rsa conference 2011 presentation: byoc: securing untrusted, employee-owned desktops

Session ID: xxx-xxxx

Session Classification: xxxxxxxxxxxx

John Whaley

CTO, MokaFive

BYOC: Securing Untrusted, Employee-Owned Desktops

Agenda

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What is BYOC?

Techniques for BYOC

BYOC Security Considerations

Keys to a Successful BYOC Deployment

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BYOC: Securing Untrusted, Employee-Owned Desktops

What is BYOC?

� BYOC = “Bring your own Computer”

� a.k.a. BYOPC, BYOL

� Three models:

1. Employer provides a stipend for the employee to purchase their laptop of choice, which will then be owned by the employee.

2. Employee chooses laptop from a list of pre-approved machines.

3. Employee is given instructions on how to connect to corporate resources, but can use any machine.

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Why BYOC?

� User demand

� Choice computing

� “Executive bling”

� Extension of smartphones

� New generation – “millennials”

� Business demand

� Reduce hardware assets

� Part-time workers, contractors

� Enable work from anywhere

� Happy employees = productive employees

� Bottom line: Users are doing it, with or without IT…

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What you can apply from this session

� At the end of this session, you will be able to:� Understand the predominant models for BYOC and

their relative strengths and weaknesses

� Evaluate the security of a BYOC solution

� Avoid common pitfalls in BYOC

� Plan a successful BYOC deployment

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Users vs IT

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Example: Citrix BYOC Program

� $2100 stipend (taxable)

� About 50% employees opt in to program

� 40% of those in the program chose Macs

� Employees often chipped in their own money to get a

better machine

� After a three month pilot in US, rolled out globally

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How to deliver services?

� Technique 1: Provide essential services via web applications

� Technique 2: Provide a remote desktop (VDI or TS) session

� Technique 3: Provide virtualized applications that run locally

� Technique 4: Provide managed corporate virtual machine to run locally

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Technique 1: Port everything to the web

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Good: Access from any deviceBad: Takes a long time to rewrite all your apps,

no offline access

Technique 2: Remote Desktop to VDI or TS

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� Good:

� Access from many devices

� Bad:

� Requires major server infrastructure

� Can’t run offline

� Bad interactive performance

Technique 3: Application Virtualization

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� Good: Can run locally, but managed centrally

� Bad: Not cross-platform,not very secure

Technique 4: Client-side Virtual Machine

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� Good: Secure, personalized, offline access, cross-platform, local execution, easy recovery

� Bad: Minimum HW requirement

Securing the endpoint device

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� Need to treat BYOC as an untrusted

device

� No VPN

� DLP

� Host checker

� Two-factor authentication

� Keyloggers, screen scrapers

� Encryption of data-at-rest

� Domain join and group policies

� Access control, remote management of corporate data

� Security policy enforcement

Threat Models

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� Malicious employees

� Malware infections

� Screen scrapers or keyloggers

� Generic viruses/worms

� Targeted malware

� Lost or stolen laptops, “borrowed” machines

� Targeted attacks and espionage

Dealing with Infected Endpoint Devices

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� Anti-virus and anti-malware

� OS patch level

� Network quarantine

� Keyloggers and screen-scrapers

� Data loss prevention

Enterprise-Level Layered Security

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7 Layers of Security

• Anti-virus scan of host PC

• Full virtual machine encapsulation

• AES-256 encryption

• Tamper resistance and copy protection

• AD and two-factor authentication

• Granular security policies

• Remote kill

Anti-virus scan of host PC

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� Protects against most known attacks/malware

� Policy enforcement:� Maximum age of signature file

� Periodic scan frequency

� Automatic keyboard/screen lock until scan completes

Full virtual machine encapsulation

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� Protects against non-targeted attacks

� Run on a separate, locked-down operating system

� Rejuvenate to latest golden system disk on every boot

� Out-of-band updates of golden system disk

� Device passthrough of keyboard/mouse and video card foils most keyloggers/screen scrapers

� Hardware support for encapsulation (VT-x, VT-d)

AES-256 encryption

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� Encryption of data-at-rest protects against lost/stolen laptops� Key escrow

� Dealing with lost/changed passwords

� Administrator unlock without user password

� Don’t forget swap space!

Tamper resistance and copy protection

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� Protect against copying data to another device

� Tie the virtual machine to physical hardware identifiers and/or TPM

� HMAC of all data to detect tampering

AD and two-factor authentication

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� Use RSA SecurID or other second-factor authentication

� Protects against lost password, lost device; limits exposure window

Security policies

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� Targeting security policies by AD group� Offline lease time: Maximum time a user can run

without checking in

� Auto-kill: Self-destruct after a given time

� Version enforcement: Ensure users have latest security patches

� Peripheral restrictions: USB devices, microphone, printing, CD/DVD, etc.

� AD group policies: Use existing AD policy sets

Remote kill

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� Can mark a device as lost or stolen

� Device receives a “kill pill”, securely zeroes all data and sends back confirmation

� Mitigates risk from a lost device or rogue employee/contractor

More Challenges to BYOC

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� Supporting diverse platforms (Mac,etc.)

� Offline access

� Legal

� Organizational / Political

Supporting Diverse Platforms

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� Mac support

� Data shows Macs require much less support

� No mature, robust management tools for OSX hosts yet

� Best: Provide corporate Windows environment for Mac users

� Windows 7 support

� Can provide virtual Windows XP environment for now, upgrade to Win7 once corp standardizes on it

� Hardware support

� Give minimum hardware specs for BYOPC

� Require support package from vendor

Legal Challenges

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� Who owns the hardware? Who owns the software? Who owns the data?

� Mixing corporate and personal on the same device

� Liability concerns

� Software licensing

� What to do when someone is terminated or leaves the company?

� Not much different than BYO Smartphone, work-from-home

� One solution: Put corporate environment on separate USB or SD card

� Need a way to reclaim licenses, erase corporate data (“poison pill”)

Organizational and Political Challenges

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� Most common: Business wants it done, but IT dragging feet

� Refocusing IT staff to focus on services, not hardware

� Education: “You are making me buy my own machine?”

Results

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� Significant proportion choose Macs

� Increased machine usage

� More work on weekends and after hours

� Fewer support calls

� Users more tolerant and responsible, willing to learn

� Fewer lost devices

� Take better care because they are invested in it

Key Takeaways

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1. Focus on securing the data, not the device

2. Good security practices are essential, with or without BYOC

3. BYOC can save money, reduce support calls, and lead to happier users