Cybersecurity - Attack and Defense Strategies


Book Description

Key Features Gain a clear understanding of the attack methods, and patterns to recognize abnormal behavior within your organization with Blue Team tactics Learn to unique techniques to gather exploitation intelligence, identify risk and demonstrate impact with Red Team and Blue Team strategies A practical guide that will give you hands-on experience to mitigate risks and prevent attackers from infiltrating your system Book DescriptionThe book will start talking about the security posture before moving to Red Team tactics, where you will learn the basic syntax for the Windows and Linux tools that are commonly used to perform the necessary operations. You will also gain hands-on experience of using new Red Team techniques with powerful tools such as python and PowerShell, which will enable you to discover vulnerabilities in your system and how to exploit them. Moving on, you will learn how a system is usually compromised by adversaries, and how they hack user's identity, and the various tools used by the Red Team to find vulnerabilities in a system. In the next section, you will learn about the defense strategies followed by the Blue Team to enhance the overall security of a system. You will also learn about an in-depth strategy to ensure that there are security controls in each network layer, and how you can carry out the recovery process of a compromised system. Finally, you will learn how to create a vulnerability management strategy and the different techniques for manual log analysis.What you will learn Learn the importance of having a solid foundation for your security posture Understand the attack strategy using cyber security kill chain Learn how to enhance your defense strategy by improving your security policies, hardening your network, implementing active sensors, and leveraging threat intelligence Learn how to perform an incident investigation Get an in-depth understanding of the recovery process Understand continuous security monitoring and how to implement a vulnerability management strategy Learn how to perform log analysis to identify suspicious activities Who this book is for This book aims at IT professional who want to venture the IT security domain. IT pentester, Security consultants, and ethical hackers will also find this course useful. Prior knowledge of penetration testing would be beneficial.




Offensive and Defensive Cyber Security Strategies


Book Description

The aim of this book is to explore the definitions and fundamentals of offensive security versus defensive security and describe the different tools and technologies for protecting against cyber threats. The book offers strategies of practical aspects of cybersecurity, covers the main disciplines needed to understand cybersecurity, and demonstrates ethical and legal concepts of cyber activities. It presents important concepts relevant for cybersecurity strategies, including the concept of cybercrime, cyber defense, protection of IT systems, and analysis of risks.




Cybersecurity Ops with bash


Book Description

If you hope to outmaneuver threat actors, speed and efficiency need to be key components of your cybersecurity operations. Mastery of the standard command-line interface (CLI) is an invaluable skill in times of crisis because no other software application can match the CLI’s availability, flexibility, and agility. This practical guide shows you how to use the CLI with the bash shell to perform tasks such as data collection and analysis, intrusion detection, reverse engineering, and administration. Authors Paul Troncone, founder of Digadel Corporation, and Carl Albing, coauthor of bash Cookbook (O’Reilly), provide insight into command-line tools and techniques to help defensive operators collect data, analyze logs, and monitor networks. Penetration testers will learn how to leverage the enormous amount of functionality built into nearly every version of Linux to enable offensive operations. In four parts, security practitioners, administrators, and students will examine: Foundations: Principles of defense and offense, command-line and bash basics, and regular expressions Defensive security operations: Data collection and analysis, real-time log monitoring, and malware analysis Penetration testing: Script obfuscation and tools for command-line fuzzing and remote access Security administration: Users, groups, and permissions; device and software inventory




Bytes, Bombs, and Spies


Book Description

“We are dropping cyber bombs. We have never done that before.”—U.S. Defense Department official A new era of war fighting is emerging for the U.S. military. Hi-tech weapons have given way to hi tech in a number of instances recently: A computer virus is unleashed that destroys centrifuges in Iran, slowing that country’s attempt to build a nuclear weapon. ISIS, which has made the internet the backbone of its terror operations, finds its network-based command and control systems are overwhelmed in a cyber attack. A number of North Korean ballistic missiles fail on launch, reportedly because their systems were compromised by a cyber campaign. Offensive cyber operations like these have become important components of U.S. defense strategy and their role will grow larger. But just what offensive cyber weapons are and how they could be used remains clouded by secrecy. This new volume by Amy Zegart and Herb Lin is a groundbreaking discussion and exploration of cyber weapons with a focus on their strategic dimensions. It brings together many of the leading specialists in the field to provide new and incisive analysis of what former CIA director Michael Hayden has called “digital combat power” and how the United States should incorporate that power into its national security strategy.




