nse1 threat landscape

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Study Guide for NSE 1: The Threat Landscape 2016

i

Study Guide

for NSE 1:

The Threat

Landscape

February 1

2016This Study Guide is designed to provide information for the Fortinet

Network Security Expert Program – Level 1 curriculum. The study

guide presents discussions on concepts and equipment necessary as a

foundational understanding for modern network security prior to

taking more advanced and focused NSE program levels.

Fortinet

Network

Security

Solutions


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Contents

Figures ..................................................................................................................................................... iii

Tables ...................................................................................................................................................... iv

Threat Landscape .......................................................................................................................................... 1

Evolution of Adversaries ........................................................................................................................ 1

Hacker Tools ............................................................................................................................................ 5

Old…but not Dead .......................................................................................................................................................... 6

Threat Timeline ....................................................................................................................................... 7

Anatomy of a Hacking Attack ................................................................................................................. 9

Advanced Threats ........................................................................................................................................................ 10

The Advanced Threat Lifecycle .............................................................................................................................. 11

The Advanced Attack Kill Chain ............................................................................................................................. 13

Introduction to Modern Network Security ................................................................................................. 15

Infrastructure Evolution ....................................................................................................................... 17

Size Matters............................................................................................................................................ 19

Advanced Threats ........................................................................................................................................................ 20

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)...................................................................................................... 20

Breaking the Advanced Threat Kill Chain .......................................................................................................... 21

Advanced Threats and Network Security: Continuing Evolution ...................................................... 25

Key Acronyms .............................................................................................................................................. 26

Glossary ....................................................................................................................................................... 28


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Figures Figure 1. Ranking adversaries to network security. ...................................................................................... 3

Figure 2. Chronology of major networks attacks October 2013 to June 2014. ............................................ 7

Figure 3. Anatomy of an attack: The Hacker's point of view. ....................................................................... 9

Figure 4. The Advanced Threat lifecycle. .................................................................................................... 11

Figure 5. Kill chain of an advanced attack. .................................................................................................. 13

Figure 6. The Network Security “Battle of the minds.” .............................................................................. 15

Figure 7. From closed networks to Global Information Grid ...................................................................... 18

Figure 8. The scope of modern global network users................................................................................. 19

Figure 9. UTM versus traditional ad hoc model. ......................................................................................... 19

Figure 10. Miniaturization of computers and network access appliances. ................................................ 20

Figure 11. Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). ........................................................................................... 21

Figure 12. Breaking the advanced threat kill chain - Part 1. ....................................................................... 22

Figure 13. Breaking the advanced threat kill chain - Part 2. ....................................................................... 23


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TablesTable 1. Major network attacks October 2013 to June 2014. ...................................................................... 8

Table 2. Recent attacks on major sites. ........................................................................................................ 9


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Threat LandscapeOne may view the threat landscape much the same as law enforcement views threats using three

primary characteristics—motive, means, and opportunity. In terms of technology threats, these terms

are translated into motivation (motive), knowledge (means), and access (opportunity). Motivation may

be as simple as a student trying to get into protected information or as malicious as a competitor trying

to delay or disable a company’s ability to reach the market. Knowledge on networks—and hacking—is

widespread, with books and guides available

globally through the Internet and often at little or

no cost. As for Access, this is the area where the

veracity of your network security will pay off —

identifying potential threats, analyzing them, and

either determining validity or cataloging and

rejecting them as a threat.

Contemporary and future threat landscapes are dynamic and often include unforeseen technological

advances. Devices and applications are under development and appear on the market at more rapidly—

and with those new technologies come new threats. Not only companies and organizations, but

individual users of less expensive technology such as smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers who

are novices where information security is concerned must deal with optimizing their devices and

applications while blocking potential threats.

With the explosion of social media as the

primary source of connectivity for so many

people internationally, addressing the hidden

threats from social media sites is a continuing

challenge…and more cross-platform sharing and

integration will continue to make device and

network security an evolving challenge at all

levels.

Evolution of AdversariesComputer hacking was once the realm of curious teenagers. It's now the arena of government spies,

professional thieves and soldiers of fortune…but don’t count out the curious teenagers just yet; more

and more young people are enamored with the prospect—and thrill—of hacking and seeing how far

they can get.


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The whole concept of "hacking" sprouted from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nearly 50

years ago. Computer science students there borrowed the term from a group of model train enthusiasts

who “hacked electric trains and switches” in 1969 to improve performance. These new hackers were

already figuring out how to alter computer software and hardware to speed it up, even as the scientists

at AT&T Bell Labs were developing UNIX, one of the world's first major operating systems.

The Golden Age of Hacking was the 1980’s, as people bought personal computers for their homes and

hooked them up to the telephone network. The Web wasn't yet alive, but computers could still talk to

one another through venues like hosted chat rooms and FTP. In fact, the 1980’s was still the age of MS-

DOS and command line interface (CLI) programming and online interaction. These curious kids tapped

into whatever computer system they could find just to explore. Some broke into computer networks at

companies. And digital “hangouts” started, such as Chat City and other hosted group online

communication sites.

As hacking progressing into the 1990’s, the purposes for hacking ranged across a number of motives.

Some hacked for money. Others did it for revenge. However, hacking was still more of an annoyance

than anything devastating, though it was quickly becoming apparent that the potential was there for

damage, including industrial espionage, hardware damage, file damage, and so forth. The stock market,

hospitals, credit card transactions, and corporate or personal file storage -- everything was running on

computers now.

As the 21st Century turned the clocks, loosely affiliated amateurs were replaced by well-paid, trained

professionals. By the mid-2000’s, hacking had become a widespread tactic for organized crime,

governments, and hacktivists.

Crime. Hackers around the world wrote malicious software (malware) to hijack tens of

thousands of computers, using their processing power to generate spam. They wrote

banking Trojans to steal website login credentials. Hacking payment systems turned out

to be insanely lucrative, too. Albert Gonzalez’s theft of $94M credit cards from TJX in

2007 proved to be a precursor to later retailer data breaches, like Target, Home Depot

and others.

Government. When the United States wanted to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program

in 2009, it hacked a development facility and unleashed the most dangerous computer

virus to date--Stuxnet caused the Iranian lab computers to spin centrifuges out of

control. Russia used cyberattacks to shut down media during the 2008 war in Georgia.

And now, it is suspected that both China and Russia have hacked into US Government

systems, stealing PII on millions of government personnel and their families.

Hacktivists. The populist group Anonymous hacks into police departments to expose

officer brutality and floods banks with garbage Internet traffic and a group calling

themselves “Vigilante” takes down Islamic jihadist websites.

Figure 1 depicts how various adversaries pose a threat to network security.


