AV Incident Response Guide

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welcome, earthling!
Navigate Your Journey

The Introduction

Arming & Aiming
Your Incident
Response Team

Incident Response
Process &
Procedures

The Art of Triage:
Types of Security
Incidents

Incident
Reponse Training

Incident
Response Tools

the
Introduction
The fight to protect your company’s data isn’t for the faint of heart. As an
embattled IT warrior, with more systems, apps, and users to support than ever
before, keeping everything up and running is a battle in itself. When it comes
to preventing the worst-case scenario from happening, you need all the help
you can get, despite your super-hero status.
That’s why we’ve developed this incident response guide. We’ve collected
and curated decades of infosec war stories and intelligence — from across
the galaxy — so that you’re better armed in the fight against cybercrime. You’ll
have an insider’s perspective on how to build an incident response plan and
team, and what tools and training you can use to arm those team members.

what exactly is

Incident Response?
We’re not Wikipedia or Webster’s, so if you’re looking for a dictionary definition,
this isn’t the right place. But if a five year old asked us, we might just say,
incident response is sort of like a fire drill for the IT guy. When the worst-case
scenario becomes reality, it’s essential to have the right plan in place, the
right people on the job, and the right tools and training to remain vigilant. And
that’s what reading this incident response guide can give you.

Preparation

Eradication

Preparing users and IT to handle potential

Finding and eliminating the root cause

incidents in case they happen (and let’s

(removing

face it, we know they will)

production)

Identification

Recovery

Figuring out what we mean by a “security

Permitting affected systems back into the

incident” (which events can we ignore vs.

production environment (and watching

which we must act on right now?)

them closely)

Containment

Lessons Learned

Isolating affected systems to prevent

Writing everything down and reviewing

further damage (automated quarantines

and analyzing with all team members so

are our favorite)

affected

systems

from

you can improve future incident response
efforts

tell me, why...

Do I Need an Incident Response Plan?
The problem with plans is that they are designed to sit on the shelf until the day when
the proverbial oxygen masks drop from the ceiling. Otherwise, they just gather dust
except for the occasional auditor visits or executive reviews.
In this guide, we take the active approach because we know that the investment
of time and resources spent enhancing incident response will have immediate and
ongoing benefits to IT operations. After all, security is a subset of reliability – and
everyone wants their systems to be more reliable.
We will walk you through building a basic incident response plan and security
monitoring process, covering skills to acquire and helpful resources along the way.

3 examples of insider wisdom...

Straight from the Incident Response Front Lines

On Defining Incident
Response Success.

Don’t Panic.
Stay Focused.

Start with Simple Steps.

“There are many levels of success in

“Execution is key — the range of ways

“Attackers have technical and economic

defensive work… the common wisdom

to attack a target can seem limitless

imperatives to use the minimum amount

is that the attacker only has to be

— expecting to be an expert on all of

of effort and resources to breach their

right once, but the defender has to be

them is pointlessly unrealistic. The most

targets — the more you remove the low-

right every time, but that’s not always

important part of incident response is

hanging fruit on your network, the more

true. Attacks are not all-or-nothing

to handle every situation in a way that

you raise the actual level of work an

affairs — they happen over time, with

limits damage, and reduces recovery

attacker has to expend to successfully

multiple stages before final success. To

time and costs. At the end of the

infiltrate it.”

remain undetected against an attentive

day, that’s how you’ll be measured

defender, it is the attacker who must

on a job well done… not that you’ve

make every move correctly; if an astute

covered every angle of every potential

defender detects them even once, they

vulnerability.”

Attackers are Lazy.

have the possibility to locate and stop
the whole attack. You aren’t going to
immediately detect everything that
happens during an attack — but as long
as you detect (and correctly identify)
enough of an attack to stop it in its
tracks, that’s success.”

Onto Chapter 1 >

arming & aiming your incident response team
6

one

Arming & Aiming Your
Incident Response Team
As much as we may wish it weren’t so, there are some things that only people, and in some cases,
only certain people, can do. As one of the smartest guys in cyber security points out below, some
things can’t be automated, and incident response is one of them. That’s why having an incident
response team armed and ready to go — before an actual incident needs responding to, well, that’s
a smart idea.
There are several things we’ll cover in this chapter of the Insider’s Guide to Incident Response. First
of all, your incident response team will need to be armed, and they will need to be aimed. Even
though we cover true “armature” in terms of incident response tools in Chapter 4, we’ll share some
of the secrets of internal armor — advice that will help your team be empowered in the event of a
worst-case scenario.
And second, your incident response team will need to be aimed. In any team endeavor, goal setting
is critical because it enables you to stay focused, even in times of extreme crisis and stress.
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to assemble and organize an incident response team, how to arm
them and keep them focused on containing, investigating, responding to and recovering from
incidents.

Incident Response needs people,
because successful Incident
Response requires thinking.”
 Bruce Schneier, Schneier on Security

let’s start with the basics...

Who’s on the Incident Response Team?
We’ve put together the core functions of an incident response
team in this handy graphic. Since every company will have

Team Leader

differently sized and skilled staff, we referenced the core

rives and coordinates
D
all incident response
team activity, and keeps
the team focused on
minimizing damage, and
recovering quickly.

functions vs. the potential titles of incident response team

Lead Investigator

IT leads with strong executive support
& inter-departmental participation.

Collects and analyzes
all evidence, determines
root cause, directs the
other security analysts,
and implements
rapid system and
service recovery.

members. So you might find that a single person could fulfill
two functions, or you might want to dedicate more than one
person to a single function, depending on your team makeup.
That said, here are a few other key considerations to keep in
mind:

When it comes to cyber security incident response, IT should
be leading the effort, with executive representation from each
major business unit, especially when it comes to Legal and
HR. While the active members of the incident response team
will likely not be senior executives, plan on asking executives
to participate in major recruitment and communications

Communications Lead

efforts.

Leads the effort
on messaging and
communications for all
audiences, inside and
outside of the company.

Clearly define, document, &
communicate roles & responsibilities
of each team member.
While we’ve provided general functions like documentation,
communication, and investigation, you’ll want to get more

Documentation and
Timeline Lead

specific when outlining your incident response team member

Documents all team
activities, especially
investigation, discovery
and recovery tasks,
and develops reliable
timeline for each stage
of the incident.

communicate them, so that your incident response team is

HR/Legal Representation
Just as you would guess.
Since an incident may
or may not develop
into criminal charges,
it’s essential to have
legal and HR guidance
and participation.

roles. Make sure that you document these roles and clearly
well coordinated and knows what is expected of them —
before a crisis happens.

Establish, confirm, & publish
communication channels &
meeting schedules.
Effective communication is the secret to success for any
project, and it’s especially true for incident response. Print
out team member contact information and distribute it widely
(don’t just rely on soft copies of phone directories. Chances
are, you may not have access to them during an incident).
Include important external contacts as well, and make sure
to discuss and document when, how, and who to contact at
outside entities, such as law enforcement, the media, or other
incident response organizations like an ISAC.
8

tell me...

What Does an Incident Response Team Do?
An incident response team analyzes information, discusses
observations and activities, and shares important reports and
communications across the company. The amount of time
spent on any of one of these activities depends on one key
question: Is this a time of calm or crisis? When not actively
investigating or responding to an incident, the incident
response team should meet at least quarterly, to review
current security trends and incident response procedures.
The more information that an incident response team can
provide to the executive staff, the better, in terms of retaining
executive support and participation when it’s especially
needed (during a crisis or immediately after).

i wonder...

Where Should Incident Response
Team Members Be Located?
Most companies span across multiple
locations,

and

unfortunately,

most

incidents do the same. While you might
not be able to have a primary incident
response team member onsite at every
location, strive to have local presence
where the majority of business and IT
operations happen. The likelihood that
you’ll need physical access to perform
certain

investigations

and

analysis

activities is pretty high… even for trivial
things like rebooting a server or swapping
out a HDD.

tell me...

What’s the Goal of an Incident Response Team?
The incident response team’s goal is to coordinate and align the key resources and team members during a cyber security incident to
minimize impact and restore operations as quickly as possible. This includes the following critical functions: investigation and analysis,
communications, training, and awareness as well as documentation and timeline development.

investigation / analysis
key questions

key tactics

Is this an incident that requires attention
now? Which assets are impacted?

Determine and document the
scope, priority, and impact.

reporting / communications
key questions

key tactics

Which types of security incidents do we
include in our daily, weekly, and monthly
reports? Who is on the distribution list?
What information can we provide to
the executive team to maintain visibility
and awareness (e.g. industry reports,
user behavioral patterns, etc.)?

