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NSE 1: The Threat Landscape: Study Guide
NSE 1: The Threat Landscape: Study Guide
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Table of Contents
GLOSSARY...................................................................................................11
Threat Landscape Evolution of Adversaries
Threat Landscape
The threat landscape, much the same as the law enforcement, views threats using three primary
characteristics: motive, means, and opportunity. In technology threats, these terms are translated into
motivation (motive), knowledge (means), and access (opportunity). Motivation may be as simple as a
student trying to access protected information or as malicious as a competitor trying to delay or disable a
companys ability to reach the market. Knowledge about networksand hackingis widespread, with
books and guides available globally through the Internet and often at little or no cost. Access, this is the
area where the veracity of your network security will pay offidentifying potential threats, analyzing them,
and either determining validity or cataloging and
rejecting them.
Evolution of Adversaries
Computer hacking was once the realm of curious teenagers. Now it's the arena of government spies,
professional thieves and soldiers of fortune. But, dont count out those curious teenagers just yet; more
and more young people are enamored with the prospect, and thrill, of hacking and seeing how far they
can get.
The whole concept of hacking sprouted from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nearly 50
years ago. Computer science students there borrowed the term from a group of model train
enthusiasts who hacked electric trains and switches in 1969 to improve performance. These new
hackers were already figuring out how to alter computer software and hardware to speed it up. This
was happening as the scientists at AT&T Bell Labs were developing UNIX, one of the world's first
major operating systems.
The Golden Age of Hacking was the 1980s when people bought personal computers for their homes
and hooked them up to the telephone network. The Web wasn't yet alive, but computers could still talk
to one another through hosted chat rooms and FTP. In fact, the 1980s was the age of MS-DOS and
command line interface (CLI) programming and online interaction. These curious kids tapped into
whatever computer system they could find, just to explore. Some broke into computer networks at
companies. Digital hangouts started, such as Chat City and other hosted group online communication
sites.
As hacking progressed in the 1990s, the purposes for hacking ranged across a number of motives. Some
hacked for money. Others did it for revenge. However, hacking was still more of an annoyance
than anything devastating. However, it was quickly becoming apparent that the potential was there for
damage, including industrial espionage, hardware damage, file damage, and so on. The stock market,
hospitals, credit card transactions, and corporate or personal file storage were all running on computers.
As the 21st Century turned the clocks, loosely affiliated amateurs were replaced by well-paid, trained
professionals. By the mid-2000s, hacking had become a widespread tactic for organized crime,
governments, and hacktivists.
Crime. Hackers around the world wrote malicious software (malware) to hijack tens of
thousands of computers, using their processing power to generate spam. They wrote
banking Trojans to steal website login credentials. Hacking payment systems turned out
to be insanely lucrative too. Albert Gonzalezs theft of $94M in credit cards from TJX in
2007 proved to be a precursor to later retailer data breaches, like Target, Home Depot
and others.
Government. When the United States wanted to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program
in 2009, it hacked a development facility and unleashed the most dangerous computer
virus to date. Stuxnet caused the Iranian lab computers to spin centrifuges out of control.
Russia used cyberattacks to shut down media during the 2008 war in Georgia. And now,
it is suspected that both China and Russia have hacked into US Government systems,
stealing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on millions of government employees
and their families.
Hacktivists. The populist group, Anonymous, hacks into police departments to expose
officer brutality, floods banks with garbage Internet traffic, and a group calling themselves
Vigilante takes down Islamic jihadist websites.
What exists now is a tricky world. When the White House got hacked, was it the Russian government,
nationalists acting on their own, or freelance agents paid by the government? Meanwhile, with the
explosion of technology-focused classes at all levels of education and training, it is easier than ever to
become a hacker. Because of the tools that are availableand ongoing development of new threat
methods--attribution is very difficult when an attack occurs.
Figure 1 depicts how various adversaries pose a threat to network security
information. Other attacks may infect manufacturing systems, payrolls, and other
functions that result in a company having to shut down operations until the problem is
resolved. These attacks may also include industrial sabotage, where data is gained that
gives a company an advantage over competitors, or alters a competitor's product so it is
unmarketable.
