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How to detect a cyber attack

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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  • H
    hugoeyng @Derelict
    last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 2:00 PM

    @Derelict Instead Google DNS or ISP DNS what IP could I use to monitor? Any suggestion?

    I love pfSense!

    Hugo Eyng
    Datamais Sistemas

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • K
      KOM
      last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 2:01 PM

      Perhaps one of your ISPs core routers. Do a traceroute somewhere and see what the second or third hop is.

      H 1 Reply Last reply Aug 30, 2019, 2:39 PM Reply Quote 1
      • S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 2:09 PM

        I've never seen an issue using 8.8.8.8 personally.

        The fact that you have some SWAP usage shown in that screenshot shows that at some point you exhausted the RAM. That can make things go waaaay slower.
        Check the Status > Monitoring graphs for memory usage. Does it peak when you see these incidents?

        Steve

        R 1 Reply Last reply Aug 30, 2019, 2:12 PM Reply Quote 1
        • R
          Rico LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @stephenw10
          last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 2:12 PM

          @stephenw10 said in How to detect a cyber attack:

          I've never seen an issue using 8.8.8.8 personally.

          Yeah I like to use 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 and 1.1.1.1 for monitoring too.

          -Rico

          H 1 Reply Last reply Aug 30, 2019, 2:41 PM Reply Quote 1
          • H
            hugoeyng @KOM
            last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 2:39 PM

            @KOM Great!

            I love pfSense!

            Hugo Eyng
            Datamais Sistemas

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • H
              hugoeyng @Rico
              last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 2:41 PM

              @Rico I am not sure but is possible that "You will get false positives using Google's DNS servers." as said @tim-mcmanus.

              But I liked @KOM suggestion.

              I love pfSense!

              Hugo Eyng
              Datamais Sistemas

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              • R
                Rico LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance
                last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 2:48 PM

                I never heard of Google deliberately dropping ICMP traffic to their DNS Servers and personally I never had any issues with it.

                WANGW.png
                WANGW is using 8.8.8.8 atm.

                -Rico

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • R
                  Rico LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance
                  last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 2:51 PM

                  Monitoring any ISP router does not really show a reliable route to the Internet.
                  Your ISP could have any routing/peering issue, even if their (core) router is perfectly reachable from your side.

                  -Rico

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • K
                    KOM
                    last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 2:58 PM

                    It shows you if there is a problem between you and your ISP. Anything past that is out of your control. The whole point of the thing is to be a gateway monitor, not a 5-hops-away monitor. The farther away you monitor, the more likely you will get a false positive of some sort, and I wouldn't want my gateway going down because there is a routing problem many hops away from me.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • R
                      Raffi_
                      last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 3:04 PM

                      On the monitor IP topic, I agree with @Rico and @stephenw10. I have not had issue so far with google DNS. In fact I switched to Google DNS because I suddenly had issues with my ISP's (third hop router). After months of working fine, we had power failures in the area which I suspect also caused issues with that route on the ISP's network. My gateway was marked as down when it wasn't. Switched to 8.8.8.8 and it's been good since then. Is it a perfect solution? No. Will this happen to you? Probably not, but using a device IP on a specific route on the ISP's network to me seems like trouble. If that route goes down like in my case, the traffic will get rerouted and still reach where it needs to go on the web. But that can't happen if my gateway is marked as down and monitoring action is enabled. Ideally, I would like to be able to put in multiple monitor IPs, so if one is not responding another one could.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 3:25 PM

                        I will say that whilst I've never seen an issue with it on numerous pfSense installs, including my own, Google respond to ping there more as a courtesy. They could just stop responding. Also when you ping 8.8.8.8 you are hitting a machine via anycast so the service may vary depending on where you are pinging from.

                        Steve

                        R 1 Reply Last reply Aug 30, 2019, 3:34 PM Reply Quote 2
                        • R
                          Raffi_ @stephenw10
                          last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 3:34 PM

                          @stephenw10 said in How to detect a cyber attack:

                          I will say that whilst I've never seen an issue with it on numerous pfSense installs, including my own, Google respond to ping there more as a courtesy. They could just stop responding. Also when you ping 8.8.8.8 you are hitting a machine via anycast so the service may vary depending on where you are pinging from.

                          Steve

                          Let's hope they don't pull the rug out from under us. I think a lot of gateways would be marked as down :)

                          H 1 Reply Last reply Aug 30, 2019, 5:54 PM Reply Quote 1
                          • H
                            hugoeyng @Raffi_
                            last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 5:54 PM

                            @Raffi_ said in How to detect a cyber attack:

                            Let's hope they don't pull the rug out from under us. I think a lot of gateways would be marked as down

                            I hope so too!

                            I tried monitoring White House and Pentagon IP´s but it did not succedd.

                            Those IP´s, I believe, would be the last to be down. :)

                            Thank you everybody.

                            I love pfSense!

                            Hugo Eyng
                            Datamais Sistemas

                            R A 2 Replies Last reply Aug 30, 2019, 5:56 PM Reply Quote 1
                            • R
                              Raffi_ @hugoeyng
                              last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 5:56 PM

                              @hugoeyng said in How to detect a cyber attack:

                              @Raffi_ said in How to detect a cyber attack:

                              Let's hope they don't pull the rug out from under us. I think a lot of gateways would be marked as down

                              I hope so too!

                              I tried monitoring White House and Pentagon IP´s but it did not succedd.

                              Those IP´s, I believe, would be the last to be down. :)

                              Thank you everybody.

                              haha I hope you don't get a knock on the door from people in black suits.

                              H 1 Reply Last reply Aug 30, 2019, 6:29 PM Reply Quote 1
                              • A
                                akuma1x @hugoeyng
                                last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 6:28 PM

                                @hugoeyng said in How to detect a cyber attack:

                                I tried monitoring White House and Pentagon IP´s but it did not succedd.

                                So, White House Down?

                                https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2334879/

                                ☺

                                Jeff

                                H 1 Reply Last reply Aug 30, 2019, 6:37 PM Reply Quote 1
                                • H
                                  hugoeyng @Raffi_
                                  last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 6:29 PM

                                  @Raffi_ :))))))

                                  I love pfSense!

                                  Hugo Eyng
                                  Datamais Sistemas

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • H
                                    hugoeyng @akuma1x
                                    last edited by Aug 30, 2019, 6:37 PM

                                    @akuma1x hahaha The first to be under attack. Is not a good idea use it to monitoring. Is more secure using the butcher shop next door IP.

                                    I love pfSense!

                                    Hugo Eyng
                                    Datamais Sistemas

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • R
                                      runningboy
                                      last edited by runningboy Feb 20, 2021, 12:21 PM Feb 20, 2021, 12:16 PM

                                      In most cases, a cyberattack is almost impossible to notice. This operation takes place instantly and the user does not even understand how the intruders entered the system and control it. This situation happened in the office where I work a few months ago. Cybercriminals tried to get hold of our customer base and spread this information online. They penetrated the network and got all the access codes and passwords from our system, which is why the programs crashed and, by chance, they were unable to commit theft. Since then, we've turned to Cyber ​​Essentials to help protect and support our system from potential threats. I hope this will not happen again.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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