Define and categorize security
incidents based on asset value/impact.
Document and educate team members
on appropriate reporting procedures.
Collect relevant trending data and other
information to showcase the value the IR
team can bring to the overall business.

Response / Improvement
key questions

key tactics

What’s the most effective way to
investigate and recover data and
functionality? How do we improve
our response capabilities?

Investigate root cause, document
findings, implement recovery
strategies, and communicate
status to team members.

i wonder...

How Should I Choose the Right Incident
Response Team Members?
In terms of incident response team membership recruitment, here are three key considerations based
on NIST’s recommendations from their Computer Security Incident Handling guide.

Aim for 24/7
Availability
Chances are, your company is like
most, and you’ll need to have incident
response team members available
on a 24x7x365 basis. In fact, from my
experience and those of other insiders,
Friday afternoons always seemed to be
the “bewitching” hour, especially when
it was a holiday weekend. Please note
that you may need some onsite staff
support in certain cases, so living close
to the office can be a real asset in an
incident response team member.

Consider Virtual
or Volunteer Team
Members (if full-time
isn’t an option)

Monitor & Bolster
Employee &
Team Morale
Incident response work is very stressful,

You may not have the ability to assign

and

full-time responsibilities to all of your

take a toll on the team. This makes

incident

members.

it easy for incident response team

With a small staff, consider having

members to become frazzled or lose

some team members serve as a part

motivation and focus. It is important to

of a “virtual” incident response team.

counteract staff burnout by providing

A virtual incident response team is a

opportunities for learning and growth

bit like a volunteer fire department.

as well as team building and improved

When an emergency occurs, the team

communication. You may also want

members are contacted and assembled

to consider outsourcing some of the

quickly, and those who can assist do

incident response activities (e.g. SIEM

so. Typically, the IT help desk serves

monitoring) to a trusted partner or

as the first point of contact for incident

MSSP.

response

team

being

constantly

on-call

can

reporting. The help desk members
can be trained to perform the initial
investigation and data gathering and
then alert the incident response team
if it appears that a serious incident has
occurred.

could you explain...

Why Participate on an Incident Response Team?
As we pointed out before, incident response is not for the

d at
overhear infosec

faint of heart. It takes an extraordinary person who combines
intellectual curiosity with a tireless passion for never giving
up, especially during times of crisis. This description sounds
a lot like what it takes to be a great leader. And that’s what

“THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IT AND IR IS
LIKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING A
DERMATOLOGIST AND AN ER DOCTOR....

GIVE ME A CASE OF BAD
ACNE ANYTIME OVER A
GUN SHOOTING AT 2 AM.”

attracts many of us insiders to join the incident response
team. The opportunity to become and be seen as a leader
inside and outside of your company is one that doesn’t come
often, and can reap more benefits than can be imagined at
first. You’ll learn things you’ve never learned inside of a data
center (e.g. disclosure rules and procedures, how to speak
effectively with the press and executives, etc.) and you’ll be
seen as a leader throughout your company.

tell me...

How Can the Team be Armed?

ONE WORD: EMPOWERMENT
If an incident response team isn’t empowered to do what
needs to be done during a time of crisis, they will never
be successful. That’s why it’s essential to have executive
participation be as visible as possible, and as consistent as
possible. Otherwise, the incident response team won’t be
armed effectively to minimize impact and recover quickly…
no matter what the scope of the incident.
The key is to sell the incident response team to the executive
staff. No matter the industry, executives are always interested
in ways to make money and avoid losing it. The stronger
you can tie your incident response team goals and activities
to real, measurable risk reduction (in other words cost
reduction), then the easier it will be for them to say yes, and
stay engaged.
Quantifiable metrics (e.g. number of hours of work reduced
based on using a new forensics tool) and reliable reporting
and communication will be the best ways to keep the incident

68%
OF RESPONDENTS TO

A RECENT SAN SURVEY

CITED A SKILLS SHORTAGE
AS BEING AN IMPEDIMENT

TO EFFECTIVE

INCIDENT

RESPONSE

response team front-and-center in terms of executive priority
and support.

See the Survey: Maturing and Specializing:
Incident Response Capabilities Needed >
12

for those who are new to cyber security & incident response,

What skills are needed?

The incident response team’s goal is to coordinate and align

Security Analysis is detective work – while other technical

the key resources and team members during a cyber security

work pits you versus your knowledge of the technology,

incident to minimize impact and restore operations as quickly

Security Analysis is one where you’re competing against

as possible. This includes the following critical functions:

an unknown and anonymous person’s knowledge of the

investigation

training,

technology. Detective work is full of false leads, dead ends,

and awareness as well as documentation and timeline

and

analysis,

communications,

bad evidence, and unreliable witnesses – you’re going to

development.

learn to develop many of the same skills to deal with these.

Here are five lessons we’re happy to share:

Look for the Common Denominators.
Look for the Common Exceptions.

Make Assertions,
Not Assumptions.

Security analysis inevitably involves poring over large sets of
data – log files, databases, and events from security controls.
Finding leads within big blocks of information means finding
the ‘edge cases’ and ‘aggregates’ – what is most common
and what is least common?

In an effort to avoid making assumptions, people fall into the
trap of not making assertions. In order to find the truth, you’ll
need to put together some logical connections and test them.
“If I know that this system is X, and I’ve seen alert Y, then I
should see event Z on this other system.”

A system may make 10,000 TCP connections a day – but
which hosts did it only connect to once? When following a
trail of logs, look for things that can be grouped by something
they have in common, and then find the one that stands out.

This is an assertion – something that is testable. If it proves
true, you know you are on the right track (assuming your
assertion is based on correct information). Always be testing.

Eliminate the Impossible.

Always Look for a Simpler Explanation.

According Sherlock Holmes, “When you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable – must
be the truth.”

“Never attribute to malice, that which is adequately explained
by stupidity.” – Hanlon’s Razor.

You will encounter many occasions where you don’t
know exactly what you are looking for… and might not
even recognize it if you are looking directly at it. In these
circumstances, eliminate the things that you can explain away
until you are left with the things that you have no immediate
answer to – and that’s where to find the truth.

What makes incident response rewarding is the promise of
stopping an attack before it can do real damage. When your
job involves looking for malicious activity, it’s easy to see it
everywhere you look. Sometimes the attack you’re sure
you have discovered is just someone clicking the wrong
configuration checkbox, or specifying the wrong netmask on
a network range.

Imagine Things from the Attacker’s Perspective.
What Would You do in Their Position?
Experienced security analysts have a skill that cannot be taught, nor adequately explained here.
By gaining experience administrating and building systems, writing software, and configuring
networks – and also knowing how to break into them – you develop an ability to ask yourself
“what would I next do in their position?” and make an assertion that you can test. (It may often
prove right, allowing you to ‘jump ahead’ several steps in the investigation successfully).
Bottom line: Study systems, study attacks, study attackers – understand how they think – get into
their head. Be smarter than your opponent.
13

Can you share some of the lessons you’ve
learned from surviving a data breach?

Give people a place to talk

Here are the things you should know about what a

stress levels will be high, and the PR and legal secrecy

breach looks like, from ground zero, ahead of time.

machine will be in full force. Many employees may

Stress levels will be at an all-time high, interpersonal

have had such a bad experience with the whole affair,

conflicts will boil to the surface, that dry-run disaster

that they may decide to quit. Keeping secrets for other

planning drill you’ve been meaning to do for months,

people is a stress factor most people did not consider

but never found the time for? That one minor change

when they went into security as a career choice. Invite

request your senior engineers have had sitting on the

your HR department staff to join any NDA discussions,

table for weeks that consistently got deferred in favor

and give employees a place to vent their concerns

of deploying that cool new app for the sales team? You

confidentially and legally. You’ll be rewarded with many

betcha, good times.

fewer open slots to fill in the months following a breach.