Wikileaks. The media coverage of Julian Assange and the Wikileaks organization has
spurred on activists to follow in his footsteps. These activists work to expose things with
which they disagree; either publicly shaming the company into changing procedures or
products, or using the information as collateral for a ransom.
Profit. This is the prime motivator behind criminal enterprises, and it is no different when
applied to network attacks.
Sabotage. At a major company, organization, or government level, sabotage is the
means to an endusually the shutdown of a program (as with the 2009 use of Stuxnet to
shut down Irans nuclear program for a time), catastrophic loss of systems and/or data, or
stealing of industrial information.
As you review the illustration of escalating threat levels (Figure 1), you will notice that a key factor is the
level of resources (training, equipment, funding) available to the adversary. As hacking escalated from
individuals to large, well-organized, and well-resourced entities, additional benefits became available to
hackers that provided enhanced capabilities over individual efforts.
Because organizational hacking provides the benefit of collaboration and increased funding, it provides a
breeding ground for hackers and development of new cyber-threats. Some of the benefits of
organizational hacking include:
Education, training, and tech support
Storefront for hacking tools and zero-day exploits/vulnerability information
Sophisticated organization
Government backing
Support by currencies like bitcoin
Obscurity gained through anonymous networks like TOR
Hacker Tools
Hackers rely on two primary categories of tools to facilitate their activities:
Social engineering Techniques
Malware Tools
Social engineering is the use of content that convinces or encourages people to do something to
accomplish the hackers missionusually something damaging. The tactics vary as methods and tools
vary among different hackers with different objectives. Social engineering relies on non-technical
methods of intrusion that often trick people into breaking normal security procedures. Because it
leverages the human factor, social engineering is one of the greatest threats to organizations because
of the difficulty in controlling individual actions among members or employees.
Numerous techniques are available to the hacker. In fact, this is by necessity, as social engineering
targets human factors, which vary across a wide range of technical, social, and responsibility levels.
Therefore, social engineering encompasses numerous techniques that provide options to influence
many different human perspectives, and may include the following methods:
Spoofing is a technique where one person or program masquerades successfully as
another. This is usually accomplished by falsifying data to make the hacker appear as the
other entity.
Phishing is not unlike going fishing. The hacker attempts to acquire sensitive user
information (such as usernames, passwords, account data, or even directly steal money)
for malicious reasons by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in electronic
communications. This is particularly widespread among e-mail, but may also be used
through false web pages.
Spearphishing is an e-mail spoofing fraud that targets specific organizations in order to
gain unauthorized access to confidential, proprietary, or personal data. This is generally a
technique not used by individuals; rather, spearphishing is often used by perpetrators out
for financial gain, trade secrets, or military information.
Watering-hole Attacks target specific groupsorganizations, companies, industry,
regionto indirectly infect the groups network machines. The attacker analyzes which
Internet sites people from the group are likely to visit, infects the site(s) with malware, and
then waits for an individual from the group to access it. Once the individual is infected,
that person spreads it within the organization, widening access for the hacker.
Phone calls and impersonation are still viable in the technology age. PhoneBotsalso
known as auto-dialerspresent a predetermined message when the recipient answers
the phone. These messages typically request the recipient to call a number for a specific
purpose. The number may be attempting a scam as simple as having the recipient call a
number that is a pay-per-minute programwithout the recipient being awarewhich later
shows up as a charge on their phone bill.
Malvertising is the use of online ads to spread malware. These ads do not require
specific action by the usersuch as clicking on the ad; rather, they take advantage of
macros and advertisement windows that vary ads based on use preferences to spread
malware. Malvertising can run across legitimate sites without directly compromising the
site(s).
Social Media links are literally a playground for hackers and thieves, because many
people using social media platforms believe that web-based or SaaS platforms are
impervious to hackers. Often the hacker will use an intriguing picture, video, or hyperlink
to entice victims to interact. This can result in effects such as stealing browser windows,
embedding malware to steal data, or even tricking the user into a purchase.
Malware is a category of malicious code that includes viruses, worms, and Trojans. Malware is a primary
tool for hackers when using social engineering techniques to gain access to systems or networks. The
effects of malware are not unlike how a human body becomes infected and how the immune system
reacts.
Known viruses. These are cataloged in anti-virus programs and defenses have been developed
to counter the threat. This is sometimes referred to as inoculating the machine or network
against the virus.