Strategic Cyber Security


Book Description




Proceedings of a Workshop on Deterring Cyberattacks


Book Description

In a world of increasing dependence on information technology, the prevention of cyberattacks on a nation's important computer and communications systems and networks is a problem that looms large. Given the demonstrated limitations of passive cybersecurity defense measures, it is natural to consider the possibility that deterrence might play a useful role in preventing cyberattacks against the United States and its vital interests. At the request of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Research Council undertook a two-phase project aimed to foster a broad, multidisciplinary examination of strategies for deterring cyberattacks on the United States and of the possible utility of these strategies for the U.S. government. The first phase produced a letter report providing basic information needed to understand the nature of the problem and to articulate important questions that can drive research regarding ways of more effectively preventing, discouraging, and inhibiting hostile activity against important U.S. information systems and networks. The second phase of the project entailed selecting appropriate experts to write papers on questions raised in the letter report. A number of experts, identified by the committee, were commissioned to write these papers under contract with the National Academy of Sciences. Commissioned papers were discussed at a public workshop held June 10-11, 2010, in Washington, D.C., and authors revised their papers after the workshop. Although the authors were selected and the papers reviewed and discussed by the committee, the individually authored papers do not reflect consensus views of the committee, and the reader should view these papers as offering points of departure that can stimulate further work on the topics discussed. The papers presented in this volume are published essentially as received from the authors, with some proofreading corrections made as limited time allowed.




Network Attacks and Exploitation


Book Description

Incorporate offense and defense for a more effective network security strategy Network Attacks and Exploitation provides a clear, comprehensive roadmap for developing a complete offensive and defensive strategy to engage in or thwart hacking and computer espionage. Written by an expert in both government and corporate vulnerability and security operations, this guide helps you understand the principles of the space and look beyond the individual technologies of the moment to develop durable comprehensive solutions. Numerous real-world examples illustrate the offensive and defensive concepts at work, including Conficker, Stuxnet, the Target compromise, and more. You will find clear guidance toward strategy, tools, and implementation, with practical advice on blocking systematic computer espionage and the theft of information from governments, companies, and individuals. Assaults and manipulation of computer networks are rampant around the world. One of the biggest challenges is fitting the ever-increasing amount of information into a whole plan or framework to develop the right strategies to thwart these attacks. This book clears the confusion by outlining the approaches that work, the tools that work, and resources needed to apply them. Understand the fundamental concepts of computer network exploitation Learn the nature and tools of systematic attacks Examine offensive strategy and how attackers will seek to maintain their advantage Understand defensive strategy, and how current approaches fail to change the strategic balance Governments, criminals, companies, and individuals are all operating in a world without boundaries, where the laws, customs, and norms previously established over centuries are only beginning to take shape. Meanwhile computer espionage continues to grow in both frequency and impact. This book will help you mount a robust offense or a strategically sound defense against attacks and exploitation. For a clear roadmap to better network security, Network Attacks and Exploitation is your complete and practical guide.




Cybersecurity Attacks – Red Team Strategies


Book Description

Develop your red team skills by learning essential foundational tactics, techniques, and procedures, and boost the overall security posture of your organization by leveraging the homefield advantage Key FeaturesBuild, manage, and measure an offensive red team programLeverage the homefield advantage to stay ahead of your adversariesUnderstand core adversarial tactics and techniques, and protect pentesters and pentesting assetsBook Description It's now more important than ever for organizations to be ready to detect and respond to security events and breaches. Preventive measures alone are not enough for dealing with adversaries. A well-rounded prevention, detection, and response program is required. This book will guide you through the stages of building a red team program, including strategies and homefield advantage opportunities to boost security. The book starts by guiding you through establishing, managing, and measuring a red team program, including effective ways for sharing results and findings to raise awareness. Gradually, you'll learn about progressive operations such as cryptocurrency mining, focused privacy testing, targeting telemetry, and even blue team tooling. Later, you'll discover knowledge graphs and how to build them, then become well-versed with basic to advanced techniques related to hunting for credentials, and learn to automate Microsoft Office and browsers to your advantage. Finally, you'll get to grips with protecting assets using decoys, auditing, and alerting with examples for major operating systems. By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to build, manage, and measure a red team program effectively and be well-versed with the fundamental operational techniques required to enhance your existing skills. What you will learnUnderstand the risks associated with security breachesImplement strategies for building an effective penetration testing teamMap out the homefield using knowledge graphsHunt credentials using indexing and other practical techniquesGain blue team tooling insights to enhance your red team skillsCommunicate results and influence decision makers with appropriate dataWho this book is for This is one of the few detailed cybersecurity books for penetration testers, cybersecurity analysts, security leaders and strategists, as well as red team members and chief information security officers (CISOs) looking to secure their organizations from adversaries. The program management part of this book will also be useful for beginners in the cybersecurity domain. To get the most out of this book, some penetration testing experience, and software engineering and debugging skills are necessary.