Here are some of the things you can do, to give yourself

Let others learn from your mistakes

a fighting chance:

Nondisclosure agreements will be flying left and right,

If you are required to disclose a breach to the public,

Don’t Let Security Be an Island

work with PR and legal to disclose information in a way

IT departments (and engineers) are notorious for the

something from your experiences. Adam Shostack

‘ivory tower’ attitude, we invented the term ‘luser’ to

points out in The New School of Information Security

describe the biggest problem with any network. Create

that no company that has disclosed a breach has seen

some meetings outside the ‘IT Comfort Zone” every so

its stock price permanently suffer as a result. However

often; the first time you meet the legal and PR teams

the fallout of intentionally vague and misleading

shouldn’t really be in the middle of a five-alarm fire.

disclosures may hang over a company’s reputation

Bring some of the people on the ground into the

for some time. Sharing lessons learned can provide

incident response planning process — soliciting input

enormous benefits to a company’s reputation within

from the people who maintain the systems that support

their own industries as well as the broader market.

your business processes every day, can give much
more accurate insight into what can go wrong for your
business/than any book full of generic examples can.
These are the people that spend their day staring at the
pieces of the infrastructure that are held together with
duct-tape and chicken wire.

that the rest of the world can feel like they have learned

It gets better
Famously overheard at a recent infosec conference,
“We’re only one more breach away from our next
budget increase!” There’s nothing like a breach to put

security back on the executive team’s radar. Take this
as an opportunity for new ideas and approaches, not

Don’t Panic!

just “We’re finally getting that thing we’ve been asking

Murphy’s Law will be in full effect. The information the

for, all year” — Use the opportunity to consider new

executive team is asking for was only being recorded

directions beyond the constraints of the ‘old normal’.

by that one system that was down for its maintenance

Now is the time to take “Misfortune is just opportunity

window, the report you need right now will take

in disguise’ to heart.

another hour to generate and the only person with free
hands you have available hasn’t been trained on how

Test for Impact, not vulnerabilities

to perform the task you need done before the lawyers

If you are spending money on third-party penetration

mistakes, mistakes get in the way of work. This advice

testing, you should be expecting more in return

works from both ends of the command chain — if your

than the output of a vulnerability scanner and some

executive team is expecting a fifteen-minute status

compromised systems. Expect reports that show results

update conference call every hour, that’s 25% less

in terms of impact to business operations, bottom lines

work the people on the ground are getting done. Calm

and branding — these are the things your executives

Heads Rule The Day — set expectations early on and

need to be aware of. Either you look for and determine

don’t go into a disaster recovery plan that principally

them ahead of time, or your attacks do.

operates on impossible expectations.

check in for their hourly status update. Panic generates

Onto Chapter 2 >
incident response process & procedures
15

two

Incident Response Process
& Procedures
When most of us hear terms like “incident response process and procedures” our eyes tend to wander, and
our attention starts to drift. Yawn, right?
But, at the same time, it’s a necessary evil these days. How many times do you have to hear that data
breaches are inevitable in a single day? Especially at an RSA conference, not to mention your LinkedIn news
feed or the front page of USA Today.
Consider this chapter your resource guide for building your own incident response process, from an insider
who’s realized — the hard way — that putting incident response checklists together and telling other people
about them can honestly make your life easier. In fact, it may even help you keep your sanity. Believe me.

So, what is an incident response process?
At the end of the day, it’s a business process. In fact, an incident response process is a business process that
enables you to remain in business. Quite existential, isn’t it?
Specifically, an incident response process is a collection of procedures aimed at identifying, investigating
and responding to potential security incidents in a way that minimizes impact and supports rapid recovery.
Take it from me and many of my friends who wear these battle scars… the more you can approach an
incident response process as a business process — from every angle, and with every audience — the more
successful you will be.

What’s the difference between an incident response
process and incident response procedures?
Even though the terms incident response process and incident response procedures are often used
interchangeably, we’ve used them in specific ways throughout this guide. An incident response process is
the entire lifecycle (and feedback loop) of an incident investigation, while incident response procedures are
the specific tactics you and your team will be involved in during an incident response process.

tell me about the...

Incident Response Process: Preparation
Prioritize your assets,
capture baselines

Direct & document actions,
deliver regular updates

Ask yourself and your leadership, what are our most important

Answer these questions for each team member:

assets? In other words, what servers, apps, workloads, or
network segments could potentially put us out of business if
they went offline for an hour? A day? What information could
do the same if it fell into the wrong hands?

→→

What am I doing?

→→

When am I doing it?

→→

Why am I doing it?

Assets that you consider as important to the business may
not be the ones that your attacker sees as important (more

The incident response team members — especially those who

on that concept in Chapter Three).

are outside of IT — will need ample instruction, guidance, and
direction on their roles and responsibilities. Write this down

Develop a list of the top tier applications, users, networks,

and review it individually and as a team. The time you spend

databases, and other key assets based on their impact

doing this before a major incident will be worth the investment

to business operations should they go offline, or become

later on when crisis hits. Everyone involved, especially the

compromised in other ways.

executive team, will appreciate receiving regular updates, so

→→

Quantify asset values as accurately as possible

negotiate a frequency that works for everyone and stick to it.

because this will help you justify your budget.

→→

Finally, capture traffic patterns and baselines so
that you can build an accurate picture of what
constitutes “normal.” You’ll need this foundation to
spot anomalies that could signal a potential incident.

Connect, communicate
& collaborate
Meet with executive leadership, share your analysis of the
current security posture of the company, review industry
trends, key areas of concern, and your recommendations.
Set expectations on what the IR team will do, along with what
other companies are doing, as well as what to expect in terms

ard at blackhat
e
h
r
e
v
o
“BECOME FRIENDS
WITH YOUR CFO. IT’S
THE BEST ADVICE I’VE
HEARD HERE SO FAR.”

of communications, metrics, and contributions. Find out the
best way to work with the legal, HR, and procurement teams
to fast track requests during essential incident response
procedures.

let’s talk about...

Methodology: The OODA Loop
It’s not unusual to see a lot of InfoSec
warriors use military terms or phrases to
describe what we do. Things like DMZ
and “command and control” are obvious
examples, but one of the best that I’ve
seen for incident response is the OODA
Loop. Developed by US Air Force military

OBSERVE

strategist John Boyd, the OODA loop stands
for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act.

ACT

Imagine you’re a pilot in a dogfight. You

incident
response

ORIENT
DECIDE

need a tool to determine the best way to act
as quickly as possible when you’re under
attack. It’s a useful analogy when applied to
an incident response process.

THE OODA LOOP
Putting the OODA Loop into Your Incident Response Process

OBSERVE:

USE SECURITY MONITORING TO IDENTIFY ANOMALOUS
BEHAVIOR THAT MAY REQUIRE INVESTIGATION.

tools & tactics

questions to ask

key takeaways

Log Analysis; SIEM Alerts;
IDS Alerts; Traffic Analysis;
Netflow Tools; Vulnerability
Analysis; Application
Performance Monitoring

What’s normal activity on my
network? How can I capture
and categorize events or user
activity that aren’t normal? And
that require my attention now?
How can I fine-tune my security
monitoring infrastructure?

The more observations you can
make (and document) about
your network and your business
operations, the more successful
you’ll be at defense and response.
Bonus tip: Share additional
observations with executives
that could improve overall
business operations and
efficiencies — beyond IR.

ORIENT:

EVALUATE WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE CYBER THREAT LANDSCAPE
& INSIDE YOUR COMPANY. MAKE LOGICAL CONNECTIONS & USE
REAL-TIME CONTEXT TO FOCUS ON PRIORITY EVENTS.

tools & tactics

questions to ask

key takeaways

Incident Triage; Situational
Awareness; Threat Intelligence;
Security Research

Is our company rolling out a new
software package or planning
layoffs? Have we (or others
in our industry) seen attacks
from this particular IP address
before? What’s the root cause?
What’s the scope and impact?

Get inside the mind of the
attacker so that you can orient
your defense strategies against
the latest attack tools and tactics.
These are constantly changing
so make sure you have the latest
threat intelligence feeding your
security monitoring tools to
ensure that they are capturing the
right information and providing
the necessary context.
Bonus tip: Avoid the
distraction (and lunacy) of
“attack back” strategies… you
have enough work to do.

DECIDE:

BASED ON OBSERVATIONS & CONTEXT, CHOOSE THE BEST
TACTIC FOR MINIMAL DAMAGE & FASTEST RECOVERY.

tools & tactics

questions to ask

key takeaways

Your Company’s Corporate
Security Policy ; Hard copy
documentation (notebook,
pen, and clock)

What do we recommend doing
based on the facts available to us?

Document all aspects of the
incident response process,
especially communications
regarding data collection and
the decision-making processes.
Bonus tip: Use incident response
checklists for multiple response
and recovery procedures:
the more detailed, the better.
We cover the essential
ones in Chapter Three.

ACT:

REMEDIATE & RECOVER. IMPROVE INCIDENT RESPONSE
PROCEDURES BASED ON LESSONS LEARNED.

tools & tactics

questions to ask

key takeaways

Data capture and forensics
analysis tools; System backup
& recovery tools; Patch mgmt.
and other systems mgmt;
Security Awareness Training
tools and programs

What’s the quickest way to remedy
affected systems and bring
them back online? How can we
prevent this in the future? How
can we train users better so that
these things don’t happen again?
Does our business process get
adjusted based on these lessons?

Training, communication, and
continual improvement are
the keys to success in acting
effectively during an incident.
Team members should know
what is expected of them and
that means in-depth training,
detailed run-throughs, and
keen attention on how to
continually improve teamwork
and the overall process.
Bonus tip: Use incident response
checklists for multiple response
and recovery procedures. The
more detailed, the better.

how about...