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What exists now is a tricky world. When the White House got hacked, was it the Russian government,

nationalists acting on their own, or freelance agents paid by the government? Meanwhile, with the

explosion of technology-focused classes at all levels of education and training, it is easier than ever to

become a hacker. Because of the tools that are available—and ongoing development of new threat

methods--attribution is very difficult when an attack occurs.

Figure 1. Ranking adversaries to network security.

As one examines Figure 1, it is important to understand that there is no distinct barrier separating these

methods. In fact, it is easily conceivable that one type of adversary could—purposely or inadvertently—

enable another to access a network or system.

The early days of personal computer availability to consumers and the advent of the Internet and

Worldwide Web are behind us. These events were followed by parallel development of more powerful

hardware appliances and more complex applications for those machines. Unfortunately, with those

developments also came a thriving developmental path for malware and other methods by which to

breach system and network security to obtain data from or deny use of targeted platforms.

From a starting point of small, direct attacks on computers, hackers have evolved along with computers,

networks, and security. Modern hackers are skilled cybercriminals, motivated by such issues as financial

gain, criminal organization sponsorship, radical political groups, or even sovereign states. Modern—and

future—hackers have far more resources than their counterparts of a quarter century ago, greater

technical knowledge and concentration, and greater funding and organization. There are a number of

different types of hackers that have developed since the 1980’s.


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Adversaries attempt to gain access to many different types of data for many different reasons, ranging

from personal information to covert access to machines or networks to attacks that harvest—or prevent

the receipt of —information. In some cases, the motive is simple—extortion. Among the reasons for

hacking into systems are:

IP. Gaining the IP address of a target, so that traffic into/out of the address can be

monitored, stopped, or otherwise affected.

Financial Information. This runs a broad scope from hacking banks for the fourth

decimal place amount of interest money on all the institution’s accounts, to

ransomware that makes the target pay a fee to get the “antidote” code for the malware,

to small purchases with credit card information stolen from consumers.

PII – Identity Theft. This includes everything from credit information to identification

documentation to Social Security numbers, birthdates, and other data that may be used

to create an identity without the target being aware until it is too late and the damagehas been done.

Shutting Down Competition. Tactics like DDoS attacks have been used to block business

competitors from broadcasting product/service information. Other attacks may infect

manufacturing systems, payrolls, and other functions that result in a company having to

shut down operations until the problem(s) is/are resolved This may also include

industrial sabotage, whereby data is gained that gives a company advantage over

competitors or alters their product so it is unmarketable.

Wikileaks. The media coverage of Julian Assange and the Wikileaks organization has

spurred on activists to follow in his footsteps and work to expose things with which they

disagree, either publicly shaming the company into changing procedures/products or

using the information as collateral for a ransom.

Profit. This is the prime motivator behind criminal enterprises, and it is no different

when they apply their trade to network attacks.

Sabotage. At a major company, organization, or government level, sabotage is the

means to an end—usually the shutdown of a program (as with the 2009 use of Stuxnet

to shut down Iran’s nuclear program for a time), catastrophic loss of systems and/or

data, or stealing of industrial information.

As you review the illustration of escalating threat levels (Figure 1), you will notice that a key factor

defining threat level is the level of resources (training, equipment, funding) available to the adversary.

As hacking elevated from individuals to large, well-organized, and well-resourced entities, additional

benefits became available to hackers that provide enhanced capability over individual efforts.


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Because organizational hacking provides the benefit of collaboration and increased funding, it provides a

breeding ground for hackers and development of new cyber-threats. Some of the benefits of

organizational hacking include:

• Education, training, tech support

•

Storefront for hacking tools and zero-day exploits/vulnerability information• Sophisticated organization

• Backed by governments

• Supported by currencies like bitcoin

• Obscured through anonymous networks like TOR

Hacker Tools

Hackers rely on two primary categories of tools to facilitate their activities:

Social engineering – Techniques

Malware – Tools

Social engineering is the use of content that convinces or encourages people to do something to

accomplish the hacker’s mission—usually something damaging. The tactics vary as methods and tools

vary among different hackers with different objectives. Social engineering relies onnon-technical

methods of intrusion that often trick people into breaking normal security procedures. Because it

leverages the human factor, social engineering is one of the greatest threats to organizations because of

the difficulty in controlling individual actions among members or employees.

Numerous techniques are available to the hacker. In fact, this is by necessity, as social engineering

targets human factors, which vary across a wide range of technical, social, and responsibility levels.

Therefore, social engineering encompasses numerous techniques that provide options to influence

many different human perspectives, and may include the following methods:

Spoofing is a technique where one person or program masquerades successfully as

another. This is usually accomplished by falsifying data to make the hacker appear as the

other entity.

Phishing is not unlike going fishing. The hacker attempts to acquire sensitive user

information (such as usernames, passwords, account data, or even directly steal money)

for malicious reasons by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in electronic

communications. This is particularly widespread among e-mail, but may also be used

through false web pages.

Spearphishing is an e-mail spoofing fraud that targets specific organizations in order to

gain unauthorized access to confidential, proprietary, or personal data. This is generallya technique not used by individuals; rather, spearphishing is often used by perpetrators

out for financial gain, trade secrets, or military information.

Watering-hole Attacks target specific groups—organizations, companies, industry,

region—to indirectly infect the group’s network machines. The attacker analyzes which

Internet sites people from the group are likely to visit, infects the site(s) with malware,

and then waits for an individual from the group to access it. Once the individual is

infected, that person spreads it within the organization, widening access for the hacker.


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Phone calls and impersonation are still viable in the technology age. PhoneBots—also

known as auto-dialers—present a predetermined message when the recipient answers

the phone. These messages typically request the recipient to call a number for a specific

purpose. The number may be attempting a scam as simple as having the recipient call a

number that is a pay-per-minute program—without the recipient being aware—which

later shows up as a charge on their phone bill.

Malvertising is the use of online ads to spread malware. These ads do not require

specific action by the user—such as clicking on the ad; rather, they take advantage of

macros and advertisement windows that vary ads based on use preferences to spread

malware. Malvertising can run across legitimate sites without directly compromising the

site(s).

Social Media links are literally a playground for hackers and thieves, because many

people using social media platforms believe that web-based or SaaS platforms are

impervious to hackers. Often the hacker will use an intriguing picture, video, or

hyperlink to entice victims to interact, resulting in effects such as stealing browser

windows, embedding malware to steal data, or even tricking the user into a purchase.

Malware is a category of malicious code that includes viruses, worms, and Trojans—it is a primary tool

for hackers when using social engineering techniques to gain access to systems or networks. The effects

of malware are not unlike how a human body becomes infected and how the immune system reacts:

Known viruses. These are cataloged in anti-virus programs and defenses have been developed

to counter the threat—sometimes referred to as inoculating the machine or network against the

virus.

Unknown viruses. These are viruses that are not yet cataloged or do not yet have a

countermeasure developed to inoculate machines or networks. These unknowns may include

exploits developed and for sale to hackers, adaptive viruses, wrappers, and polymorphic code.