Unknown viruses. These are viruses that are not yet cataloged or do not yet have a
countermeasure developed to inoculate machines or networks. These unknown viruses may
include exploits developed and for sale to hackers, adaptive viruses, wrappers, and
polymorphic code.
Combination. Because an attack does in restricted neither to a single piece of malware nor a
single attacking device or vector, the use of multiple viruses that include both known and
unknown varieties may be used by hackers.
Threat Timeline
From the last quarter of 2013 through the first quarter of 2014, major network attacks have affected large
companies and billions of consumers. These attacks not only affected business systems, but also had the
ability to infect personal systems and mobile devices, such as the Heartbleed and Find My iPhone
attacks. Figure 2 chronicles those threats and the targets affected by them.
In the period between October 2013 and June 2014, numerous major network attacks affected large
companies and billions of consumers. Over a year later, the impact of those attacks still resonates in both
company losses and loss of consumer trust. The timeline illustrated in Figure 2 presents some of the
more noteworthy attacks during that nine-month period, as described in Table 1.
Table 1. Major network attacks October 2013 to June 2014.
EVENT DESCRIPTION
An estimated 2.9 million customer IDs, passwords, and possibly names & credit
Adobe Hack
information.
Quarian
Spearphishing attacks exploited vulnerability in MS Office to retrieve .doc data.
Backdoor
MS Office Zero-
11 occurred in 2013 and 5 in the first half of 2014.
Day Attack
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Android/ Mobile malware used in sabotage campaign against political movement in Middle
Hackdrive East that took over all audio functions of smartphones when downloaded.
Attacked Mac systems, using expensive root kit to collect personal data, including
OSX/Crisis
keystrokes.
Google Play
Hack
JavaScript app stole phone number directories from mobile devices.
(Japanese &
Koreans)
Android/Balloon
Android Balloon Pop 2 Game hack stole WhatsApp conversations from users.
Popper:
Android/
Collected Google (Gmail) IDs, but not associated passwords.
GaLeaker
Reveton Ransomware using random extensions to hide DLLs in batch files like rundll32.exe.
Variants Locked machines and would not release it, unless user paid ransom fee to unlock.
Adobe Flash in Replacing earlier versions of the Blackhole exploit after arrest of the writer, this
Exploit Kit malware used popup technology to disrupt Adobe software use.
Target Corp
Hackers stole credit and debit card information for over 40 million customers
Hack
GnuTu (Linux)
Fail & Apple goto fail programming errors left encrypted data open to hackers.
SSL/TLS Bug
Ransomware that locked iPhones using the Find My iPhone app and demanded
Find My iPhone
payment to unlock the phone. The next month Android phone users were also hit.
EVENT DESCRIPTION
In May 2014, eBay hackers gained access to names, email and home addresses,
eBay phone numbers, dates of birth, and encrypted passwords for around 145 million
users.
Basecamp
Ransomware Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against the Basecamp
DDoS Ransom
project management web app.
Hack
Below (Table 2) see more recent attacks that affected numerous well-known and high-utilization sites.
Table 2. Recent attacks on major sites.
SITE DESCRIPTION
Washington
Indicates up to 160,000 social security numbers
State Court
exposed by hack.
System
Other victims included: Michaels, Home Depot, AOL, Avast, Holiday Inn, Neiman Marcus, P. F.
Changs, and J.P. Morgan Chase.
Advanced threatsmodern and emerging threatsengage more complex methods that the simpler and
focused attacks of the past. Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) technology is evolving rapidly. Since the
dawn of the computer age, people have used advanced software to target specific companies or
individuals in an attack designed to either damage or steal data. What makes todays APTs unique and
frightening are the sophistication of the malware, the vectors theyre choosing for attack, and the
perseverance with which theyre going after their targets.
APTs are:
Advanced: APTs use organized methods to create and distribute advanced malware. New tools
are constantly being developed.
Persistent. APTs patiently use social engineering combined with malware and codes. They can
be very hard to detect and come with the expectation of higher payout.
Threats. APTs are designed to attack specific, deliberately chosen targets. Credit card
information is cheap to buy on the open market. Now its about business disruption, massive
identity theft, IP theft, and spying.