Incident Response Procedures:
The Need for Checklists
One of my former bosses was also a former pilot, and so of

down a specific task or activity into bite-site chunks. They

course, we had a checklist for everything. And after going

may also involve a few meandering offshoots – or “if then” –

through one too many real fires (not to mention fire drills), I

branches off your main checklist, and that’s likely where the

can safely say I’m really glad we had them. And I can also

richest detail will be necessary. Keep in mind though that you

safely say that they were constantly being edited for clarity

may not be able to predict all incident scenarios, and these

and efficiency – after training exercises, and after real

checklists won’t necessarily capture everything that could

incidents. There was always a better way to do something,

happen.

and certainly a better way of explaining how to do it.

Every business operation will dictate what’s considered

So… what kind of incident
response checklists will I need?

essential for that specific business, because the critical

Yes, that’s the right question. Because there will definitely be

that can be considered essential for any business. Here are

more than one single incident response checklist. The best

a few examples, along with a few references for additional

checklists are those that apply to specific scenarios and break

information.

business systems and operations to recover first will be
different. That said, there are a few general types of checklists

Forensic analysis checklists (customized for all critical systems)
During the process of investigating an incident you’ll likely need to look deeper at individual
systems. A checklist that provides useful commands and areas to look for strange behavior
will be invaluable. And if your company is like most, you’ll have a mix of Windows and Unix
flavors. Customize each checklist on an OS basis, as well as on a functional basis (file server
vs. database vs. webserver vs. domain controller vs. DNS).
Some useful references: SANS Incident Handling Handbook and Lenny Zeltser’s Security
Checklists

Emergency contact communications checklist
Don’t wait until an incident to try and figure out who you need to call, when it’s appropriate
to do so, how you reach them, why you need to reach them, and what to say once you
do. Instead, develop a detailed communication plan with the specifics of when to put it
into place and don’t forget to get overall consensus on your approach. The entire incident
response team should know whom to contact, when it is appropriate to contact them, and
why. In particular, review the potential worst case scenarios (e.g. an online ordering system
going down right in the middle of Cyber Monday) and identify the essential staff who can
get these critical systems back online, as well as the management team who will need to
remain updated throughout the crisis.
Bonus tip: You’ll also need to document when it is or is not appropriate to include law
enforcement during an incident, so make sure you get the necessary input and expertise
on these key questions.

System backup and recovery checklists
(for all OSes in use,including databases)
Each system will have a different set of checklist tasks based on its distinct operating system
and configurations. It’s also important to note the time it takes for each step required to
restore operations, and also test full system backup and full system recovery while you’re
documenting each checklist. There should also be specific steps listed for testing and
verifying that any compromised systems are completely clean and fully functional.

“Jumpbag” checklists
SANS, one of the premier sources of information for the incident responder, recommends
that each incident response team member have an organized and protected “jump bag”
all ready to go that contains the important tools needed for a quick “grab-and-go” type of
response. Their recommended items include:

→→

An Incident Handlers Journal
to be used for documenting
the who, what, where, why,
and how during an incident

→→

Your incident response
team contact list

→→

USB drives

→→

A bootable USB drive or Live
CD with up-to-date anti-malware
and other software that can read
and/or write to file systems of
your computing environment
(and test this, please)

→→

A laptop with forensic software
(e.g. FTK or EnCase)

→→

Anti-malware utilities

→→

Computer and network tool kits
to add/remove components,
wire network cables, etc. and
hard duplicators with write-block
capabilities to create forensically
sound copies of hard drive images

Security policy review checklist (post-incident)
The most important lessons to learn after an incident are how to prevent a similar incident
from happening in the future. In addition to potential updates to your security policy, expect
incidents to result in updates to your security awareness program because invariably, most
incidents result from a lack of user education around basic security best practices. At the
very least, this checklist should capture:

→→

When the problem was
first detected, by whom,
and by which method

→→

The scope of the incident

→→

How it was contained
and eradicated

→→

The work performed
during recovery

→→

Areas where the incident
response teams were effective

→→

Areas that need improvement:
• Which security controls failed
(including our monitoring tools)?
• How can we improve
those controls?
• How can we improve our
security awareness programs?

one last thing...

The Need for Incident Response
Forms & Surveys
INCIDENT RESPONSE SURVEY

As we’ve mentioned several times already, you’ll
need to document many things during your job as
an incident responder. The best way we’ve seen to
capture an accurate, standard, and repeatable set
of information is to do it with a form. And, thankfully,

SANS has provided a form for every type of security
incident tidbit you’ll need from contacts to activity logs
with specific forms for handling intellectual property
incidents.

Onto Chapter 3 >
the art of triage: types of security incidents
23

Incident Response Myth Busting for Executives
Myth #1: An incident response process begins at the time of an incident
Truth: Actually, an incident response process never

Advice: Give your executives some analogies that

ends. It’s a continual process, like other business

they’ll understand. For example, an incident response

processes that never end.

process is like a subscription-based business model,
e.g. software-as-a-service. It’s always on. It’s important
to point out that there will be stages of criticality for
incidents, some that will require more serious reporting
and external involvement, and some that won’t. See
Chapter 3 for more details on this.

Myth #2: Each “incident” is a discrete, monolithic event, which may occur 1-2 times a year
Truth: As many of us know, we’re constantly working

Advice: Explain — at a high level — how incident

on incidents. Evaluating log files, investigating outages,

response works. As a continual process, it’s a daily

and tweaking our monitoring tools at the same time.

activity, that moves from high level investigations and

Some of these are related to each other, and some

pivots to specific abnormalities or outages, sometimes

aren’t. And again, it’s constant, daily work.

developing into something more significant, and
sometimes not. Share an example of a specific
investigation and offer to provide weekly updates on
incident response process metrics, cyber security
threat trends, system performance data, user activity
reporting, or any other information that would be
relevant for the executive team.

Myth #3: We haven’t had any incidents yet, so why do we even need this tool or that resource?
Truth: It’s hard to believe, but there are still skeptics

Advice: Time for more executive education. Point out

about the very real cyber security risks facing us, and

that you’ve done your best to mitigate major risks up

the even more real possibility of becoming the next

until this point, but the adversary continues to up their

victim. When it comes to cyber security, looking at past

game. It’s sort of like that moment in Jaws, “you’re

experience reveals nothing about what could happen

going to need a bigger boat!”

in the future, particularly considering the pace of
innovation happening in cyber crime.
24

three
The Art of Triage:
Types of Security Incidents
not everything is an emergency, but anything could become one.
Understanding whether an event is an actual incident reminds me of that common expression, “I
know it when I see it” made famous by US Supreme Court Justice Stewart. He was talking about
pornography, not obscenity, but a common misperception of “knowing it when you see it” can
often plague the most well intentioned incident responders.
The uncomfortable truth is that you may not know it when you see it, because the latest attacker
tools and techniques are increasingly stealthy, and can often hide in plain sight. The trick is to
view your network and operations from the perspective of an attacker, looking for key indicators
and areas of exposure before they’re exploited. And it all comes down to how artfully you can do
incident triage.
Typically used within the medical community, effective triage saves lives by helping emergency
medical personnel rapidly assess wound or illness severity and establish the right protocols, in the
right order, to reduce trauma and sustain patient health and recovery. All in the midst of crisis, when
every second counts.
In this chapter, we’ll give you the tools to craft your ability to triage information security incident
types. You’ll learn how to identify the various types of security incidents by understanding how
attacks unfold, and how to effectively respond before they get out of hand.

security incidents vs. information security incidents
A quick note on the difference between a security incident and an information security
incident… In this guide, the assumption is that we’re focused on the various types of
information security incidents vs. your standard security incident, which might not
involve digital information and could be completely contained within the physical world
(e.g. physical assault). That said, there may be occasions that mix things up — types of
information security incidents or attacks that do involve a physical component (e.g. laptop
theft).

why do...

Different Types of Security Incidents
Merit D
ifferent Response Strategies
So what are you protecting against? The best way to determine the appropriate incident response in any given situation is to understand
what types of attacks are likely to be used against your organization. For example, NIST has provided the following list of the different
attack vectors:

External/Removable Media:

Email:

An attack executed from removable media (e.g.,

An attack executed via an email message or

flash drive, CD) or a peripheral device.

attachment (e.g. malware infection).

Attrition:

Improper Usage:

An attack that employs brute force methods

Any incident resulting from violation of an

to compromise, degrade, or destroy systems,

organization’s acceptable usage policies by an

networks, or services.

authorized user, excluding the above categories.