At the Nexus of Cybersecurity and Public Policy


Book Description

We depend on information and information technology (IT) to make many of our day-to-day tasks easier and more convenient. Computers play key roles in transportation, health care, banking, and energy. Businesses use IT for payroll and accounting, inventory and sales, and research and development. Modern military forces use weapons that are increasingly coordinated through computer-based networks. Cybersecurity is vital to protecting all of these functions. Cyberspace is vulnerable to a broad spectrum of hackers, criminals, terrorists, and state actors. Working in cyberspace, these malevolent actors can steal money, intellectual property, or classified information; impersonate law-abiding parties for their own purposes; damage important data; or deny the availability of normally accessible services. Cybersecurity issues arise because of three factors taken together - the presence of malevolent actors in cyberspace, societal reliance on IT for many important functions, and the presence of vulnerabilities in IT systems. What steps can policy makers take to protect our government, businesses, and the public from those would take advantage of system vulnerabilities? At the Nexus of Cybersecurity and Public Policy offers a wealth of information on practical measures, technical and nontechnical challenges, and potential policy responses. According to this report, cybersecurity is a never-ending battle; threats will evolve as adversaries adopt new tools and techniques to compromise security. Cybersecurity is therefore an ongoing process that needs to evolve as new threats are identified. At the Nexus of Cybersecurity and Public Policy is a call for action to make cybersecurity a public safety priority. For a number of years, the cybersecurity issue has received increasing public attention; however, most policy focus has been on the short-term costs of improving systems. In its explanation of the fundamentals of cybersecurity and the discussion of potential policy responses, this book will be a resource for policy makers, cybersecurity and IT professionals, and anyone who wants to understand threats to cyberspace.




Cyber Strategy


Book Description

Some pundits claim cyber weaponry is the most important military innovation in decades, a transformative new technology that promises a paralyzing first-strike advantage difficult for opponents to deter. Yet, what is cyber strategy? How do actors use cyber capabilities to achieve a position of advantage against rival states? This book examines the emerging art of cyber strategy and its integration as part of a larger approach to coercion by states in the international system between 2000 and 2014. To this end, the book establishes a theoretical framework in the coercion literature for evaluating the efficacy of cyber operations. Cyber coercion represents the use of manipulation, denial, and punishment strategies in the digital frontier to achieve some strategic end. As a contemporary form of covert action and political warfare, cyber operations rarely produce concessions and tend to achieve only limited, signaling objectives. When cyber operations do produce concessions between rival states, they tend to be part of a larger integrated coercive strategy that combines network intrusions with other traditional forms of statecraft such as military threats, economic sanctions, and diplomacy. The books finds that cyber operations rarely produce concessions in isolation. They are additive instruments that complement traditional statecraft and coercive diplomacy. The book combines an analysis of cyber exchanges between rival states and broader event data on political, military, and economic interactions with case studies on the leading cyber powers: Russia, China, and the United States. The authors investigate cyber strategies in their integrated and isolated contexts, demonstrating that they are useful for maximizing informational asymmetries and disruptions, and thus are important, but limited coercive tools. This empirical foundation allows the authors to explore how leading actors employ cyber strategy and the implications for international relations in the 21st century. While most military plans involving cyber attributes remain highly classified, the authors piece together strategies based on observations of attacks over time and through the policy discussion in unclassified space. The result will be the first broad evaluation of the efficacy of various strategic options in a digital world.