Traffic Analysis Flashcards
Network Analyst
Cyber operator whose main focus is infrastructure devices & netflow. Responsible for handling cyber incidents, network security
What are the benefits of a network analyst?
In depth knowledge of common network protocols, packet formats, & infrastructure security vulnerabilities
Network Baseline
Defines what is normal for enterprise netflow and ports, protocols & services used at a predetermined level
What are the benefits of a network baseline?
- Allows for anomalous or abnormal condition detection through comparison (compares current baseline to original)
- Allows for rapid deployment of new networks
Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI)
Knowledge about adversaries
What are the benefits of Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI)?
- Framework for indicators of compromise (IoC) for actionable hunting
- Enables organizations to deploy measures to detect, mitigate, & possibly prevent attacks as they occur
Network Artifacts
Piece of network traffic data that may be relevant to an investigated response
What are the benefits of network artifacts?
- Helps with developing network and host signatures
- Feeds CTI to triage incidents sooner
What are some things that could be network artifacts?
Logs (router, switch, firewall, DNS, web proxy, etc), files/directories (names, timestamps, sizes, hashes), registry keys
Network Triage
A process for sorting network violations into groups based on need for or likely benefit from immediate attention
What is the benefit of network triage?
Helps the network analyst & the unit prioritize important systems to prevent mission failure
Sandbox
Highly controlled environment used to test unverified programs or malicious software
What are the benefits of sandboxes?
Safely examine suspicious files
Intrusion Detection System
Device or software application that passively monitors a network or systems for malicious activity or policy violations; “Man-on-the-Side”
What are the benefits of intrusion detection systems?
- Easier to deploy because it doesn’t affect existing system or infrastructure
- Detects network based attacks by checking packet headers
- Retains evidence for network analysts when set up to log data
Intrusion Prevention System
Preemptive network security approach that uses techniques to detect and block possible intrusion attempts into a network
What are the benefits of intrusion prevention systems?
- Able to take defensive actions rather than just alerting on a possible attack
- Retains evidence for network analysts when set up to log data
Security Info & Event Management (SIEM)
A group of technologies that together provide a bird’s eye view of the network
What are the benefits of SIEMs?
- Aggregates relevant data from multiple data sources to identify deviations from the norm & and allow an analyst to take appropriate actions
- Able to ingest data from virtually any product vendor
What is the difference between an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)?
An IDS passively monitors while an IPS actively tries to prevent possible intrusions
Full Packet Capture
File containing original packet data as seen at collection point (*.pcap, *.pcapng, *.cap, *.dmp)
What are the benefits of Full Packet Capture?
- Holy grail of network data collection
- Countless tools give the analyst many approaches to examine them
What are the drawbacks of Full Packet Capture?
- Files can grow extremely large
- Legal constraints often limit availability of this data
- Encrypted communications are increasingly used
NetFlow
- Record containing a summary of network communication as seen at the collection point
- Contains no content
- Extremely helpful for quick network triage
What are the benefits of NetFlow?
- Requires less storage than full packet capture
- Analysis processes are much faster
- Generally fewer privacy concerns
- Analysis processes apply equally to all protocols (encrypted/plain text, custom or standard)
What are the drawbacks of NetFlow?
- Without content low level analysis & analysis may not be possible
- Many collection platforms are unique and require training and/or license to use