Combination. Because an attack does in restricted neither to a single piece of malware nor a

single attacking device or vector, the use of multiple viruses that include both known and

unknown varieties, may be used by hackers.

Old…but not Dead

A misconception about threats is that old threats no longer work because they have standard defense

that have been built into newer software releases. Unfortunately, even with the increase in automated

network updates and functions, not all threats are mitigated—in many cases, it requires action (and

often investment of resources and money) by the user to enable threat defense. Common problems that

allow old threats to remain effective include:

Unpatched systems. The cost of continually running patches—when adding manpower,network down time, and software costs—often leads to programs not receiving patches

to correct identified deficiencies and vulnerabilities. This is especially true with

individual consumers, whose vulnerable machines may pass malware on to

company/organization networks. There are still users with Microsoft Office 2003 on

their machines, for example, which no longer has support.


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Old OS versions. In most cases—for both company, organization, and consumer use—

this comes down to a single factor…cost. For example, Windows 10 was released on July

29, 2015, yet users are still using Windows XP or Windows NT, having not upgraded to

Windows 7 or 8.1. Even when support was halted for these old versions—making them

more likely to be vulnerable in the future—both consumers and organizations continued

risking their use.

AV/AM signatures not up to date. Viruses/Malware are developed at breakneck

rapidity on a continual basis. It literally does not take a computer scientist to develop

malicious code—children 9 years old have demonstrated superior capability (can you

imagine them at 25?). It is essential to have a program that provides regular updates to

definitions and countermeasures, across individual, company, and organizational

scopes.

SMB, small agencies, partnerships lack security spending but still have network access.

Unfortunately, many times the cost of saving a few pennies early on results in the loss of

dollars later, especially if a major breach occurs.

Threat Timeline

From the last quarter of 2013 through the first quarter of 2014, major network attacks affected large

companies and billions of consumers. These attacks not only affected business systems, but also had the

ability to infect personal systems and mobile devices, such as the Heartbleed and Find My iPhone

attacks. Figure 2 chronicles those threats and the targets affected by them.

Figure 2. Chronology of major networks attacks October 2013 to June 2014.


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In the period between October 2013 and June 2014, numerous major network attacks affected large

companies and billions of consumers. Over a year later, the impact of those attacks still resonates in

both company losses and loss of consumer trust. The timeline illustrated in Figure 2 presents some of

the more noteworthy attacks during that nine-month period, as described in Table 1.

Table 1. Major network attacks October 2013 to June 2014.

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Adobe Hack An estimated 2.9 million customer IDs, passwords, and possibly names & credit information.

Quarian

Backdoor

Spearphishing attacks exploited a vulnerability in MS Office to retrieve .doc data.

MS Office Zero-

Day Attack

11 occurred in 2013 and 5 in the first half of 2014.

Android/

Hackdrive

Mobile malware used in sabotage campaign against political movement in Middle East that

took over all audio functions of smartphones when downloaded.

OSX/Crisis Attacked Mac systems, using expensive root kit to collect personal data, incl keystrokes.

Google Play Hack(Japanese &

Koreans)

JavaScript app stole phone number directories from mobile devices.

Android/Balloon

Popper:

Android Balloon Pop 2 Game hack stole WhatsApp conversations from users.

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Android/

GaLeaker

Collected Google (Gmail) IDs, but not associated passwords.

Turkish Hack Russian hackers stole 54 million Turkish citizens’ ID numbers, addresses, fathers’ names.

Reveton Variants Ransomware using random extensions to hide DLLs in batch files like rundll32.exe. Locked

machines and would not release unless user paid “ransom” fee to unlock.

Adobe Flash in

Exploit Kit

Replacing earlier versions of the Blackhole exploit after arrest of the writer, this malware used

popup technology to disrupt Adobe software use.

Target Corp Hack Hackers stole credit and debit card information for over 40 million customers

GnuTu (Linux)

Fail & Apple

SSL/TLS Bug

“goto fail” programming errors left encrypted data open to hackers.

Heartbleed Affected OpenSSL sites—mostly social media—threatening to expose user data.

Find My iPhone Ransomware that locked iPhones using the “Find My iPhone” app and demanded payment

to unlock the phone. The next month Android phone users were also hit.

eBay In May 2014, eBay hackers gained access to names, email and home addresses, phone

numbers, dates of birth, and encrypted passwords for around 145 million users.

Basecamp DDoS

Ransom Hack

Ransomware Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against the Basecamp project

management web app.

More recent attacks affected numerous well-known and high-utilization sites (Table 2).


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Table 2. Recent attacks on major sites.

SITE DESCRIPTION

Twitter Detected unauthorized access to 250,000 accounts.

ZendeskLost thousands of email addresses to a hacker accessed

support information of 3 major clients.

New York TimesWas attacked by 45 pieces of custom malware, 53

employees’ systems compromised.

Schnuck’s

Markets

Blames ongoing cyber-attack for a breach, which impacted

2.4 million payment cards.

EvernoteResets passwords for 50 million users after detecting

suspicious activity on its network.

LivingSocialNotifies 50 million users that attackers had infiltrated and

gained access to systems.

Washington

State Court

System

Indicates up to 160,000 social security numbers exposed by

hack.

Other victims included: Michael’s, Home Depot, AOL, Avast, Holiday Inn, Neiman Marcus, P. F. Chang’s,

and J.P. Morgan Chase.

Anatomy of a Hacking Attack

In some ways, the effective hacking attack is similar to painting a house—it takes more preparation than

execution time. In order for an attack to be successful—especially and advanced persistent attack

(APT)—a number of steps are essential, as indicated in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Anatomy of an attack: The Hacker's point of view.


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Choosing a Target: The attacker first determines whom they wish to infiltrate and what

they wish to steal. Is the attacker after confidential financial data? Source code?

Technical drawings? All of these help determine a specific target.

Target Research: Once a target has been selected, the attacker will do extensive

background research on his target. By combing through search engines, employee socialnetwork activity, public email and phone directories and other sources of easily

obtained data, the attacker can build a profile as well as a detailed list of other potential

human targets inside an organization.

Penetration: After a target has been acquired, the attacker typically creates a

customized phishing email in the hope that their target will open an attachment that

contains an exploit that allows the attacker to plant remote access malware on the

target’s computer.

Elevation of Privileges: Once the attacker has gained a foothold inside a target’s

network, an attempt is made to exploit vulnerabilities on other internal computers to

gain further access on the network. Once access has been gained, the attacker can thenmove deeper into the target’s network.

Internal Network Movement: If the attacker was successful in gaining further access

inside the network, they can then expand their control to other machines on the

network and compromise other computers and servers, allowing them to access data

throughout the network.

Data Theft: Once network access has been achieved, data can be easily stolen.

