It’s been a busy few weeks for our cyber, intelligence and surveillance operatives at Valkyrie, tasked with a variety of interesting projects. One of the projects was a physical penetration test (PPT) task on a critical national infrastructure (CNI) complex and associated buildings. It was a fascinating but complex project which involved multiple disciplines conducted over several weeks. As everyone is aware, the amount of data out there is quite scary with the boom on the Internet and social media platforms. However, our analysts were able to map out several points of entry using open-source techniques and identifying potentially vulnerable employees due to the amount of information they were posting on sites, such as LinkedIn and other social media platforms. The famous quote ‘data is the new oil’ was first used in 2006 (Clive Humby), it’s fair to say the quote has stood the test of time.
Armed with this knowledge, our analysts gave our surveillance and ground operatives detailed briefings of the targets. We tried several techniques to gain entry including by speaking with employees and managing to clone their key cards. This proved successful after several attempts and the outer ring of security was bypassed, and we were able to gain access.
If access was achieved, the client asked us to place USB devices around the premises where our cyber analysts had planted documents on the USB, which would let us know if the USB was plugged into a computer and if the document was opened; we had one successful hit.
Overall, it was an excellent result for us and the client because it allowed them to remediate the security vulnerabilities and procedural issues. The client has now asked us to brief their executive board and security personnel about what was identified, where the risks are and how to better prepare themselves going forward.
If you require our PPT service, or any other services we offer, please contact us security@valkyrie.co.uk or telephone 02074 999 323.
Have a great weekend