Web:

Loss or Theft:

An attack executed from a website or a web-

The loss or theft of a computing device or media

based application (e.g. drive-by download).

used by the organization, such as a laptop or
smartphone.

Other:
An attack that does not fit into any of the other
categories.

bonus tip

REVIEW THE ABOVE LIST WITH AN

IDENTIFY WHICH PIECES OF

EYE TOWARDS ENSURING THAT YOUR
SECURITY POLICIES AND CONTROLS
HAVE MITIGATED THE MAJORITY OF
THE RISKS PRESENTED BY THESE
VARIOUS ATTACK VECTORS. YOU’LL
ALSO USE THIS LIST TO GUIDE YOUR
TEAM IN DETERMINING HOW TO

EQUIPMENT WOULD CAUSE THE
GREATEST RISK TO THE COMPANY
IN THE EVENT OF LOSS OR THEFT. IN
MOST COMPANIES, THE CFO’S LAPTOP
WOULD BE INCLUDED ALONG WITH
ANY SERVER HDD CONTAINING IP OR
OTHER SENSITIVE DATA.

CLASSIFY THE VARIOUS TYPES OF
SECURITY INCIDENTS.
26

how do you...

Categorize Information Security Incident Types
by GettingInside the Mind of the Attacker
One of the biggest fallacies with traditional information

The “cyber kill chain” is a sequence of stages required for

security is the underlying assumption that you know

an attacker to successfully infiltrate a network and exfiltrate

which path an attacker will take through your network. For

data from it. Each stage demonstrates a specific goal along

example, attackers rarely come through your front door, or

the attacker’s path. Designing your monitoring and response

in this context, your gateway firewall. But each attack does

plan around the cyber kill chain model is an effective method

generally work through a certain pattern, or what Lockheed

because it focuses on how actual attacks happen.

Martin has called the “cyber kill chain.”

the cyber kill chain stages: how attacks progress
Attacker’s Goals:

reconnaissance
& probing

→ Find target
→ Develop plan of attack based on opportunities for exploit

Attacker’s Goals:

Delivery &
attack

→ Use social engineering to induce target to access malware or other exploit

stage 3

→ Exploit vulnerabilities on target systems to acquire access
→ Elevate user privileges and install persistence payload

Attacker’s Goals:

System
Compromise

stage 2

→ Place delivery mechanism online

Attacker’s Goals:

Exploitation &
Installation

stage 1

stage 4

→ Exfiltrate high-value data as quietly and quickly as possible
→ Use compromised system to gain additional access, “steal” computing resources,
and/or use in an attack against someone else

tell me...

Which Security Events Do I Really
Need to Worry About?
Which security events develop into the type of information security incident that requires my attention now? And… what do I do about
it? To help categorize each incident type, align each one against the cyber kill chain to determine appropriate priority and incident
response strategy. You can use this table as a start.

Incident Types & Recommended Actions
incident type

kill chain stage(s)

priority level

Port scanning
Activity*
(Pre-incident]

reconnaissance
& probing

low

distributed
denial of service
(DDos]

distributed
denial of service
Diversion

Exploitation &
Installation

Ignore most of these events
UNLESS the source IP has a
known bad reputation, and there
are multiple events from this
same IP in a small timeframe.
Bonus tip: AlienVault’s OTX is
an excellent way to check on
an IP’s reputation score.

malware
infection
Delivery &
Attack

recommended action

low-medium

high

Remediate any malware infections
as quickly as possible before
they progress. Scan the rest of
your network for indicators of
compromise associated with this
outbreak (e.g. MD5 hashes).

Configure web servers to
protect against HTTP and SYN
flood requests. Coordinate
with your ISP during an attack
to block the source IPs.

Sometimes a DDoS is used to divert
attention away from another more
serious attack attempt. Increase
monitoring & investigate all related
activity, and work closely with
your ISP or service provider.

Incident Types & Recommended Actions
incident type

kill chain stage(s)

priority level

unauthorized
access
Exploitation &
Installation

medium

Insider breach
system
compromise

high

(An inside job doesn’t
require much Recon)

Unauthorized
privilege
escalation

Destructive
attack (systems,
data, etc.)

Advanced
persistent threat
(APT) or multistage
attack

Exploitation &
Installation

system
compromise

all
stages

high

recommended action
Detect, monitor and investigate
unauthorized access attempts – with
priority on those that are missioncritical and/or contain sensitive data.

Identify the privileged user
accounts for all domains, servers,
apps, and critical devices. Ensure
that monitoring is enabled for all
systems, and for all system events,
and also make sure it’s feeding
your log monitoring infrastructure
(your USM or SIEM tools).

Configure your critical systems
to record all privileged
escalation events and set alarms
for unauthorized privilege
escalation attempts.

Backup all critical data and systems.
Test, document, and update system
recovery procedures. During a
system compromise — capture
evidence carefully, and document
all recovery steps as well as all
evidentiary data collected.

Any one of the singular events that
are listed here could actually be a
part of the worst type of security
incident imaginable… the dreaded
APT. The important thing is to view
each event through a larger context,
one that incorporates the latest threat
intelligence (see below for more on
the need for threat intelligence).
29

Incident Types & Recommended Actions
incident type

kill chain stage(s)

priority level

False alarms**
all
stages

Much of the incident responder’s
job is spent eliminating
irrelevant information and
removing false positives. You’ll
be constantly fine-tuning the
radio of security monitoring to
get to just the right signal.

low

malware
infection
all
stages

recommended action

high

Incident response is a discipline of
continual improvement. As you see
more and more events turn into
incidents, you’ll discover new ways
to categorize those incidents, as well
as new ways to prevent them from
ever happening in the first place.

* A NOTE ABOUT PORT SCANNING:

** A NOTE ABOUT FALSE ALARMS:

Even if you’re sure that an attacker is getting no useful

We’ve expressed the need to “concentrate on what you

information back from their scanning, if they seem to be

know” many times in this guide – much of the work that

doing a detailed and comprehensive scan of your external

security monitoring discovers is mundane yet vital.

systems, it is reasonable to interpret this as intent to followup the recon with attack attempts later on. If the scanning

→→

to the world, categories of websites that should be

originates from a legitimate organization’s networks, then

blocked at the proxy, hosts that were compromised

contacting their security team (if they have one) or network

because they didn’t have endpoint security installed.

management personnel is usually the best approach.

Incident Response work is best thought of as “quality

As a last resort, if no contact details are apparent, try the
contact details listed in the WHOIS information for the domain.
The email address abuse@domain is often a contact email

Controls Failure: Firewall ports that shouldn’t be open

assurance” for the rest of your security efforts.

→→

Noise Reduction: If security analysis is about finding
the ‘needle in a haystack,’ one of the best ways to make

for this kind of communication, but may not be available for

the job easier is to make a smaller haystack. Remove

smaller or younger organizations. BTW, blocking the source

unnecessary traffic, unwanted services, outdated

address may be counterproductive, and merely cause the

client software, and easily-patched vulnerabilities.

attacker to use a different source address.

→→

Policy Violation: Ideally, you hope to be spending
more of your time locating the things happening that
put your network at risk, not cleaning up the results of
that risk being exploited by a hostile party.
30

be sure to...

Combine Local & Global Threat
Intelligence for Effective Triage
We often think of incident response as being detailed,
meticulous forensic work, looking closely at one system at
a time. However, the great majority of security monitoring
work can be addressed through seeing a larger more holistic
picture of the state of, and activity on, your infrastructure.
Understanding where, which, and how your systems are
communicating with other systems, and the changes being
made to them, can reveal attacks that other security controls
cannot.
Threat intelligence allows you to move away from a focus on
vulnerabilities, exploits and patches, and focus on the things

Top 5

truths

about environmental

awareness

Unless your infrastructure is entirely static
and unchanging, new vulnerabilities and
exposures are being created all the time.

Good IT and Security management
processes will do its best to minimize these,
but the security analyst still needs to be
aware of them to place other things into
context.

Unexpected configuration changes to
systems can reveal when a hostile party
has control of the system through valid
credentials and methods.

Many configuration options are related to
certain compliance standards – alerting (or
reporting) on these is a far better way to
manage them than waiting for them to be
discovered during your next audit.

You can’t do security just by looking for
attacks and exploits – you have to look
into what’s happening on your network and
know the systems you have deployed.

that are actively causing damage to your company’s data
confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
The first step is to understand as much as possible about
your current computing environment. Some people refer to
this as environmental awareness or situational awareness
or even contextual awareness. We like to think of it as local
threat intelligence.
Once you combine rich information about your own network
with the latest global threat intelligence (specifics on attacker
tools, techniques, and trends), you’ll achieve effective triage.
You’ll put your immediate focus on the types of security
incidents that matter vs. wasting your time on false positives
or irrelevant noise.