Passwords, files, databases, email accounts and other potentially valuable data can all

be sent back to the attacker.

Maintenance and Administration: Even after the requisite data has been stolen, anattacker may decide to remain present on the target’s network. This requires vigilance

on the attacker’s part in order to evade detection and maintain surveillance on the

target’s data assets to ensure further data can be stolen.

Advanced Threats

Advanced threats include modern and emerging threats, many of which engage more complex

methods that the simpler and focused attacks of the past. Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)

technology, has evolved at a Moore’s Law clip since magician Nevil Maskelyne hacked a public

demonstration of apparently secure wireless telegraphy technology in 1903, sending insulting Morsecode messages through an auditorium’s projector. Since the dawn of the computer age, people have

used advanced software to target specific companies or individuals in an attack designed to either

damage or steal data. What makes today’s APTs unique and frightening are the sophistication of the

malware, the vectors they’re choosing for attack and the perseverance with which they’re going after

their targets.


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What exactly does an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) mean? As indicated in its name, three

components comprise APTs:

Advanced. Using organized methods, advanced malware, buying new tools constantly

developed.

Persistent. Patient. Using more social engineering combined with malware and codes. Can be

very hard to detect, with expectation of higher payout.

Threats. Designed to attack deliberate choices of target. Credit Card info is cheap on the open

market. Now it’s about business disruption, massive identity theft, IP theft, spying.

The Advanced Threat Lifecycle

As the sophistication of computer network attacks developed, strategies evolved from direct attacks to

employment of strategic, patient, more complex approaches to computer network intrusion and

exploitation. Along with this threat evolution came background and remote threats to computers and

networks from seemingly innocuous sources, such as malware embedded in legitimate Internet links orfiles. With these threats, the lifecycle runs from reconnaissance of potential targets and manufacturing

of the method or malware to an endpoint of receiving the desired data or effect and exploiting the

results.

Cybercriminals are creating customized attacks to evade traditional defenses, and once inside, to avoid

detection and enable egress of valuable data. Once inside the network there are few systems in place to

detect or better still protect against APTs. It can be seen from the threat life cycle illustration that once

the perimeter border is penetrated, the majority of the activity takes place inside the boundary of the

network. Activities include disabling any agent-based security, updates from the botnet command and

control system, additional infection/recruitment and extraction of the targeted assets.

Figure 4. The Advanced Threat lifecycle.


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An attacker has a substantial arsenal of tools at the ready in order to launch and maintain their attack.

Malware. Some hackers use specially crafted malware to exploit a victim’s computer,

while others use “off the shelf” malware tools that are easily obtainable online and on

many underground hacking forums.

Social Engineering. A key component in any attack is the ability to make a human target

believe an attack is coming from a trusted source. Using previously obtained research,

an attacker may craft very specific spear-phishing emails with seemingly innocuous

attachments that the target will likely open. Links to Web pages with malicious code

embedded (known as a watering hole attack), spreadsheets and other documents such

as text files and PDF files that take advantage of exploits in order to execute malicious

software are also oftentimes used.

Zero-Day and Other Exploits. As mentioned earlier, a zero-day exploit is a vulnerability

in a software product that allows an attacker to execute unintended code or gaincontrol of a target computer. These exploits are usually included in spearphishing and

watering hole attacks. In some cases, exploits are used that have recently been fixed by

vendors but have not yet been patched by the target organization. Both have been

shown to be very successful in attacks.

Insiders and Recruits. Sometimes an attacker will recruit an insider to assist in launching

an attack. In the case of Stuxnet, it is believed an insider sympathetic to the attacker’s

goals was recruited to launch the initial attack by plugging in a specially created USB key

that contained the attack malware. This is often the only way an attacker can reach a

target computer that is not connected to the Internet (or what’s known as an air gapped

network).

Forged and Fake Certificates. An attacker may attempt to forge or fake an SSL

certificate in order to get a victim to visit a page that pretends to be from a safe site. In

2011, the certificate authority Comodo was compromised and fake certificates were

issued for popular sites such as Google, Skype and Yahoo.

From the most basic threats of past years through the development and emergence of APTs, the threats

for computers networks continue to evolve, presenting continued challenges to those charged with the

responsibility of network protection—from the network security administrator down to the individual

desktop user. The following section presents discussion on fundamental concepts in modern network

security.


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The Advanced Attack Kill Chain

So how does an advanced attack work? Here’s a snapshot of a typical kill chain for an advanced attack

and the typical security technologies that are in play in order to block that attack and break the kill

chain.

Figure 5. Kill chain of an advanced attack.

The number one, most popular method for initiating an advanced attack is to send a malicious email to

the target. This email may have a malicious file attachment or a URL that connects to a malicious web

site. You hope your anti-spam will stop this email from ever reaching an end user target. However, there

are ways to get around antispam and other email gateway security techniques. For example, Bots mayleverage legitimate (but compromised) IPs from which to send the email or they may use targeted spear

phishing techniques and social engineering to get through filters and to entice an end users to click on a

URL. They may encrypt a malicious attachment to hide it from AV scanning.

If an email with a malicious URL gets through and an end user clicks on that URL link, you hope your web

filtering protection will stop the user from ever connecting to that malicious web site and in many cases

this will work. However, some attackers use a fast flux approach, only using a site for a few days or a few

hours – harvesting what they can before moving on to another URL.

If the end user connects with the malicious web site, that site will launch exploits at the user and you

hope your Intrusion prevention will block the attack. However, exploits can slip through by takingadvantage of zero-day vulnerabilities, new variants, and encryption.

If an exploit gets through, you hope you will catch any malware it tries to deliver with your antivirus.

And many times this will work but sometimes it doesn’t. Malware can use file compression, encryption,

and new malware variants to get through an AV filter.


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If that malware gets into the organization, it will try to proliferate and it will look for valuable data to

collect. Eventually it will try to exfiltrate stolen data or simply go out to try to pull more threats into the

organization and here’s where your application control and IP reputation controls may be able to

identify and stop a connection to a command & control center. But if it doesn’t (maybe because the

traffic was encrypted) your organization is breached.


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Introduction to Modern Network SecurityThe evolution of network security necessarily followed the evolution of threats to the network. From the

early days of simple, direct attacks to modern threats that include complex, indirect, and coordinated

attacks, security development continues to counter new and future threats. The steps in network

security evolution have necessarily followed the evolution of emerging threats.

Network security is truly a Battle of Minds – the battle between how sophisticated hackers and

malicious code is developed and used versus the ability of IT security professionals to innovate and

implement security measures to mitigate current and emerging threats.

Figure 6. The Network Security “Battle of the minds.”

