The world doesn't seem to be calming down and the negative headlines don't stop selling newspapers. The change to cybersecurity was foreseeable, but it was only with the Corona pandemic of 2020-2022 that the topic of home office really took off and with it the security requirements of many companies. Since then, our work and lifestyle have changed massively, and IT departments are faced with numerous new challenges. At the same time, the security situation in the world has continued to worsen and the topic of “cybersecurity” is now at the top of our customers’ priority lists. Cybersecurity and network security has become a top issue for our civilian and military customers.

In addition, the ongoing “economic cold war” between the USA and China is causing Europe to turn away from Chinese products. GENEREX and all others remaining Western IT companies see that network products that do NOT come from China have become the first choice for all operators of western critical infrastructure!
Just how critically users now view the origin of battery management products from China can be seen from the order issued by US Lawmakers on April 15, 2024 that all Chinese-made battery storage systems in the US military must be replaced immediately due to possible cyberattacks. The reason for this is the focus of cyberattacks on the energy sector. The US military has been instructed to replace the systems to be exchanged with those produced in the US or by allied nations. The EU is also trying to defend itself against such attacks, but because of its dependence on Chinese supply chains, it is not naming and shaming the perpetrators, but only imposing stricter requirements on cybersecurity guidelines for the energy sector. Once again, the USA is reacting more clearly ...

Link: U.S. Department of Defense proactively eliminating Chinese battery energy storage systems from use due to foreign threat risks - NotebookCheck.net News

Avoiding Chinese components is a philosophy that GENEREX has followed for years. Of course, this decision to favor Western manufacturing means that our products are at times more expensive than those of our often politically subsidized competitors. However, with the new threat situation, the tide has turned in our favor:
GENEREX is one of the last independent Western manufacturers of network products for critical infrastructures. Our products Made in EU or Made in USA are more in demand than ever and can be found in almost every network in the western world!
The reason for this is our particularly critical approach to cybersecurity for our products, which we improve with every firmware or software update.

We differentiate between security-relevant and normal quality updates:

These updates specifically target the security of our devices and contain important updates to meet ever-changing and increasingly stringent cybersecurity requirements.

This “normal” TAG includes service updates to improve ease of use, new functions, customer requests or bug fixes that do not affect the security of the device.

We continue to provide the following email addresses for reporting vulnerability reports. Under security@generex.us for North America and security@generex.de For Europe, we examine incoming reports and immediately deliver corrected versions via our download area on the GENEREX websites.

In the footer of our website you will find a special link entitled “Security” (https://www.generex.de/security). You can use this link to submit questions about cybersecurity or resiliency of our products. The link contains the above email address as well as a GPG key for the necessary encryption of messages between us and the person reporting the vulnerability.
We recently released a new firmware update for all of our networking products since 2016: Security Update Version FW 2.18. This is a major update that does not allow a return to older, more insecure versions of the firmware. We explain the innovations below. We ask our GENEREX partners to strongly recommend that their customers update to the current version.

Excerpt from the security updates firmware 2.12 - 2.18

With firmware 2.18, numerous updates and innovations were introduced. Further optimizations have been made, particularly in the area of ​​cybersecurity, since the last cybersecurity update FW 2.12. This allows us to once again claim to be at the forefront of network security in our industry.
Below you will find a list of the most important changes, each with our internal ticket number for reference.

[T5047]
Attempted access from the network is now logged in the EVENT LOG as plain text so that the attacker can be identified.

[T5069]
For some OEM customers, a secure password is now required after the first login.

[T5002]
The password for sFTP access has been tightened to immunize it against “brute force” attacks.

[T5003]
The SSH server has been updated internally and is therefore more secure than the previous version.

[T5135]
sFTP access has been restricted to a limited data area.

[T5122]
The use of insecure protocols now generates a warning in the web server.

[T5121]
The “Serial Trace” support function is switched off by default to prevent attacks via TLS 1.0 or 1.1.

[T4989]
Attacks exploiting a TIMESERVER weakness via WGET script are prevented.

[T4863]
Encryption of the UPSTCP protocol and http is now active by default.

[T4933]
The “Forgotten Password” function has been removed for security reasons and resetting a forgotten password is only possible if the configuration is lost – a complete reset to delivery status.

[T4987]
SNMP traps can be individually configured and tested. This makes commissioning easier for SNMP users; you can safely trigger all types of SNMP traps and test the function with the SNMP evaluation software without having to trigger any real alarms on the UPS.

[T5060]
BACS current sensors can be calibrated by the user on site in order to compensate for any interference.

[T5149]
A firmware downgrade from FW 2.18 to lower versions is no longer permitted for security reasons.

The full list of changes can be viewed at any time under the following link: https://generex.de/support/changelogs/cs141