Malware. Some hackers use specially crafted malware to exploit a victims computer,
while others use off the shelf malware tools that are easily obtainable online and on
many underground hacking forums.
Social Engineering. A key component in any attack is the ability to make a human target
believe an attack is coming from a trusted source. Using previously obtained research, an
attacker may craft very specific spear-phishing emails with seemingly innocuous
attachments that the target will likely open, such as links to Web pages with malicious
code embedded (known as a watering hole attack), spreadsheets, text files, and PDF
files, that take advantage of exploits in order to execute malicious software.
Zero-Day and Other Exploits. A zero-day exploit is a vulnerability in a software product
that allows an attacker to execute unintended code or gain control of a target computer.
These exploits are usually included in spearphishing and watering hole attacks. In some
cases, exploits that have recently been fixed by vendors but have not yet been patched
by the target organization are used. Both have been shown to be very successful in
attacks.
Insiders and Recruits. Sometimes an attacker will recruit an insider to assist in
launching an attack. In the case of Stuxnet, it is believed an insider sympathetic to the
attackers goals was recruited to launch the initial attack by plugging in a specially
created USB key that contained the attack malware. This is often the only way an
attacker can reach a target computer that is not connected to the Internet (or whats
known as an air-gapped network).
Forged and Fake Certificates. An attacker may attempt to forge or fake an SSL
certificate to get victims to visit websites that pretends to be safe. In 2011, the certificate
authority Comodo was compromised, and fake certificates were issued for popular sites
such as Google, Skype and Yahoo.
From the most basic threats of past years through the development and emergence of APTs, the threats
for computers networks continue to evolve. This presents continued challenges to those charged with the
responsibility of network protectionfrom the network security administrator down to the individual
desktop user.
Modern network security is composed of many facets, some of which are in your control, while
others are not. In an increasingly mobile world, traditional network security, based on desktop
platforms and dumbphones, is no longer relevant to the world of tablets, phablets, and
smartphones. Because of the constantly changing landscape of network environments,
organizations of all sizes, challenges in keeping pace with change, developing counters to
emerging threats, and controlling network and security policies.
To meet modern and emerging threats, companies and organizations must adopt dynamic
network security programs that keep pace with changing trends and activities.
Peopleor the man-machine interfaceis the weakest link in any security process. People are
easily lulled into a false sense of security about the effectiveness of passwords and access
codes, identity verification, and policies regarding the use of information technology (IT) systems
and networks. It takes just one careless moment to potentially breach the integrity of protected
information and systems. If network security user policies and protocols are too complicated,
compliance is less likely. The human factor makes it necessary for security solutions to be user-
friendly and threat unfriendly; clear and simple for network administrators and users to operate,
with the necessary complexity to identify, deter, or contain threats. They can be embedded in
state-of-the-art hardware and software solutions, nearly transparent to internal network users.
Not all organizations or their networks are alike. Each organization needs a customized, strategic
network security program tailored to balance its needs against its operating environment,
perceived threats, and operating budget. Of course, the best network security program would be
an end-to-end, 24/7 monitored program with regular analytics informing plan effectiveness and
potential enhancements. This would be the holy grail of network security.
Systems like Unified Threat Management (UTM) provide the ability to balance needs, capabilities,
and resources to secure networks while maintaining the ability of the organization to operate. In
essence, this book will help you learn about how to take steps to mitigate best the threats to your
network, and optimize network security while balancing those factors.
Infrastructure Evolution
In a complex growing world that experiences network portability, compatible to an increasing
number of devices with different capabilities, network security continues to evolve in complexity
and importance. In the 1980s early closed networks transitioned to a broader Internet, with the
advent of Ethernet, Bitnet, TCP/IP, SMTP, DNS, and, in 1985, the first .com domain name
registration. Then, in 1991, the Worldwide Web (WWW) came into existence. By 1995, the
modern Internet became established as a fixture in how businessand the worldwould
communicate in the future (Figure 7).
The Forbin Project introduced the idea of supercomputers running complex algorithms
that controlled government functions and could potentially supplant human decision-
makers.
In 1976 the Osborne 1 was the first portable computer.
The first .com domain was registered in 1985; however the Worldwide Web began in
1991, and the Internet as we know it today did not come online until 1995a mere 20
years ago!
