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New White Paper: Applied Network Security Analysis

Mike Rothman December 15, 2011 No Comments

We have been saying for years that you can’t assume your defenses are sufficient to stop a focused and targeted attacker. That’s what React Faster and Better is all about. But say you actually buy into this philosophy: what now? How do you figure out the bad guys are in your house? And more importantly how they got there and what they are doing? The network is your friend because it never lies. Attackers can do about a zillion different things to attack your network, and 99% of them depend on the network in some way. They can’t find another target without using the network to locate it. They can’t attack a target without connecting to it. Furthermore, even if they are able to compromise the ultimate target, the attackers must then exfiltrate the data. So they need the network to move the data. Attackers need the network, pure and simple. Which means they will leave tracks, but you will see them only if you are looking. We’re happy to post this paper based on our Applied Network Security Analysis series. We would like to thank Solera Networks for sponsoring it. Without our sponsors we couldn’t provide content on the blog for free or post these papers. Download Applied Network Security Analysis: Moving from Data to Information If you want to see the posts that we based the paper on, here are the links: Introduction Collection + Analysis = A Fighting Chance The Forensics Use Case The Advanced Security Use Case The Malware Analysis Use Case The Breach Confirmation Use Case and Summary Share:

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Friday Summary: December 16, 2011

Adrian Lane December 15, 2011 1 Comment

Aspartame is toxic, so they renamed it AsparSweet(tm) to confuse consumers. GMAC was fined for mistreating customers and accused of violating state laws, so they renamed themselves Ally. Slumping sales of high fructose corn syrup, a substance many feel contributes to obesity and reduced brain function, inspired the new name “corn sugar”. Euro bonds are now “stability bonds”. Corn-fed stockyard beef can now be labelled ‘Organic’. And that is that whole weird discussion on whether pizza is legally a vegetable or not. How can you generate better sales in a consumer hostile market? Change names and contribute to politicians who will help you get favorable legislation, that’s how! Like magic, lobbying and marketing help you get your way. In this week’s big news we have the Stop Online Piracy Act. Yes, SOPA is a new consumer-hostile effort to prop up an old economic model. And as we witnessed for the last decade with RIAA and the MPAA, entrenched businesses want the authority to shut down web sites simply on the strength of their accusation of infringement on their IP – without having to actually prove their case. We know full well that a lot of piracy goes on – and for that they have my sympathy. We here at Securosis get it – our content is often repurposed without consent. But – as you can see here – there are other ways to deal with this. As I have written dozens of times, there are economic models that curtail piracy – without resorting to DRM, root-kitting customer PCs, or throwing due process out the window. The Internet is about exchange of information through a myriad of (social) interfaces for the public good. It has created fantastic revenue opportunities for millions, and is an invaluable tool for research and education. One downside is content theft. I am all for content owners protecting their content – I just want it to be done without undermining the whole Internet. SOPA is the antithesis – its sponsors are perfectly willing to wreck the Internet to ensure nobody uses it to copy their wares. It’s the same old crap the RIAA has been pulling for a decade, in a new wrapper. On to the Summary: Webcasts, Podcasts, Outside Writing, and Conferences Adrian on Top Down data security Mike on Cloud Security in Datacenter Terms Securosis Posts New White Paper Published: Applied Network Security Analysis. Incite 12/14/2011: Family Matters. Pontification Alert: Upcoming webcast appearances. Tokenization Guidance White Paper Available. Friday Summary, December 9, 2011. Favorite Outside Posts Mike Rothman: It Won’t Be Easy for Iran to Dissect, Copy US Drone. It’s good to see someone is thinking about the reality of reverse engineering. But I suspect Iran would only have to consult your friendly neighborhood APT to get the schematics for a drone (or any of our other military devices). Adrian Lane: Deconstructing the Black Hole Exploit Kit. A thorough look at an exploit kit – very interesting stuff! Project Quant Posts DB Quant: Index. NSO Quant: Index of Posts. NSO Quant: Health Metrics–Device Health. NSO Quant: Manage Metrics–Monitor Issues/Tune IDS/IPS. NSO Quant: Manage Metrics–Deploy and Audit/Validate. NSO Quant: Manage Metrics–Process Change Request and Test/Approve. Research Reports and Presentations Applied Network Security Analysis: Moving from Data to Information. Tokenization Guidance. Security Management 2.0: Time to Replace Your SIEM? Fact-Based Network Security: Metrics and the Pursuit of Prioritization. Tokenization vs. Encryption: Options for Compliance. Security Benchmarking: Going Beyond Metrics. Top News and Posts Why Iran’s capture of US drone will shake CIA. Nomination for the biggest personal washer (Individual) Poll Results for: Thursday, December 15, 2011. sIFR3 Remote Code Execution. Native webcam access in a browser using JavaScript & HTML5. Congress Authorizes Pentagon to Wage Internet War. Carrier IQ Explains Secret Monitoring Software to FTC, FCC. Security updates for Windows and Java–with a Duqu Trojan patch–via Krebs. Blog Comment of the Week No comments this week. Guess we need to post more stuff! Share:

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