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In-Scope System with Windows Update Disabled

Description

Any GDPR-tagged systems not receiving updates could jeopardize your GDPR status due to Article 32. Detect systems where the Windows Update service is disabled.

Content Mapping

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Use Case

Security Monitoring, Compliance

Security Impact

GDPR Article 32 requires that you regularly test, assess and evaluate the effectiveness of your implemented technical and organizational security controls. If the Authority executes their powers and your Organization is in the scope of a Privacy Audit you need to demonstrate compliance (Article 58). Also in case you face a breach and individuals are impacted they have the right to compensation of the damage - if an organization can prove that they have done everything appropriate to the risk and deployed proper countermeasures, they shouldn't be liable (Article 82). Ensuring patches are applied to your systems is industry best practices and state of the art.

Alert Volume

Low

SPL Difficulty

Basic

Data Availability

Bad

Journey

Stage 4

MITRE ATT&CK Tactics

Defense Evasion

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Disabling Security Tools

Disable or Modify Tools

Data Sources

Patch Management

GDPR Relevance
Problem: Keeping up with patch maintenance is a critical part of effective cyber-hygiene. Windows-based systems are especially at risk when unpatched, considering the number and frequency of exploits that use Windows vulnerabilities to establish a foothold, move laterally, or propagate. Windows-based systems that stop updating may be the target of malicious activity -- or, the same type of event may simply be the result of an environmental change, other configuration issue on the host, or scheduled downtime. If the update service itself it disabled on the host, then it may indicate a compromised system. Impact: Unpatched systems put data at risk. For any unpatched environments/systems that are involved in processing personal data, this situation can be critical, and especially so in a GDPR context, since any GDPR-tagged systems not receiving updates could jeopardize a state of compliance. Article 32 of the GDPR requires that organizations regularly test, assess and evaluate effectiveness of implemented technical and organizational security controls. In the event that a Supervisory Authority executes powers to place an organization within the scope of a privacy audit, the organization must demonstrate compliance (Article 58). If the organization faces a personal data breach and individuals are impacted, those individuals have the right to demand compensation for material and non-material damage caused by the breach. The organization must prove that they have understood and addressed the risk appropriately and deployed proper countermeasures (Article 82). Resolution Path: The data mapping exercise from the DPO can inform which Windows-based systems are in-scope -- that is, those systems that are associated with the GDPR category. From there, identify the in-scope systems where updates are not occurring, pinpoint the root issue for updates not occurring, and remediate those hosts by configuring them or the environment appropriately, depending on what the root issue turns out to be.

GDPR Relevance

Problem:

Keeping up with patch maintenance is a critical part of effective cyber-hygiene. Windows-based systems are especially at risk when unpatched, considering the number and frequency of exploits that use Windows vulnerabilities to establish a foothold, move laterally, or propagate. Windows-based systems that stop updating may be the target of malicious activity -- or, the same type of event may simply be the result of an environmental change, other configuration issue on the host, or scheduled downtime. If the update service itself it disabled on the host, then it may indicate a compromised system.

Impact:

Unpatched systems put data at risk. For any unpatched environments/systems that are involved in processing personal data, this situation can be critical, and especially so in a GDPR context, since any GDPR-tagged systems not receiving updates could jeopardize a state of compliance. Article 32 of the GDPR requires that organizations regularly test, assess and evaluate effectiveness of implemented technical and organizational security controls. In the event that a Supervisory Authority executes powers to place an organization within the scope of a privacy audit, the organization must demonstrate compliance (Article 58). If the organization faces a personal data breach and individuals are impacted, those individuals have the right to demand compensation for material and non-material damage caused by the breach. The organization must prove that they have understood and addressed the risk appropriately and deployed proper countermeasures (Article 82).

Resolution Path:

The data mapping exercise from the DPO can inform which Windows-based systems are in-scope -- that is, those systems that are associated with the GDPR category. From there, identify the in-scope systems where updates are not occurring, pinpoint the root issue for updates not occurring, and remediate those hosts by configuring them or the environment appropriately, depending on what the root issue turns out to be.

How to Implement
First, use your data mapping results to build a lookup that associates systems to their GDPR category. If you are using the Windows Forwarder with the WinHostMon://Service input configured, this search should work automatically. If you're using another source to detect Service status, you may need to adjust the search string to match your data source.

Known False Positives
No known false positives at this time.

How To Respond
When Windows Update is disabled, the immediate question is why. Ask the user if they disabled it, look for software installations that might have done it, or look for any errors related to the Windows Update Service (wuauserv.exe).

Help
In-Scope System with Windows Update Disabled Help This example leverages the Simple Search search assistant. Our example dataset is a collection of anonymized Windows Service logs (onboarded in accordance with our Data Onboarding Guides), during which someone does something bad. Our live search looks for the same behavior using the standard sourcetypes.

Help