Threat visibility has always been an unruly challenge. Security teams find themselves inundated with alerts, many of which are false alarms. The irony is that, even as defenders can see more information about threats than ever before, attackers can slip right by because of all the noise. And the attackers know this, so they create…

While it’s true that threat hunting, incident response, and threat research all have their foundations in science (operating system theory and architecture, computer language and compilation, protocols, hardware and memory architecture, logic, etc.), throughout my entire career I have found it is also fundamentally true that the most successful threat hunters, incident responders, and threat…

As more organizations implement successful threat hunting operations, a SANS Institute survey finds that they are facing common challenges with employing skilled staff and collecting quality threat intelligence. “Without a sufficient number of skilled staff, high-quality intelligence, and the right tools to get visibility into the infrastructure, success with threat hunting will remain limited,” says…

When it comes to cybersecurity industry predictions for 2020, Optiv researchers expect to see a focus on privacy, evolving threat actors, pervasive deepfake videos, and increased election interference. “As we look beyond 2019 and into 2020, we have a solid idea of what threats the industry is facing, and not just ransomware and phishing attacks,…

Growing intrusion trends: A perspective on today’s most sophisticated cyberattacks

According to a new CrowdStrike report, the technology, professional services, and hospitality sectors were targeted most often by cyber adversaries. The actors used a variety of novel tactics, demonstrating particular creativity and perseverance in defense-evasion and credential-access TTPs such as the use of Windows Internal tool, Active Directory Explorer, for one-time credential dumping. Notable percentages…

Why humans are necessary to the threat hunting process

For thousands of years, humans have worked to collect intelligence on their enemies. Intelligence gathering is not a new practice; in fact, it is one of the oldest war tactics dating back to biblical times, when warlords and army commanders used it to gain advantages over their rivals. However, the methods have changed as new…

Keep Intruders Out of Your Network With Proactive Threat Hunting

A threat hunting program can provide an accurate picture of where your organization is exposed to threats and help security professionals strengthen those weaknesses. If you know how an adversary is breaking into your environment, you can improve your defenses and stop attacks from happening again in the future. This echoes the importance of having…