Dagah case study – Sasakawa USA institution

Automated mobile device vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, and mobile security awareness training

Situation

Sasakawa USA is a non-profit, non-partisan institution devoted to research, analysis, and better understanding of the US-Japan relationship in the areas of security, diplomacy, economics, business, trade, technology, and other matters of common concern. Given the former role of Adm. Dennis C. Blair, U.S. Navy (Ret.), current Chairman and CEO of Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA as the US Director of National Intelligence and the think tank’s ongoing contact with high-level officials in the US Government, the organization is a target for sophisticated adversaries looking to use it as a stepping stone into government targets.

Solution

At Sasakawa USA’s request, Shevirah ran a campaign of social engineering attacks against Sasakawa USA’s employees using the Dagah Mobile Penetration Testing software. This simulation of real world attacks that Sasakawa USA could face evaluated the mobile hygiene of employees and provided teaching points on how to identify and respond to actual mobile phishing attacks. The vast majority of cyber attacks begin with phishing.

Results

“Shevirah’s mobile pen testing tool is truly cutting edge,” said Adm. Dennis C. Blair, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Chairman and CEO of Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA. “It helped us discover our security awareness posture prior to an actual adversary attack. Institutions like ours face cyber threats from a range of sources. Shevirah’s software revealed to us how our mobile workforce would stand up to such attacks.”

About Shevirah

Shevirah is a U.S. company, expert in cybersecurity, mobility and IoT, offering SaaS and on premise solutions for government and enterprise clients. Shevirah was founded in 2015 by cybersecurity expert Georgia Weidman. Shevirah’s name comes from the Hebrew word for “shattering or breaking of vessels”, reflecting the goals of cybersecurity assessment and testing. Shevirah’s enterprise software products include the patent pending Dagah tools. Dagah is the Hebrew word for “fish” referring to “phishing”. Shevirah is headquartered in Ashburn, VA, just outside Washington, D.C. Learn more at Shevirah.com.

About the Author: Georgia Weidman

Shevirah founder and CTO Georgia Weidman is a serial entrepreneur, penetration tester, security researcher, speaker, trainer, and author. She holds a MS in computer science as well as holding CISSP, CEH, and OSCP certifications. Her work in the field of smartphone exploitation has been featured internationally in print and on television. She has presented or conducted training around the world including venues such as NSA, West Point, and Black Hat. Georgia founded Bulb Security LLC, a security consulting firm specializing in security assessments/penetration testing, security training, and research/development. She was awarded a DARPA Cyber Fast Track grant to continue her work in mobile device security culminating in the release of the open source project the Smartphone Pentest Framework (SPF). She founded Shevirah Inc. to create product solutions for assessing and managing the risk of mobile devices in the enterprise and testing the effectiveness of enterprise mobility management solutions and is a graduate of the Mach37 cybersecurity accelerator. She is the author of Penetration Testing: A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking from No Starch Press. She was the recipient of the 2015 Women’s Society of CyberJutsu Pentest Ninja award. She is on the board of advisors of the angel backed security training startup Cybrary and the nonprofit Digital Citizens Alliance and is a member of the CyberWatch Center's National Visiting Committee.