A Japanese company introduced the first smartphone in 1999. It was a relatively
simple device compared to todays smartphones.
Many of us remember the hype around the Y2K bug (Would computers go back to 1900
at midnight?) Early programs were written with just the last two digits of the year with the
19xx.
Believe it or not, the first tablet came out in 2002but not as light and useful as todays
models.
The discussion between the labelling and merits of Next Generation Firewall (NGFW)
and Unified Threat Management (UTM) expanded and carried on through 2004, with
Gartner, IDC, and Fortinet in the fray.
2007 saw the introduction of the first iPhone.
Finally, 2013-2014 turned out to be a year of breaches by advanced threats targeting
specific entities.
High-tech was not only for major companies, organizations, and government agencies; it was for
everyone.
Figure 8. The scope of modern global network users.
For the sake of security, it was necessary to add new stand-alone, single- or dual-purpose
hardware or integrated hardware-software packages designed to address newly identified threats.
This resulted in a constant state of expensive upgrades that added network complexity,
integration of new devices, and scrubbing and repurposing or disposing of legacy hardware, new
policy development and new management consoles. This served to increase workload,
retraining, and complexity for network administrators and end users, exacerbating the
balancing problem between security and productivity.
But the products were not always able to integrate fully into existing systems and the
piecemeal approach to network development and security led to potential blind spots that
threats could exploit undetected. In order to solve this growing challenge, a move toward more
strategic solutions to network security was needed. Rather than new stand-alone systems
addressing individual threat vectors, strategic systems and processes designed to protect
networks comprised of systems-of-systems, were needed.
This was how Unified Threat Management (UTM) was developed. UTM goes beyond a
Advanced Threats
Experienced hackers or groups of hackers can introduce threats to systems and networks,
including developing and implementing previously unused techniques to compromise, gain
control, and/or shut down system/service.
Advanced Threat Protection (APT)also referred to as Advanced Persistent Threat Protection
provides integrated measures to detect and block advanced threats. These measures include
botnet and phishing antivirus profiling, as well as zero-day threat protection and using sandboxing
to analyze, identify, and block suspicious code, and add the suspicious code profile to the ATP
signature database.
authentication.
Threat Prevention. Intrusion Prevention (IPS), application control, Web filtering, email
filtering, antimalware.
Threat Detection. Sandboxing, botnet detection, client reputation, network behavior
analysis.
Incident Response. Consolidated logs and reports, professional services, user/device
quarantine, threat prevention updates.
Continuous Monitoring. Real-time activity views, security reporting, threat intelligence.
Key Acronyms
Glossary
Application Control. Protects managed desktops and servers by allowing or denying network application
usage based on policies established by the network administrator. Enterprise applications, databases,
web mail, social networking applications, IM/P2P, and file transfer protocols can all be identified
accurately by sophisticated detection signatures.
APT. An Advanced Persistent Threat is a network attack in which an unauthorized person gains access
to a network and stays there undetected for a long period of time. The intention of an APT attack is to
steal data rather than to cause damage to the network or organization. APT attacks target organizations
in sectors with high-value information, such as national defense, manufacturing and the financial industry.
ATP. Advanced Threat Protection relies on multiple types of security technologies, products, and
research -- each performing a different role, but still working seamlessly together -- to combat these
attacks from network core through the end user device. The 3-part framework is conceptually simple
prevent, detect, mitigate; however, it covers a broad set of both advanced and traditional tools for
network, application and endpoint security, threat detection, and mitigation.
AV/AM. Anti-virus/Anti-malware provides protection against virus, spyware, and other types of malware
attacks in web, email, and file transfer traffic. Responsible for detecting, removing, and reporting on
malicious code. By intercepting and inspecting application-based traffic and content, antivirus protection
ensures that malicious threats hidden within legitimate application content are identified and removed
from data streams before they can cause damage. Using AV/AM protection at client servers/devices adds
an additional layer of security.
Bot. An Internet bot, also known as web robot, WWW robot or simply bot, is a software application that
runs automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally
repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use of bots is
in web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyses and files information from web servers at
many times the speed of a human.