GLOBAL THREAT INTELLIGENCEBRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN
DETECTING KNOWN METHOD OF ATTACK, AND DETECTING
KNOWN THREAT ACTORS. EVEN IF WE DON’T KNOW ALL THE
METHODS THEY MAY CURRENTLY BE USING, WE CAN SEARCH
OUR OWN NETWORK FOR KEY INDICATORS THAT OTHERS
MIGHT HAVE SEEN OUT IN THE WILD.
31

so here’s...

The Bottom Line
By understanding what is happening on your network

Today, computing resources are cheap and plentiful – attacks

(environmental awareness) and connecting it to information

can come from anywhere – especially from compromised

about known sources of malicious activity (Global Threat

systems on otherwise legitimate remote networks. Attackers

Intelligence), it becomes simple to get large-scale reports on

fight a constant battle trying to make it difficult to locate

active threats within your infrastructure. For example, instead

the systems that control their malware, while still allowing

of searching through massive lists of alerts from various

their malware to reach these systems to receive execution

security controls to determine possible exploits and attacks,

instructions.

and attempting to prioritize them based on asset value, we
look at environmental awareness data that can be connected
to the indicators of compromise associated with threat actors.

See our next chapter – Chapter Four — Incident Response
Tools for how-to instructions on uncovering more information
on attack sources.

Onto Chapter 4 >
incident response tools
32

The Importance of Attribution
Let me tell you a tale from the front lines
We were hunting down an active attack, endpoints had

anyone that remembers the Internet pre-1999 will remember

been compromised and they had migrated to using stolen

the venerable Ident() protocol (rapidly made obsolete as it

credentials to access the network directly — without further

represented a security risk in the open untrusted Internet).

use of the RAT (remote access tool) on the compromised
system. As we watched our attackers access the network from
multiple locations we began to build our profile of them —
what hours were they active, could we determine a particular
time zone they may be located in? How many people were
acting together? Finally we realized something from the

Yet couldn’t a tokenized, anonymous version of this provide
some measure of utility in a cloud-served public Internet?
The ability to query Amazon’s web services and know that all
three EC2 instances currently attacking me are all operated
by Tokenized Amazon Customer F8E993C?

connection authentication information… The connections we

Until an initiative to create something of this sort arises

saw from multiple remote locations were actually only from

and gets implemented, I’ll have to stick with more abstruse

a single host — a cloud-provisioned host. As the host was

methods of remotely fingerprint cloud instances post facto. As

brought online to stage attacks from it, it was being relocated

cloud computing offers ever more copious amounts of utility

to lower-load hardware clusters with an entirely different

computing: OS instances that can be launched, operated,

upstream connectivity. We noticed that the host had used

and deleted in a matter of minutes, we on the defensive end

many different IP addresses and physical connectivity sets

of things need some way to keep up with the increasing

(spanning three different countries), but it was still the same

complexity of attribution.

virtual machine instance the entire time.
The increasing need for attribution techniques in incident
We were well prepared to do identification of remote hosts on

response is not just some by-product of a Security Analyst

VPS - style co-location arrangements, but the global motility

wanting to play counter-intelligence agent. Attribution is

of hosts on cloud providers had temporarily thrown us for a

vital for correlating and prioritizing the tidal wave of data we

loop — we realized that the game had once again changed

need to pour through to make informed response decisions.

right before our eyes.

Being able to correlate two seemingly unrelated minor attack

In this case, we had an obvious advantage that we had preexisting data points to correlate together that allowed us to
uncover what was happening behind the curtain; but it would

attempts on different parts of the infrastructure launched from
two random hosts on the same multinational cloud computing
provider can make a huge difference.

have been much better if we had the ability to easily identify

There is much work in progress on establishing reputation

this beforehand. And I realized that the network identification

between cloud service providers and their customers —

tools we have today are all built for a pre-cloud Internet — a

but the need to establish reputation information from cloud

world where IP addresses are tied to physical hosts in physical

instances to the rest of the world is essential in the world of

locations owned by identifiable registered organizations. Now

the Incident Responder.”
33

four
Incident Response Tools
it’s not just about the gear. It’s About how, when, and why to use it.
Any discussion of incident response deserves a close look at the tools that you’ll need for effective
incident detection, triage, containment and response. We’ll cover the best tools for each function,
we’ll share resources for how to learn how and when to use them, and we’ll explain how to
determine the attack source. That way, you’ll know the right decision to make at each stage of the
investigation.

The Three A’s of Incident Response
In order to be effective in defending your company’s network, you’ll need the right Ammunition,
you’ll aspire to identify proper Attribution, and you’ll focus on increasing Awareness as a way to
reduce the volume and impact of cyber incidents on your company. Still not clear on the A’s? Read
on...

Ammunition: Most incident responders will want to spend most of their time here, downloading
and customizing incident response tools — open source as well as proprietary. Why? Because it’s
fun, and that’s what cyber geeks tend to like to do: code. We’ll mostly cover open source incident
response tools in this chapter, and we’ll also use the OODA loop framework from Chapter Two so
you’ll know when to use which tool and why.

Attribution: Understanding where an attack is coming from can help you understand an attacker’s
intention as well as their technique, especially if you use real-time threat intelligence to do so. We’ll
cover the basics of attribution, and include some free and open resources to keep you updated on
who might be attacking your company based on the latest collaborative threat intelligence.

Awareness:

The most fundamental security control is an educated and aware user. While we

plan to go deep into incident response training in the next chapter, in this chapter we’ll cover some
of the highlights you’ll want to consider as you update your security awareness program. The
biggest takeaway here is that every incident should be examined as a way to improve your overall
security program, with awareness as a key part of that.

ammunition:

Incident Response Tools & the OODA Loop
Disclaimer: Our preference is for open source incident

For a refresher on the OODA loop: check out Chapter Two.

response tools, and so we’ve provided recommendations on

Developed by US Air Force military strategist John Boyd,

some of the best open source options. Keep in mind that your

the OODA loop provides an effective framework for incident

mileage may vary. In some cases, you may need to look at

response.

proprietary options for certain capabilities. That said, you’ll
have to go somewhere else for recommendations on vendor
tools (unless they’re built by aliens, in which case, you’re in
the right place. ;)).

OBSERVE
ACT

incident
response

ORIENT
DECIDE

THE OODA LOOP
35

OBSERVE:
type of IR tool

USE SECURITY MONITORING TO IDENTIFY ANOMALOUS
BEHAVIOR THAT MAY REQUIRE INVESTIGATION.
open source options

why you need it

Log Analysis, Log
Management, SIEM

Logs are your richest source for understanding
what’s going on in your network, but you’ll
need an IR tool that makes sense of all of those
logs, and that’s what log analysis is all about.

→→

AlienVault OSSIM™ —
open source security
information management

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)
— Network and Host-based

HIDS and NIDS monitor server and network activity
in real-time, and typically use attack signatures
or baselines to identify and issue an alert when
known attacks or suspicious activities occur
on a server (HIDS) or on a network (NIDS).

→→
→→
→→
→→

Snort

Netflow analyzers examine actual traffic within
a network (and across the border gateways
too). If you are tracking a particular thread of
activity, or just getting a proper idea of what
protocols are in use on your network, and
which assets are communicating amongst
themselves, netflow is an excellent approach.

→→
→→
→→

Ntop

Vulnerability Scanners

Vulnerability scanners identify potential
areas of risk, and help to assess the overall
attack surface area of an organization, so that
remediation tasks can be implemented.

→→

OpenVAS

Availability Monitoring

The whole point of incident response is to avoid
downtime as much as possible. So make sure
that you have availability monitoring in place,
because an application or service outage could
be the first sign of an incident in progress.

→→

Nagios

Web Proxies

Web Proxies are thought of as being purely for
controlling access to websites, but their ability
to log what is being connected to is vital. So
many modern threats operate over HTTP – being
able to log not only the remote IP address, but
the nature of the HTTP connection itself can
be vital for forensics and threat tracking.

→→
→→

Squid Proxy

Netflow Analyzers

Suricata
BroIDS
OSSEC

NfSen
Nfdump

IPFire

ORIENT:
type of IR tool

EVALUATE WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE CYBER THREAT LANDSCAPE
& INSIDE YOUR COMPANY. MAKE LOGICAL CONNECTIONS & USE
REAL-TIME CONTEXT TO FOCUS ON PRIORITY EVENTS.
open source options

why you need it

Asset Inventory

In order to know which events to prioritize, you’ll
need an understanding of the list of critical systems
in your network, and what software is installed on
them. Essentially, you need to understand your
existing environment to evaluate incident criticality
as part of the Orient/Triage process. The best way
to do this is to have an automated asset discovery
and inventory that you can update when things
change (and as we know, that’s inevitable).

