Today covert channels and their technological side – steganography – represent the new frontier of cyber-crime and cyber-espionage. To defend against these channels, we need to understand how they work.
A covert channel is any communication channel that can be exploited by a process to transfer information in a manner that violates the systems security policy. In short, covert channels transfer information using non-standard methods against the system design.
Covert Channels are not everywhere, but they can be everywhere, thus providing answers to several issues raised by the use of encryption: legal restrictions and lack of discretion. In the first case the main concern is the protection of personal privacy. The second issue is to have communications remaining undetected - the content of an encrypted mail should not be readable.
The objective of this presentation is to explain how they work, how to detect them and which counter-measures a company can take in order to prevent them.
Speaker: Professor Claudio Cilli, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CRISC, FBCS, University of Rome
Professor Cilli is a recognised world leading authority in the areas of National Security and Intelligence, company protection, information systems security and compliance, with over 25 years of experience. He currently advises governments and international organisations about cyber-security and critical infrastructures protection areas.