Botnet. A botnet (also known as a zombie army) is a number of Internet computers that, although their
owners are unaware of it, have been set up to forward transmissions (including spam or viruses) to other
computers on the Internet. Any such computer is referred to as a zombie - in effect, a computer "robot" or
"bot" that serves the wishes of some master spam or virus originator. Most computers compromised in
this way are home-based. According to a report from Russian-based Kaspersky Labs, botnets -- not
spam, viruses, or worms -- currently pose the biggest threat to the Internet. A report from Symantec came
to a similar conclusion.
Drive-by. A drive-by download refers to the unintentional download of a virus or malicious software
(malware) onto your computer or mobile device. A drive-by download will usually take advantage of (or
exploit) a browser, app, or operating system that is out of date and has a security flaw. This initial code
that is downloaded is often very small (so you probably wouldnt notice it), since its job is often simply to
contact another computer where it can pull down the rest of the code on to your smartphone, tablet, or
computer. Often, a web page will contain several different types of malicious code, in hopes that one
of them will match a weakness on your computer.
Exploit. A piece of software, a segment of data, or command sequences that takes advantage of
a vulnerability in order to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur on computer software,
hardware, or appliances incorporating the Internet of Things (IoT). Such behavior frequently includes
things like gaining control of a computer system, allowing privilege escalation, or a denial-of-service
attack.
IP/PII. This is what cybercriminals are after. From the IP owned by a corporation or organization to
individual PII, this is the commodity most often sought by hackers, who often use it for financial gain or
blackmail.
IP stands for Internet Protocol, or the address commonly used to identify the origin of an Internet
transmissioni.e. your device.
PII stand for Personally Identifiable Information, sometimes referred to as Personal Information, and
is often equated in the U.S. with Privacy Act Information.
NIST Special Publication 800-122 defines PII as "any information about an individual maintained by an
agency, including (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individuals identity, such
as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mothers maiden name, or biometric records;
and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual, such as medical, educational,
financial, and employment information. It has become much more important as IT and the Internet have
made it easier to collect PII through breaches of Internet and network security and Web browser
vulnerabilities.
Recent courts decisions have leaned toward IP not being considered as PII, judging that an IP only
identifies a particular platform or device, not an actual individual.
IPS. Intrusion Prevention System protects networks from threats by blocking attacks that might otherwise
take advantage of network vulnerabilities and unpatched systems. IPS may include a wide range of
features that can be used to monitor and block malicious network activity including: predefined and
custom signatures, protocol decoders, out-of-band mode (or one-arm IPS mode, similar to IDS), packet
logging, and IPS sensors. IPS can be installed at the edge of your network or within the network core to
protect critical business applications from both external and internal attacks.
Log Management. The collective processes and policies used to administer and facilitate the generation,
transmission, analysis, storage and ultimate disposal of the large volumes of log data created within an
information system.
Malvertising. This is the use of online advertising to spread malware. Online advertisements provide a
solid platform for spreading malware because significant effort is put into them in order to attract users
and sell or advertise the product. Malvertising can be easily spread across a large number of legitimate
websites without directly compromising those websites. According to Reed Exhibitions, "The interesting
thing about infections delivered through malvertising is that it does not require any user action (like
clicking) to compromise the system and it does not exploit any vulnerabilities on the website or the server
it is hosted from... infections delivered through malvertising silently travel through Web page
advertisements.
Malware. Malware is a category of malicious code that includes viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.
Destructive malware will utilize popular communication tools to spread, including worms sent through
email and instant messages, Trojan horses dropped from web sites, and virus-infected files downloaded
from peer-to-peer connections. Malware will also seek to exploit existing vulnerabilities on systems
making their entry quiet and easy.
Virus. A computer virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your
knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer viruses
are man-made. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to
produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and
bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself
across networks and bypassing security systems.
Worm. Computer worms are similar to viruses in that they replicate functional copies of
themselves and can cause the same type of damage. In contrast to viruses, which require the
spreading of an infected host file, worms are standalone software and do not require a host
program or human help to propagate. To spread, worms either exploit a vulnerability on the target
system or use some kind of social engineering to trick users into executing them. A worm enters a
computer through a vulnerability in the system and takes advantage of file-transport or
information-transport features on the system, allowing it to travel unaided.