→→

OCS Inventory

Threat Intelligence

Threat intelligence gives you global information
about threats in the real world. Things like
Indicators of Compromise (IoCs), bad reputation
IP addresses, command-and-control servers and
more, can be applied against your own network
assets, to provide a full context for the threat.

→→
→→

AlienVault® OTX™

Security Research

DECIDE:
type of IR tool
Your Company’s Corporate
Security Policy*
Hard Copy Documentation
(notebook, pen, and clock)

AlienVault Labs

BASED ON OBSERVATIONS AND CONTEXT, CHOOSE THE BEST
TACTIC FOR MINIMAL DAMAGE & FASTEST RECOVERY
open source options

why you need it
If this section looks familiar, it’s not deja
vu… it’s because it IS familiar… These are
the same recommendations we made in
the Decide section in Chapter Two.

→→

Your good ol’ noggin

Insider secret: There are no “Decide” tools,
and until AI is truly a “thing,” we’ll keep having
to do what humans do, use our brains. Decide
based on the information you have at your
disposal, which includes the tools above, as
well as your own company’s security policy.

ACT:
type of IR tool
Data Capture & Incident
Response Forensics Tools

System Backup & Recovery Tools
Patch Management and Other
Systems Management

Security Awareness Training
Tools and Programs

REMEDIATE AND RECOVER. IMPROVE INCIDENT RESPONSE
PROCEDURES BASED ON LESSONS LEARNED.
open source options

why you need it
Data Capture & Incident Response Forensics tools
is a broad category that covers all types of media
(e.g. memory forensics, database forensics, network
forensics, etc.). Incident Response Forensics tools
examine digital media with the aim of identifying,
preserving, recovering, analyzing and presenting
facts and opinions about the digital information,
all designed to create a legal audit trail.

→→

SANS Investigative
Forensics Toolkit (SIFT)

→→

Sleuthkit

System backup and recovery and patch
management tools might be something
you’ve already got in place, but it’s important
to include them here since an incident is
when you’ll likely need them most.

→→
→→

AMANDA

Security awareness training tools and programs are
an essential way to improve your overall security
posture and reduce the likelihood of incidents.

→→

SANS’ Securing the Human

OPSI (Open PC Server
Integration)

* If you haven’t written a corporate security policy yet, and need assistance, you can contact a few associations for free resources and
guidance like Educause. In addition to Charles Cresson Wood’s Information Security Policies Made Easy, there are also a number of
vendors who sell information security policy templates, here’s one example.

attribution:

Identifying Ownership on the
Anonymous Internet
One of the most underrated IR tools is one of the most

with any reliability and certainty on your own. IP address and

obvious, if you start thinking about infosec like Sherlock

domain ownership aren’t terribly easy to interpret, and as you

Holmes would. Uncovering a mystery for Sherlock started

likely know, anyone can easily anonymize their connection

and ended with the motivation and attribution of the criminal

through proxies and other means.

under investigation.

That said, there are certain tricks and tools you can deploy
to get better insight into who and where these nefarious

Who is this & what do they want?

characters are, and more on what they want and the

The challenge for the incident responder is that someone’s

techniques they deploy to g
et it.

“identity” on the Internet is exceedingly difficult to determine

Q: Which network does an IP address belong to?
Answer:

Resources:

Public IP addresses are sold to organizations in
blocks of varying sizes. Just as how Domain names
have their registration information listed with a
registrar, public IP networks have the information
available publicly via network registrars.

You’re likely familiar with the concept of RFC 1918
addresses that are dedicated for use on trusted
networks, behind firewalls and other gateway
devices vs. the open Internet. If not, you
can read more about this here:

→ ARIN (North America)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Internet_registry

→ APNIC (Asia-Pacific)
→ RIPE (Europe, Russia and the Middle East)
→ AFRINIC (Africa)
→ LACNIC (Latin America)
These registrars maintain their own WHOIS services,
but for networks instead of Domains. Here’s a
query against ARIN for the address 192.168.3.56
→ NetRange: 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
→ CIDR: 192.168.0.0/16
→ OriginAS:
→ NetName: PRIVATE-ADDRESS-CBLKRFC1918-IANA-RESERVED*
→ NetHandle: NET-192-168-0-0-1
→ Parent: NET-192-0-0-0-0
→ NetType: IANA Special Use
39

Q: How do I find all networks that belong to an organization?
Answer:

Resources:

Organizations are free to use their assigned IP
space wherever they wish, but to make it reachable
over the Internet, they must inform other major
Internet-connected routers how to reach that IP
space, via Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

The CIDR Report website is the easiest
publicly accessible tool for listing all networks
currently assigned to an Autonomous System.

BGP assigns traffic destinations on the Internet by
mapping IP networks to Autonomous System (AS)
numbers. Each Internet-connected organization
receives an AS number to identify them by.
AS numbers are assigned to a legal entity
(e.g. a corporation) – though a company may
own more than one AS, this is uncommon
exception for backbone carriers.

Q: How do I find what domains point to an IP address?
Answer:

Resources:

Because the resolution of a domain name to
an IP address is controlled by the owner of the
domain, there is no central registry of mappings.

https://www.robtex.com/ is an excellent
multi-purpose tool for information about
domains, addresses, and networks

There are however independent projects that map
the Internet and maintain public registries of the
most recently-seen mapping of domain to address.

http://domainbyip.com/ provides a free lookup
service for domains pointing to a single IP address
http://www.domaintools.com/ is a commercial
service that provides a wealth of information
(including historical information) about domains.

Q: How do I find the location of an IP address?
Answer:

Resources:

Several services attempt to maintain registries
of approximate mappings of the physical
location of the organization, network or system
an IP address is currently assigned to.

http://www.maxmind.com is recognized as somewhat
of the defacto industry leader for this service –
they offer a limited free service with more detailed
information offered on a subscription basis.

Insider tip: Physical Location of an IP address is of
somewhat limited value to the DFIR analyst in most
aspects of their work. The organization that owns
the address space is usually of more relevance for
identifying connections between addresses. Information
networks are not limited by geographic boundaries.

http://freegeoip.net/ is a community-funded
service that provides automation services
and detailed location information.

Q: How Accurate is Geolocation Information?
Answer:

Resources:

IP addresses are, by their nature, a logical
not physical identifier – networks can be reassigned from one side of the planet to another,
within a few hours at the very most.

AlienVault® Open Threat Exchange® (OTX™)
®

Most location information about IP addresses is derived
from the location of the organization that owns it. A
multinational corporation may have networks across
5 continents, but all its address space will likely be
registered to the location of the company’s HQ.
Like all information kept up to date through
the aggregation of data from multiple sources,
geolocated Information accuracy will vary from
point to point, IP address to IP address.

awareness:

Security is Everyone’s Job
Security awareness is sort of like motherhood. It’s one of

from wikipedia

the hardest jobs because it’s the most important yet least
respected, and if everyone did it properly, we’d likely put an
end to war around the world, right?
In all seriousness, every post-incident examination should
include an assessment of your overall security posture
especially, the security awareness program. Regardless of
the root cause of the incident, it’s still important to revisit

“SECURITY

how a more security-savvy employee community could have
averted the crisis.

AWARENESS

This isn’t the part of the guide where we bash dumb users.

ATTITUDE MEMBERS

of hacking attacks begin with a phishing or spearphishing

IS THE KNOWLEDGE &
OF AN ORGANIZATION
POSSESS REGARDING

THE PROTECTION OF THE
PHYSICAL, & ESPECIALLY

INFORMATIONAL

ASSETS

Seriously. Phishing and spearphishing campaigns can fool
even the most sophisticated users. In fact, an estimated 91%
email.*
So examine each investigation with the perspective of
understanding where your security awareness program
could have prevented that incident, or minimized its impact, if
only those lessons, guidelines, or tips were shared with your
employees ahead of time.
And speaking of security awareness lessons, guidelines,
and tips, read more in our next chapter, Incident Response
Training.

OF THAT ORGANIZATION.”