Included in the Hackers’ toolkit of threats are:

Bot/Botnet

Malware

Vulnerability Exploiting

Spam/Phishing Message

Malicious URL

Malicious Applications

Malicious Code

General Known Threats

Unknown Threats

On the other side of the battle are the tools for network security managers:

Anti-botnet

Intrusion Prevention (IPS)

Antivirus/Antimalware

(AV/AM)

Vulnerability Management

Anti-spam

Web Filtering

IP Reputation

Application Control

Web Application Security

Database Protection

Advanced Threat

Protection (ATP)


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Modern network security is comprised of many facets, some of which are in your control, others

which may not be. In an increasingly mobile world, traditional network security measures

focused on desktop platforms and “dumbphones” are no longer relevant to the world of tablets,

phablets, and smartphones. Because of the constantly changing landscape of network

environments, organizations of all sizes and complexities face challenges in keeping pace withchange, developing counters to emerging threats, and controlling network and security policies.

Once the realm of the highly trained and richly resourced, development of malicious code has

become widespread to the degree that school children have been known to compete with each

other in hacking contests. To meet modern and emerging threats, companies and organizations

must adopt dynamic network security programs that keep pace with changing trends and

activities.

People—or the man-machine interface—is the weakest link in any security process. People are

easily lulled into a false sense of security about the effectiveness of passwords and access codes,

identity verification, and policies regarding the use of information technology (IT) systems and

networks. It takes just one careless moment to potentially breach the integrity of protected

information and systems—if network security user policies and protocols are too complicated,

compliance is less likely. Because of this human factor it is important to focus on user-

friendly/threat unfriendly solutions, ensuring that network security schema is clear and simple

for network administrators and users to operate, with the necessary complexity to identify,

deter, or contain threats being embedded in state-of-the-art hardware and software solutions

that are nearly transparent to internal network users.

But a note of caution— just as every organization is not alike, neither will their networks,

hardware, software, or needs be alike. Each organization needs a customized strategic network

security program tailored to balance its needs against its operating environment, perceived

threats, and operating budget. Of course, the best network security program would be an end-

to-end, 24/7 monitored program with regular analytics informing plan effectiveness and

potential enhancements—this would be the holy grail of network security. Systems like Unified

Threat Management (UTM) provide the ability to balance needs, capabilities, and resources to

secure networks while maintaining the ability of the organization to operate. In essence, this

book will help you learn about how to take steps to mitigate best the threats to your network

and optimize network security while balancing those factors.

Infrastructure Evolution

In a world growing ever more complex with network portability being built into an increasingnumber of devices of varying capabilities, network security continues to evolve in complexity—

and importance. In the 1980’s a transition from early closed networks to a broader Internet

occurred, with the advent of Ethernet, Bitnet, TCP/IP, SMTP, DNS, and in 1985—the first .com

domain name registration. It was not until six years later, in 1991, that the Worldwide Web

(WWW) came into existence; by 1995, what we know now as the modern Internet became


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established as a fixture in how business—and the world—would communicate in the future

(Figure 7).

Figure 7. From closed networks to Global Information Grid

Star Trek introduced the idea of floppy disks and “flip” cellular phones.

The Forbin Project introduced the idea of supercomputers running complex algorithms

that controlled government functions and could potentially supplant human decision-

makers. Later ideas included War Games and Terminator.

1976 the “Osborne 1” was the first portable computer…although not by today’s

standards.

The first .com domain was registered in 1985, and the Worldwide Web began in 1991.The Internet as we know it today did not come online until 1995—a mere 20 years ago!

A Japanese company introduced the first “smartphone” in 1999…although it was a

relatively simple device compared to today’s smartphones.

Many of us remember the hype around the Y2K bug (would computers go back to 1900

at midnight?). Early programs were written with just the last two digits of the year with

the “19xx” assumed…

Believe it or not, the first tablet came out in 2002—but not as light and useful as today’s

models.

The discussion between the labelling and merits of Next Generation Firewall (NGFW)

and Unified Threat Management (UTM) expanded and carried on through 2009, with

Gartner, IDC, and Fortinet in the fray. 2007 saw the introduction of the first iPhone (wow, seems longer ago than that!)

Finally, 2013-2014 turned out to be a year of breaches by advanced threats targeting

specific entities (which we will discuss more in a few minutes).

No longer was high-tech the sole domain of major companies, organizations, and government

agencies, but the global information network became the domain of everyone from multi-billion

dollar international conglomerates to grade school children (Figure 8). As technologies

developed, the industry response was typically the addition of new stand-alone, single- or dual-

purpose hardware or integrated hardware-software packages designed to address newlyidentified threats. This resulted in a constant state of expensive upgrades that added network

complexity, integration of new devices and scrubbing and repurposing or disposing of legacy

hardware, new policy development and new management consoles. This served to increase

workload, retraining, and complexity for network administrators and end users, exacerbating

the balancing problem between security and productivity.


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Figure 8. The scope of modern global network users.

Because new products were not always able to integrate fully into existing systems, the

piecemeal approach to network development and security led to potential blind spots that

threats may exploit undetected. In order to solve this growing challenge, a move toward more

strategic solutions to network security were needed—not new stand-alone systems addressing

individual threat vectors; rather, strategic systems and processes designed to protect networks

comprised of systems-of-systems. From this problem developed the Unified Threat

Management (UTM) concept, which goes beyond a system-of-systems approach to integrate

individual system characteristics into strategic systems (Figure 9).

Figure 9. UTM versus traditional ad hoc model.

Size Matters

As technology evolved, appliance size necessary to house its components decreased. From early

computers that used vacuum tubes and took up entire rooms, to decreasing media size with

increased media capacity, to unplugging from cables and wires to conduct operations with

mobile devices, the size of computers has decreased while capabilities grew. Today,

smartphones and tablets can accomplish many functions previously requiring larger appliances

with ever-evolving functionality. In fact, with modern remote technology, a smartphone user


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may remotely access a desktop platform with greater capability to work on large files or access

data instead of carrying the files on portable media.

Along with size, system and network technology has also decreased. Legacy systems were built

much like 1980’s-1990’s stereos—single- or dual-function components connected together to

create an overall system. This resulted in the need for additional space for additional

capabilities, caused signal loss through cables connecting distant components, and required

multiple control heads to adjust to achieve the optimum system performance. Modern,

integrated systems provide efficiencies by taking up less space because of less hardware

appliances, less signal loss because multi-function appliances integrate system components, and

a single control head to optimize network-wide performance.

Figure 10. Miniaturization of computers and network access appliances.

Advanced Threats

Experienced hackers or groups of hackers possessing significant resources pose an increased

threat to systems and networks, including developing and implementing techniques not

previously used to compromise, gain control of, or shut down service. Advanced Threat

Protection—also referred to as Advanced Persistent Threat Protection—provides integrated

measures to detect and block advanced threats. These measures include botnet and phishing

antivirus profiling, as well as zero-day threat protection and using sandboxing to analyze,

identify, and block suspicious code and add the suspicious code profile to the ATP signature

database.