Trojan. A Trojan [horse] is a program in which malicious or harmful code is contained inside
apparently harmless programming or data in such a way that it can get control and do its chosen
form of damage, such as ruining the file allocation table (FAT) on your hard drive. In one case, a
Trojan was a program that was supposed to find and destroy computer viruses. A Trojan may be
widely redistributed as part of a computer virus.
Network Behavior Anomaly Detection (NBAD). The continuous monitoring of a network for unusual
events or trends. An NBAD program tracks critical network characteristics in real time and generates an
alarm if a strange event or trend is detected that could indicate the presence of a threat. NBAD is an
integral part of network behavior analysis.
Network Forensics. Capturing, recording, and analyzing network events for the purpose of discovering
the source of security attacks or other problem incidents. Catch-it-as-you-can" systems capture
all packets passing through a certain traffic point, store the data, and then perform analysis in batch
mode. "Stop, look and listen" systems perform a basic analysis in memory and save only certain data for
subsequent analyses.
NGFW. Next Generation Firewall provides multi-layered capabilities in a single firewall appliance instead
of a basic firewall and numerous add-on appliances. NGFW integrates the capabilities of a traditional
firewall with advanced features including:
Intrusion Prevention (IPS) Deep Packet Inspection Network App ID & Control
(DPI)
Phishing. Phishing is an e-mail fraud method in which the perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking email
in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from recipients. Typically, the messages appear
to come from well-known and trustworthy Web sites. Web sites that are frequently spoofed by phishers
include PayPal, eBay, MSN, Yahoo, BestBuy, banks, and government agencies. A phishing expedition,
like the fishing expedition it's named for, is a speculative venture: the phisher puts the lure hoping to fool
at least a few of the prey that encounter the bait.
Risk Management. The process of identifying, assessing and controlling threats to an organization's
capital and earnings. Such threats include financial uncertainty, legal liabilities, strategic management
errors, accidents, natural disasters and information technology (IT) security threats.
Sandboxing. A Sandbox is designed to detect and analyze advanced attacks designed to bypass
traditional security defenses. Sandboxing refers to the process of isolating unknown or potentially
malicious codes to fully execute all functions before allowing the traffic to download into the network. By
analyzing files in a contained environment to identify previously unknown threats and uncovering the full
attack lifecycle, if malicious activity is discovered, Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) can block it.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). An approach to security management that seeks
to provide a holistic view of an organizations information technology (IT) security. Most SIEM systems
deploy multiple collection agents to gather security-related events from end-user devices, servers,
network equipment and specialized security equipment like firewalls, AV/AM or IPS. The collectors
forward events to a centralized management console, which performs inspections and flags
anomalies.
Security Intelligence (SI) is the information relevant to protecting an organization from external and
inside threats as well as the processes, policies and tools designed to gather and analyze that
information.
Intelligence, in this context, is actionable information that provides an organization with
decision support and possibly a strategic advantage. SI is a comprehensive approach that
integrates multiple processes and practices designed to protect the organization.
UTM. Unified Threat Management provides administrators the ability to monitor and manage multiple,
complex security-related applications and infrastructure components through a single management
console. The advantage to UTM is that it goes beyond the NGFW focus of high performance protection of
data centers by incorporating a broader range of security capabilities as either cloud services or network
appliances, integrating:
Identity-based Access
Control
Vulnerability. In cybersecurity, vulnerability refers to a flaw in a system that can leave it open to attack. A
vulnerability may also refer to any type of weakness in a computer system itself, in a set of procedures, or
in anything that leaves information security exposed to a threat. Cutting down vulnerabilities provides
fewer options for malicious users to gain access to secure information.
Watering Hole. The watering hole attack method targets specific groups (organization, company,
industry, region, etc.). In this attack, the attacker guesses or observes which websites the group often
uses and infects one or more of them with malware. Eventually, some member of the targeted group gets
infected, resulting in the malware being spread to others in the targeted group.
Web Filtering. Web Filtering technology gives you the option to explicitly allow web sites, or to pass web
traffic uninspected both to and from known-good web sites in order to accelerate traffic flows. The most
advanced web content filtering technology enables a wide variety of actions to inspect, rate, and control
perimeter web traffic at a granular level. Using web content filtering technology, these appliances can
classify and filter web traffic using multiple pre-defined and custom categories.