* Source: http://www.wired.com/2015/04/hacker-lexicon-spearphishing/

Onto Chapter 5 >
incident response training
42

five
Information Security Awareness Training:
The Key to Optimizing Incident Response

Security is everyone’s job. Seriously.
Despite the great leaps in innovation we’ve witnessed over the past few decades, nothing beats
a human being’s common sense and good judgment. In fact, pragmatism, common sense and
good judgment are a few values that aren’t yet possible to develop in software code or artificial
intelligence.
The truth is, you can’t automate intuition. And much of the incident responder’s job comes down to
relying on your and each employee’s intuition that something in that email just doesn’t look quite
right (as an example). Your goal is to reduce the number and impact of cases when someone’s
bad judgment, mistakes, and oversights open the gate to a possible breach. It could happen from
clicking on an embedded link in an email, or a social engineering scam over the phone.
However it happens, you won’t find the answer in some sort of magic pill, like information security
awareness software downloaded to your brain a la Trinity in the Matrix. That’s why you need an
information security awareness training program. And yes, like many things in incident response,
hearing that phrase is likely to inspire a yawn or two. And a sigh, and maybe throw in a few eyerolls
too, while you’re at it.
But it doesn’t have to. There are a few tools, resources, and program ideas that can make information
security awareness training effective and engaging for your employees. And that’s what we’ll cover
in this chapter.

what’s the difference...

Incident Response Training vs.
Security Awareness Training
We recommend having two different training programs: one
for the overall employee population and one that’s specifically

015 SANS Surve
2
a
m
o
y
fr

for the incident responder. As for any specialized set of skills,
incident response training should focus on all aspects of the
job, the IR process, as well as the specific technical skills
(programming, systems administration, and code analysis) to
support whatever technologies or computing contexts that

IR TEAM TRAINING
AND CERTIFICATION WAS CITED AS
THE SECOND MOST COMMON AREA
FOR IR IMPROVEMENT (57%)

are relevant for your company.
Within this guide, we’re focused on the more broad topic
of security awareness training, because we’ve seen that
improving the security awareness of everyone in your
company will have a big impact on reducing the number and
cost of security incidents. We’re also hoping that this entire
guide provides a rich foundational resource for training the

See the Survey: Maturing and Specializing: Incident Response Capabilities
Needed >

members of your IR team.

let’s chat about...

What Exactly Do Employees Need to Know
About Security?How Much Is Too Much?
It’s a great question and one that requires we return to our

Defending against both types of attacks requires vigilance

primary goal for security awareness training: to reduce the

and awareness on the part of every employee. Remember

number and impact of high risk security incidents. So let’s

to keep your training content and approach focused on

focus on the biggest risk first: phishing and spearphishing.

teaching skills and good judgment vs. teaching the technical

Phishing and spearphishing attacks are the most common
way that employees can be manipulated into exposing
your company to risk. These social engineering scams are

aspects of how phishing works on the back end, or esoteric
topics like the differences between a rootkit, a bot, and a
keystroke logger.

responsible for many of the high profile breaches you’ve

Show employees a few examples of phishing and

likely already heard of. The key difference between phishing

spearphishing scams, and encourage them to be suspicious,

and spearphishing is that spearphishing is customized and

even if an email may appear to be from someone they know.

targeted to a specific employee and company, whereas

You may also wish to consider incorporating simulated

phishing is more broad and automated, less sophisticated

phishing attacks to educate employees about appropriate

and less specific.

security behaviors, measure the effectiveness of your training
program, and identify any knowledge gaps.

what’s the difference?

PHISHING

SPEARPHISHING

IS A BROAD, AUTOMATED ATTACK
THAT IS LESS SOPHISTICATED.

IS A CUSTOMIZED ATTACK ON A
SPECIFIC EMPLOYEE & COMPANY

how about...

Security Awareness Training Goals & Metrics
Trying to increase “awareness” around any topic is somewhat

Track help desk tickets, and expect to see

dubious. How do you measure how “aware” someone

an increase in employees reporting suspicious events

is? Hopefully by their behavior, and with any luck, by the

and activity. This wouldn’t necessarily be because

reduction in the number of incidents and exposures you keep

there are more suspicious events happening, simply

having to respond to.

that employees are more sensitive to them, and feel

Creating good security metrics is an art unto itself, and while

confident in reporting them.

there are many things that generate numbers that can be

Explore non-traditional training
methods like simulation exercises to test an

tracked, good metrics don’t just speak to what has been
done, but how well it was done – they enable the future, not

employee’s resistance to social engineering scams,

recount the past.

and then measure progress on a quarter-by-quarter

That said, here are a few sample indicators for increased

basis. However, work with your communications

awareness and effective training:

team to give everyone ample heads up, to maintain
trust and transparency between employees and the
infosec team.

and finally...
45

Information Security Awareness Training: Top Seven Tips

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

GET EXECUTIVE BUY-IN. EARLY AND OFTEN.
It’s a universal truth that the executive team sets the tone for the entire company, for every team, and every
project. If you want your security awareness training program to be successful, involve the management team
at every stage, and ask for their visible participation and support.

CULTURE, CONTEXT & CONTINUITY ARE ESSENTIAL.
Encourage your management team to instill a security-aware culture where everyone sees security as a part of
their job. Most insiders agree that “once and done” doesn’t work for security so look for “teaching moments”
in daily business operations. For example, attack simulation exercises provide the most realistic context for
the actual risky situations that employees will find themselves in, and often provide one of the most valuable
teaching methods.

BE CLEAR. USE REAL-WORLD SCENARIOS & APPLICATIONS.
You’re trying to raise awareness and change behavior, and the more real, relevant, and compelling you can
make it, the more traction you’ll have. Don’t overcomplicate things, and don’t try to address every possible
situation that could happen, because it’s simply not possible.

TRY TO AVOID A LONG BORING LIST OF “DON’T’S.
The “Just Say No” approach is old skool in a bad way, like Nancy Reagan and shoulder pads. And it doesn’t work.
Instead, show how to do something securely and opt for a scenario-based education approach. Remember,
your goal is to instill good skills and habits vs. rote memorization. Keep the content fresh and engaging because
if employees are bored, they won’t remember anything.

GIVE GOOD REASONS. EXPLAIN SECURITY GUIDELINES.
Explain why user credentials are so valuable and how important it is to safeguard them. This is a much better
approach than simply being frustrated when you hear user’s complain about the password policy. Once an
employee understands why there are certain security controls, they’ll be more likely to respect them, and apply
similar principles to any new “high risk” situations.

CONSIDER ROLE-SPECIFIC RISK-BASED SECURITY TRAINING.
Training is at its most meaningful when it’s tightly linked with an employee’s role within the company, in the
context of the risks they face in fulfilling that role. For example, someone in sales may need more training on
how to protect company data and equipment while traveling than someone in engineering would.

BE CREATIVE. INCLUDE MULTIPLE CHANNELS AND FORMATS.
There is no “one size fits all” approach to security awareness, and there’s no one single training tool that will
accommodate all topics or audiences. Most companies have also found that the annual “death by PowerPoint”
approach no longer works. As long as it fits your company culture, think about incorporating a security
awareness game at the next company retreat. Remember to use newsletters, posters, blogs, and other media
as ways to get the message out.

a quick word about
AlienVault Unified Security Management
AlienVault Unified Security Management® (USM) is an all-in-one platform that
accelerates and simplifies threat detection, incident response, and compliance
management for IT teams with limited resources, on day one. With essential
security controls and integrated threat intelligence built-in, AlienVault USM
puts complete security visibility of threats affecting your network and how to
mitigate them within fast and easy reach.

A winning combination for better threat detection and incident response.
Multiple essential security capabilities deliver complete security
visibility across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
AlienVault Labs Security Research Team delivers Threat
Intelligence updates continuously and automatically
to the USM platform in the form of correlation
directives, IDS signatures, IP reputation data,
data source plugins, and report templates.
Global threat data from Open Threat
Exchange® (OTX™) – the world’s largest
crowd-sourced

threat

intelligence

network – identifies malicious hosts
communicating with your systems.

Don’t take our word for it — see what your
peers and industry experts are saying:

GARTNER MAGIC
QUADRANT

CUSTOMER
STORIES

FREE TRIAL

WAT C H A
DEMO
47

Good Luck!
REFERENCE RESOURCES:
→→ SANS Securing the Human - Security Awareness Planning Kit
→→ Tips from the US Computer Emergency Response Team
→→ NIST’s Computer Security Incident Handling Guide

About AlienVault:
AlienVault® has simplified the way organizations detect and respond to today’s ever evolving threat landscape. Our unique and
award-winning approach, trusted by thousands of customers, combines the essential security controls of our all-in-one platform,
AlienVault Unified Security Management®, with the power of AlienVault’s Open Threat Exchange®, the world’s largest crowdsourced threat intelligence community, making effective and affordable threat detection attainable for resource-constrained IT
teams. AlienVault is a privately held company headquartered in Silicon Valley and backed by Trident Capital, Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers, Institutional Venture Partners, GGV Capital, Intel Capital, Jackson Square Ventures, Adara Venture Partners,
Top Tier Capital and Correlation Ventures.

W W W . A L I E N V A U L T . C O M
@ A L I E N V A U L T
48

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