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

In order to protect against modern and emerging future threats, adaptive defense tools like ATP

are being incorporated into network security infrastructures at an increasing pace. This level of

protection provides increased security across all network sizes from SMB to large enterprises.

Critical capabilities brought to bear by ATP include access control, threat prevention, threat

detection, incident response, and continuous monitoring:


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• Access Control. Layer 2/3 firewall, vulnerability management, two-factor

authentication.

• Threat Prevention. Intrusion Prevention (IPS), application control, Web filtering, email

filtering, antimalware.

• Threat Detection. “Sandboxing,” botnet detection, client reputation, network behavior

analysis.

• Incident Response. Consolidated logs & reports, professional services, user/device

quarantine, threat prevention updates.

• Continuous Monitoring. Real-time activity views, security reporting, threat intelligence.

Figure 11. Advanced Threat Protection (ATP).

Breaking the Advanced Threat Kill Chain

Additional discussion in the platform-focused modules of this programs to provide a more in-

depth examination of these attack mitigation methods; however, these are some methods by

which network security administrators can detect, stop, and mitigate attack consequences.


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Figure 12. Breaking the advanced threat kill chain - Part 1.

Security Partnerships. Attackers don’t rest on their laurels and neither should an

organization. Having a strong partnership with a security organization can provide up-

to-date information and threat intelligence as well as clearly-defined escalation path

when an incident is detected.

End User Education. Attackers target end users because they find the greatest chance of

success focusing their initial attacks there. Educating end users on proper use of social

media to prevent confidential information from becoming publicly available is one

component. Internal awareness training and regular testing by IT staff can help mitigate

an attack.

Network Segregation. If there is no reason for an employee to have network access to

particular resources that may contain sensitive data, then basic network segregation can

help prevent lateral movement inside the network. By placing resources on segments

that cannot be reached from end users, an organization can potentially prevent an

attacker from moving beyond the initial foothold.

Web Filtering/IP Reputation. By using a solution that provides current IP reputation

data and Web filtering rules, an organization may be able to stop some attacks. By using

an IP reputation service, an organization may be able to stop an attacker that has

launched attacks on other organizations using the same network resources.

Whitelisting. Whitelisting can be used in multiple ways. For example, network

whitelisting can be used to only allow certain internal traffic to reach other network

resources. This can prevent an attacker from moving laterally inside a network. Network

whitelists can also prevent a user from accessing any sites online that are not explicitly

approved. Application whitelisting can be used to allow only a set list of applications


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from running on a computer, preventing all other software from running. This can

prevent an attacker from running new programs on the target’s computer.

Blacklisting. While a whitelist is a list of things that are explicitly allowed to execute or

access resources, a blacklist explicitly blocks items on the list from accessing resources,

sites or applications deemed unsafe.

Application Control. Employees are using Web services like Facebook, Twitter and

Skype on a frequent basis today. Application Control allows you to identify and control

applications on your network, regardless of port, protocol or IP address. Using tools

such as behavioral analysis, end-user association and application classification can

identify and block potentially malicious applications and malware.

Sandboxing. With targeted attacks often designed (and indeed tested) to bypass

traditional security technologies, additional inspection of code activity has emerged.

Whether cloud-based or on-premise, sandboxes analyze code execution and subsequentactivity within contained virtual environments to expose full, previously unknown,

threat lifecycles.

Data Leak Prevention (DLP). By properly identifying sensitive data and implementing a

DLP solution, an organization can prevent sensitive information from leaving a network.

Data being used at the endpoint, data moving inside a network and data being stored

can all be protected from theft or improper use by implementing a DLP solution.

Figure 13. Breaking the advanced threat kill chain - Part 2.


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Intrusion Prevention (IPS) / Intrusion Detection (IDS): By using a product that

provides IPS and IDS, an organization can add another layer of traffic monitoring

to watch for suspicious activity. A good IPS/IDS system will also alert IT staff of

potential threats in progress.

Proactive Patching: A computer is only as secure as the software on it. It is

essential for companies to deploy patches to their systems as quickly as

possible. Attackers and cyber criminals waste no time integrating proof-of

concept code into their malware and exploit kits – in some cases exploits have

been added to an exploit kit within hours or days of a patch being available. By

delaying deployment of critical patches, an organization risks becoming

vulnerable to attack. For business intelligence or in-house applications that

require almost constant uptime, it’s critical to keep test machines available to

deploy patches to and test mission critical applications without impacting the

main network.

Restricting Administrative Rights: Some companies provide employees with

local administrative rights in order to install drivers or software on an as-

needed basis. This can be a double-edged sword. While it can reduce support

calls and empower employees, it can also lead to easier access for attackers to

install malware and remote access tools (also known as RATs) on a victim’s

computer. By limiting access to administrative rights whenever possible, an

organization may be able to mitigate many attacks.

Network Access Control (NAC): NAC is a solution that can prevent computers on

a network from accessing resources unless certain rules or policies are met. Forexample, if a computer hasn’t been patched recently, NAC can place that

computer on a segregated subnet that blocks access to resources until the

machine has been properly patched.

Two-Factor Authentication: There are many forms of two-factor authentication

available for end users. By implementing two-factor authentication for remote

users or users that require access to sensitive information, an organization can

make it difficult for an attacker to take advantage of lost or stolen credentials,

as the attacker would need to provide a second form of identification in order to

gain network access. Commonly used two-factor authentication methods

include the standard username and password plus a hardware – or software-

based authentication token, which provides a one-time, time-sensitive

password that must be entered when the username and password is presented

to the authentication server.


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USB Drive Restrictions: Many computers will accept a USB thumb drive

implicitly and execute any auto-run applications located on the drive. A drive

that has malicious code planted on it can be all an attacker needs to gain an

initial foothold in a network. Limiting USB drive access to employees on an as-

needed and justified basis is a good idea; banning them outright is even safer. IfUSB drive access is necessary, enabling a proper Group Policy to prevent a drive

from auto-running is essential.

Limiting Access to Cloud-based File Sharing: Services such as Dropbox have

enjoyed wide scale adoption both at home and in the workplace. As with USB

drive access, it is important to limit access to these programs unless absolutely

necessary. Cloud-based file sharing and syncing applications can make it trivial

for an attacker to compromise a home computer and move malware into a

corporate network when a user syncs the files they took home the night before.

Advanced Threats and Network Security: Continuing Evolution

The early days of personal computer availability to consumers and the advent of the Internet

and Worldwide Web are behind us. These events were followed by parallel development of

more powerful hardware appliances and more complex applications for those machines.

Unfortunately, with those developments also came a thriving developmental path for malware

and other methods by which to breach system and network security to obtain data from or deny

use of targeted platforms. This Modern Network Security Program presents current and future

appliances, applications, and concepts to provide the options to keep pace with emerging

capabilities and threats—and maintain the safety and security of your system and network.


