on instruction from the controller.  From a technology implementation perspective this is addressed by deploying policy around how information may be accessed and copied to USB, and modifications to those policies are logged into audit log.

How secRMM can help: secRMM provides the facility to not only audit and control the capabilities to access and write to USB removable media, it also audits the modification of the policies.  This ensures that any action taken by the administrator – in this case you could interpret as the controller or under the authority of the controller.  In this case you can be sure that all changes to policy  are logged and recorded to support your adherence to this requirement.

GDPR is coming quickly and will be enforced May, 2018.  Take the time now to ensure that USB and removable media are part of your data protection plan.

What to do next?

Contact us to see a demonstration of our solution.

Or watch an overview of the secRMM integration with Microsoft Systems Center.

Or if you’re really impatient, jump right to downloading the trial.

My Apple Mobile Device stopped charging over USB on W10!

secRMM has always been able to offer a feature that blocks mobile devices (well, any removable storage for that matter) from mounting their file system to Windows when attached over USB but still lets it pull power from the USB port.  This is the best of both worlds for the end-user and the security administrator because the end-user can still charge their mobile device and/or listen to their music while the security administrator can be assured that the end-user cannot copy files to the device.  Regardless of secRMM, Apple has made it pretty difficult to transfer files to the Apple device.  However, secRMM comes with GUI programs that exposes more of the Apple mobile devices file system, allowing the end-user to copy files to and from the device into their app data directory(s).  That is contradictory to secRMMs security features but some organizations require file transfer functionality to Apple devices, especially if they have large amounts of data to transfer.  The secRMM GUI still adheres to the secRMM security policies (of course).  That is not the subject of this blog however.

We received a support incident from one of our customers.  He said that when they upgraded to Windows 10, their users were complaining that their Apple devices stopped pulling power when connected to the USB port.  Searching the Internet took us to https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6773753?start=0&tstart=0.  If you do a text search in your browser (once you are on the URL) for “Fix 2:”, you will see how to fix the issue.  There were lots of responses to the suggested fix, from SCCM Administrators.  So, we knew we had to pursue this approach.  

We did end up making a SCCM script application since the fix had to be implemented on all the W10 machines in the environment.  Below is the CMD script that we deployed via SCCM.  You need to make sure that the two Apple MSI files (appleapplicationsupport64.msi and applemobiledevicesupport6464.msi) are in the same directory as the script.  I am sure someone out there will be able to offer improvements to the script…so we are anxious to hear from you!

In summary, secRMM continues to help IT organizations and security professionals manage the events around removable storage, especially mobile technology but sometimes, you have to tweak the environment!  Please let us know what you think.

 

 

@ECHO OFF
REM **************************************************************************
REM
REM Module: AppleDriverFix.cmd version 3
REM
REM Purpose: Fix registry so that apple device drivers can be upgraded
REM
REM Reason: On W10, if the apple drivers are not loaded and the apple
REM mobile device is not mounted to the W10 OS but physically
REM connected with a USB cable, the apple mobile device does not
REM charge (i.e. pull power thru the USB cable). This will happen
REM if you use the “Enforce when device is plugged in” on one of
REM the secRMM policy(s).
REM
REM Copyright (c) 2017 Squadra Technologies
REM
REM **************************************************************************

setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
set regkeyroot=HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products
set regvalue=ProductName
set regvalue2=Version
set regvaluevaluetofind=Apple Application Support (64-bit)
set secRMMVersionFix=3
set AppleInstall1=”%~dp0%appleapplicationsupport64.msi”
set AppleInstall2=”%~dp0%applemobiledevicesupport6464.msi”

REM set logToNetworkShare=
set logToNetworkShare=\\Server1\Apps\SysUtils\SecRMM\AppleDriverFixLogs\

if “%logToNetworkShare%” == “” (
set log=”%~dp0%COMPUTERNAME%_%~n0.log”
) else (
set log=”%logToNetworkShare%%COMPUTERNAME%_%~n0.log”
)

set regfile=”%~dp0%~n0.reg”
if exist %log% del %log%
if exist %regfile% del %regfile%

@echo %COMPUTERNAME% > %log%
call :GetAppleApplicationSupportProduct
if defined regkey (
@echo Found registry key !regkey! as !regvaluevalue! >> %log%
call :GetAppleApplicationSupportVersion
if defined regvalueVersion (
@echo Found registry value %regvalue2% value as !regvalueVersion! >> %log%
IF EXIST %AppleInstall1% (
IF EXIST %AppleInstall2% (
if NOT “!regvalueVersion!” == “0x0” (
CALL :UpdateRegistry 0
if !UpdatedRegistry! EQU 0 (
call :CallMsiexecForAppleDrivers
) else (
@echo Registry fix for %regkey% failed >> %log%
)
) else (
echo regkey Version is already 0 !regvalueVersion! >> %log%
CALL :UpdateRegistry 1
if !UpdatedRegistry! EQU 0 (
call :CallMsiexecForAppleDrivers
) else (
@echo Registry fix for %regkey% failed >> %log%
)
)
) ELSE (
@echo %AppleInstall2% NOT FOUND. >> %log%
)
) ELSE (
@echo %AppleInstall1% NOT FOUND. >> %log%
)
) else (
echo regkey Version is not found >> %log%
)
) else (
echo regkey is not found >> %log%
)

exit /b 0

REM ==========================================================================
:GetAppleApplicationSupportProduct
FOR /F “usebackq tokens=1-2,*” %%A IN (`REG QUERY %regkeyroot% /F %regvalue% /s`) DO (
IF “%%B” == “” (
SET regkey=%%A
) ELSE (
SET regvalue1=%%A
SET regdatatype=%%B
SET regvaluevalue=%%C

IF “!regvaluevalue!” == “!regvaluevaluetofind!” (
goto :FoundRegKey
)
)
)
:FoundRegKey
exit /b 0

REM ==========================================================================
:GetAppleApplicationSupportVersion
FOR /F “usebackq skip=2 tokens=1-2,*” %%A IN (`REG QUERY %regkey% /F %regvalue2%`) DO (
set regvalueVersion=%%C
goto :FoundVersion
)
:FoundVersion
exit /b 0

REM ==========================================================================
:UpdateRegistry
echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 > %regfile%
echo( >> %regfile%
echo ^; ProductName=Apple Application Support ^(64-bit^) fix 5010000 >> %regfile%
echo [%regkey%] >> %regfile%
if “%1″==”0” (echo “Version”=dword:0 >> %regfile%)
echo “secRMMVersionFix”=dword:%secRMMVersionFix% >> %regfile%
@echo Calling reg import. >> %log%
REG.exe IMPORT %regfile% > nul 2>&1
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 (
@echo Registry fix for %regkey% succeeded >> %log%
set UpdatedRegistry=0
) else (
set UpdatedRegistry=1
)

exit /b !UpdatedRegistry!

REM ==========================================================================
:CallMsiexecForAppleDrivers
IF EXIST %AppleInstall1% (
IF EXIST %AppleInstall2% (
set MsiexecAppleInstall1=msiexec /i %AppleInstall1% /quiet
set MsiexecAppleInstall2=msiexec /i %AppleInstall2% /quiet

@echo %MsiexecAppleInstall1% >> %log%
%MsiexecAppleInstall1%

@echo %MsiexecAppleInstall2% >> %log%
%MsiexecAppleInstall2%
) ELSE (
@echo %AppleInstall2% NOT FOUND. >> %log%
)
) ELSE (
@echo %AppleInstall1% NOT FOUND. >> %log%
)

exit /b 0

REM ==========================================================================
:EOF
endlocal