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Key AcronymsAAA Authentication, Authorization, and

Accounting

AD Active Directory

ADC Application Delivery Controller

ADN Application Delivery Network

ADOM Administrative Domain

AM Antimalware

API Application Programming Interface

APT Advanced Persistent Threat

ASIC Application-Specific Integrated Circuit

ASP Analog Signal Processing

ATP Advanced Threat Protection

AV Antivirus

AV/AM Antivirus/Antimalware

BYOD Bring Your Own Device

CPU Central Processing Unit

DDoS Distributed Denial of Service

DLP Data Leak Prevention

DNS Domain Name System

DoS Denial of Service

DPI Deep Packet Inspection

DSL Digital Subscriber Line

FTP File Transfer Protocol

FW Firewall

Gb Gigabyte

GbE Gigabit Ethernet

Gbps Gigabits per second

GSLB Global Server Load Balancing

GUI Graphical User Interface

HTML Hypertext Markup Language

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol

HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure

IaaS Infrastructure as a Service

ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol

ICSA International Computer Security

Association

ID Identification

IDC International Data Corporation

IDS Intrusion Detection System

IM Instant Messaging

IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol

IMAPS Internet Message Access Protocol

Secure

IoT Internet of Things

IP Internet Protocol

IPS Intrusion Prevention System

IPSec Internet Protocol Security

IPTV Internet Protocol Television

IT Information Technology

J2EE Java Platform Enterprise Edition

LAN Local Area Network

LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

LLB Link Load Balancing

LOIC Low Orbit Ion Cannon

MSP Managed Service Provider

MSSP Managed Security Service Provider

NGFW Next Generation Firewall

NSS NSS Labs

OSI Open Systems Infrastructure


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OTS Off the Shelf

PaaS Platform as a Service

PC Personal Computer

PCI DSS Payment Card Industry Data SecurityStandard

PHP PHP Hypertext Protocol

POE Power over Ethernet

POP3 Post Office Protocol (v3)

POP3S Post Office Protocol (v3) Secure

QoS Quality of Service

Radius Protocol server for UNIX systems

RDP Remote Desktop Protocol

SaaS Software as a Service

SDN Software-Defined Network

SEG Secure Email Gateway

SFP Small Form-Factor Pluggable

SFTP Secure File Transfer Protocol

SIEM Security Information and Event

Management

SLA Service Level Agreement

SM Security Management

SMB Small & Medium Business

SMS Simple Messaging System

SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

SMTPS Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Secure

SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol

SPoF Single Point of Failure

SQL Structured Query Language

SSL Secure Socket Layer

SWG Secure Web Gateway

SYN Synchronization packet in TCP

Syslog Standard acronym for Computer

Message Logging

TCP Transmission Control Protocol

TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet

Protocol (Basic Internet Protocol)

TLS Transport Layer Security

TLS/SSL Transport Layer Security/Secure SocketLayer Authentication

UDP User Datagram Protocol

URL Uniform Resource Locator

USB Universal Serial Bus

UTM Unified Threat Management

VDOM Virtual Domain

VM Virtual Machine

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol

VPN Virtual Private Network

WAF Web Application Firewall

WANOpt Wide Area Network Optimization

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

WAN Wide Area Network

XSS Cross-site Scripting


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GlossaryApplication Control. Protects managed desktops and servers by allowing or denying network application

usage based on policies established by the network administrator. Enterprise applications, databases,

web mail, social networking applications, IM/P2P, and file transfer protocols can all be identified

accurately by sophisticated detection signatures.

APT. An Advanced Persistent Threat is a network attack in which an unauthorized person gains access to

a network and stays there undetected for a long period of time. The intention of an APT attack is to steal

data rather than to cause damage to the network or organization. APT attacks target organizations in

sectors with high-value information, such as national defense, manufacturing and the financial industry.

ATP. Advanced Threat Protection relies on multiple types of security technologies, products, and

research -- each performing a different role, but still working seamlessly together -- to combat these

attacks from network core through the end user device. The 3-part framework is conceptually simple—

prevent, detect, mitigate; however, it covers a broad set of both advanced and traditional tools for

network, application and endpoint security, threat detection, and mitigation.

AV/AM. Anti-virus/Anti-malware provides protection against virus, spyware, and other types of

malware attacks in web, email, and file transfer traffic. Responsible for detecting, removing, and

reporting on malicious code. By intercepting and inspecting application-based traffic and content,

antivirus protection ensures that malicious threats hidden within legitimate application content are

identified and removed from data streams before they can cause damage. Using AV/AM protection at

client servers/devices adds an additional layer of security.

Bot. An Internet bot, also known as web robot, WWW robot or simply bot, is a software application that

runs automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple andstructurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use

of bots is in web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyses and files information from

web servers at many times the speed of a human.

Botnet. A botnet (also known as a zombie army) is a number of Internet computers that, although their

owners are unaware of it, have been set up to forward transmissions (including spam or viruses) to

other computers on the Internet. Any such computer is referred to as a zombie - in effect, a computer

"robot" or "bot" that serves the wishes of some master spam or virus originator. Most computers

compromised in this way are home-based. According to a report from Russian-based Kaspersky Labs,

botnets -- not spam, viruses, or worms -- currently pose the biggest threat to the Internet. A report from

Symantec came to a similar conclusion.


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Drive-by. A drive-by download refers to the unintentional download of a virus or malicious software

(malware) onto your computer or mobile device. A drive-by download will usually take advantage of (or

“exploit”) a browser, app, or operating system that is out of date and has a security flaw. This initial

code that is downloaded is often very small (so you probably wouldn’t notice it), since its job is often

simply to contact another computer where it can pull down the rest of the code on to your smartphone,tablet, or computer. Often, a web page will contain several different types of malicious code, in hopes

that one of them will match a weakness on your computer.

Exploit. A piece of software, a segment of data, or command sequences that takes advantage of

a vulnerability in order to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur on computer software,

hardware, or appliances incorporating the Internet of Things (IoT). Such behavior frequently includes

things like gaining control of a computer system, allowing privilege escalation, or a denial-of-service

attack.

IP/PII. This is what cybercriminals are after. From the IP owned by a corporation or organization to

individual PII, this is the commodity most often sought by hackers, who often use it for financial gain or

blackmail.

IP stands for Internet Protocol , or the address commonly used to identify the origin of an Internet

transmission—i.e. your device.

PII stand for Personally Identifiable Information, sometimes referred to as “Personal Information,”

and is often equated in the U.S. with “Privacy Act Information.”

NIST Special Publication 800-122 defines PII as "any information about an individual maintained by an

agency, including (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual‘s identity,

such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother‘s maiden name, or biometric

records; and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual, such as medical,

educational, financial, and employment information. It has become much more important as IT and the

Internet have made it easier to collect PII through breaches of Internet and network security and Web

browser vulnerabilities.

Recent courts decisions have leaned toward IP not being considered as PII, judging that an IP only

identifies a particular platform or device, not an actual individual.

IPS. Intrusion Prevention System protects networks from threats by blocking attacks that might

otherwise take advantage of network vulnerabilities and unpatched systems. IPS may include a wide

range of features that can be used to monitor and block malicious network activity including: predefined

and custom signatures, protocol decoders, out-of-band mode (or one-arm IPS mode, similar to IDS),

packet logging, and IPS sensors. IPS can be installed at the edge of your network or within the network

core to protect critical business applications from both external and internal attacks.


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Log Management. The collective processes and policies used to administer and facilitate the generation,

transmission, analysis, storage and ultimate disposal of the large volumes of log data created within an

information system.

Malvertising. This is the use of online advertising to spread malware. Online advertisements provide a

solid platform for spreading malware because significant effort is put into them in order to attract users

and sell or advertise the product. Malvertising can be easily spread across a large number of legitimate

websites without directly compromising those websites. According to Reed Exhibitions, "The interesting

thing about infections delivered through malvertising is that it does not require any user action (like

clicking) to compromise the system and it does not exploit any vulnerabilities on the website or the

server it is hosted from... infections delivered through malvertising silently travel through Web page

advertisements.”

Malware. Malware is a category of malicious code that includes viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.

Destructive malware will utilize popular communication tools to spread, including worms sent through

email and instant messages, Trojan horses dropped from web sites, and virus-infected files downloaded

from peer-to-peer connections. Malware will also seek to exploit existing vulnerabilities on systems

making their entry quiet and easy.

Virus. A computer virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without

your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer

viruses are man-made. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively

easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available

memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of

transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.

Worm. Computer worms are similar to viruses in that they replicate functional copies of themselves

and can cause the same type of damage. In contrast to viruses, which require the spreading of an

infected host file, worms are standalone software and do not require a host program or human help

to propagate. To spread, worms either exploit a vulnerability on the target system or use some kind

of social engineering to trick users into executing them. A worm enters a computer through a

vulnerability in the system and takes advantage of file-transport or information-transport features

on the system, allowing it to travel unaided.

Trojan. A Trojan [horse] is a program in which malicious or harmful code is contained inside

apparently harmless programming or data in such a way that it can get control and do its chosen

form of damage, such as ruining the file allocation table (FAT) on your hard drive. In one case, a

Trojan was a program that was supposed to find and destroy computer viruses. A Trojan may be

widely redistributed as part of a computer virus.


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Network Behavior Anomaly Detection (NBAD). The continuous monitoring of a network for unusual

events or trends. An NBAD program tracks critical network characteristics in real time and generates an

alarm if a strange event or trend is detected that could indicate the presence of a threat. NBAD is an

integral part of network behavior analysis.

Network Forensics. Capturing, recording, and analyzing network events for the purpose of discovering

the source of security attacks or other problem incidents. “Catch-it-as-you-can" systems capture

all packets passing through a certain traffic point, store the data, and then perform analysis in batch

mode. "Stop, look and listen" systems perform a basic analysis in memory and save only certain data for

subsequent analyses.

NGFW. Next Generation Firewall provides multi-layered capabilities in a single firewall appliance instead

of a basic firewall and numerous add-on appliances. NGFW integrates the capabilities of a traditional

firewall with advanced features including:

Intrusion Prevention (IPS)

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)

Network App ID & Control Access Enforcement Distributed Enterprise

Capability

“Extra Firewall” Intelligence

Third Party Management

Compatibility

VPN Application Awareness

Phishing. Phishing is an e-mail fraud method in which the perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking email

in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from recipients. Typically, the messages

appear to come from well-known and trustworthy Web sites. Web sites that are frequently spoofed by

phishers include PayPal, eBay, MSN, Yahoo, BestBuy, banks, and government agencies. A phishing

expedition, like the fishing expedition it's named for, is a speculative venture: the phisher puts the lure

hoping to fool at least a few of the prey that encounter the bait.

Risk Management. The process of identifying, assessing and controlling threats to an organization's

capital and earnings. Such threats include financial uncertainty, legal liabilities, strategic management

errors, accidents, natural disasters and information technology (IT) security threats.

Sandboxing. A Sandbox is designed to detect and analyze advanced attacks designed to bypass

traditional security defenses. Sandboxing refers to the process of isolating unknown or potentially

malicious codes to fully execute all functions before allowing the traffic to download into the network.

By analyzing files in a contained environment to identify previously unknown threats and uncovering the

full attack lifecycle, if malicious activity is discovered, Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) can block it.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). An approach to security management that seeks

to provide a holistic view of an organization’s information technology (IT) security. Most SIEM systems

deploy multiple collection agents to gather security-related events from end-user devices, servers,

network equipment and specialized security equipment like firewalls, AV/AM or IPS. The collectors

forward events to a centralized management console, which performs inspections and flags anomalies.


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Security Intelligence (SI) is the information relevant to protecting an organization from external and

inside threats as well as the processes, policies and tools designed to gather and analyze that

information.

Intelligence, in this context, is actionable information that provides an organization with

decision support and possibly a strategic advantage. SI is a comprehensive approach thatintegrates multiple processes and practices designed to protect the organization.

UTM. Unified Threat Management provides administrators the ability to monitor and manage multiple,

complex security-related applications and infrastructure components through a single management

console. The advantage to UTM is that it goes beyond the NGFW focus of high performance protection

of data centers by incorporating a broader range of security capabilities as either cloud services or

network appliances, integrating:

Intrusion Prevention (IPS) Content Filtering Quality of Service (QoS)

Anti-Malware VPN Capabilities SSL/SSH Inspection

Anti-Spam

Load Balancing

Application Awareness Identity-based Access Control

Vulnerability. In cybersecurity, vulnerability refers to a flaw in a system that can leave it open to attack.

A vulnerability may also refer to any type of weakness in a computer system itself, in a set of

procedures, or in anything that leaves information security exposed to a threat. Cutting down

vulnerabilities provides fewer options for malicious users to gain access to secure information.

Watering Hole. The watering hole attack method targets specific groups (organization, company,

industry, region, etc.). In this attack, the attacker guesses or observes which websites the group often

uses and infects one or more of them with malware. Eventually, some member of the targeted group

gets infected, resulting in the malware being spread to others in the targeted group.

Web Filtering. Web Filtering technology gives you the option to explicitly allow web sites, or to pass web

traffic uninspected both to and from known-good web sites in order to accelerate traffic flows. The most

advanced web content filtering technology enables a wide variety of actions to inspect, rate, and control

perimeter web traffic at a granular level. Using web content filtering technology, these appliances can

classify and filter web traffic using multiple pre-defined and custom categories.

nse1 threat landscape

Documents