Threat Hunting in the Cloud


Book Description

Implement a vendor-neutral and multi-cloud cybersecurity and risk mitigation framework with advice from seasoned threat hunting pros In Threat Hunting in the Cloud: Defending AWS, Azure and Other Cloud Platforms Against Cyberattacks, celebrated cybersecurity professionals and authors Chris Peiris, Binil Pillai, and Abbas Kudrati leverage their decades of experience building large scale cyber fusion centers to deliver the ideal threat hunting resource for both business and technical audiences. You'll find insightful analyses of cloud platform security tools and, using the industry leading MITRE ATT&CK framework, discussions of the most common threat vectors. You'll discover how to build a side-by-side cybersecurity fusion center on both Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services and deliver a multi-cloud strategy for enterprise customers. And you will find out how to create a vendor-neutral environment with rapid disaster recovery capability for maximum risk mitigation. With this book you'll learn: Key business and technical drivers of cybersecurity threat hunting frameworks in today's technological environment Metrics available to assess threat hunting effectiveness regardless of an organization's size How threat hunting works with vendor-specific single cloud security offerings and on multi-cloud implementations A detailed analysis of key threat vectors such as email phishing, ransomware and nation state attacks Comprehensive AWS and Azure "how to" solutions through the lens of MITRE Threat Hunting Framework Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) Azure and AWS risk mitigation strategies to combat key TTPs such as privilege escalation, credential theft, lateral movement, defend against command & control systems, and prevent data exfiltration Tools available on both the Azure and AWS cloud platforms which provide automated responses to attacks, and orchestrate preventative measures and recovery strategies Many critical components for successful adoption of multi-cloud threat hunting framework such as Threat Hunting Maturity Model, Zero Trust Computing, Human Elements of Threat Hunting, Integration of Threat Hunting with Security Operation Centers (SOCs) and Cyber Fusion Centers The Future of Threat Hunting with the advances in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Quantum Computing and the proliferation of IoT devices. Perfect for technical executives (i.e., CTO, CISO), technical managers, architects, system admins and consultants with hands-on responsibility for cloud platforms, Threat Hunting in the Cloud is also an indispensable guide for business executives (i.e., CFO, COO CEO, board members) and managers who need to understand their organization's cybersecurity risk framework and mitigation strategy.




Threat Hunting with Elastic Stack


Book Description

Learn advanced threat analysis techniques in practice by implementing Elastic Stack security features Key FeaturesGet started with Elastic Security configuration and featuresLeverage Elastic Stack features to provide optimal protection against threatsDiscover tips, tricks, and best practices to enhance the security of your environmentBook Description Threat Hunting with Elastic Stack will show you how to make the best use of Elastic Security to provide optimal protection against cyber threats. With this book, security practitioners working with Kibana will be able to put their knowledge to work and detect malicious adversary activity within their contested network. You'll take a hands-on approach to learning the implementation and methodologies that will have you up and running in no time. Starting with the foundational parts of the Elastic Stack, you'll explore analytical models and how they support security response and finally leverage Elastic technology to perform defensive cyber operations. You'll then cover threat intelligence analytical models, threat hunting concepts and methodologies, and how to leverage them in cyber operations. After you've mastered the basics, you'll apply the knowledge you've gained to build and configure your own Elastic Stack, upload data, and explore that data directly as well as by using the built-in tools in the Kibana app to hunt for nefarious activities. By the end of this book, you'll be able to build an Elastic Stack for self-training or to monitor your own network and/or assets and use Kibana to monitor and hunt for adversaries within your network. What you will learnExplore cyber threat intelligence analytical models and hunting methodologiesBuild and configure Elastic Stack for cyber threat huntingLeverage the Elastic endpoint and Beats for data collectionPerform security data analysis using the Kibana Discover, Visualize, and Dashboard appsExecute hunting and response operations using the Kibana Security appUse Elastic Common Schema to ensure data uniformity across organizationsWho this book is for Security analysts, cybersecurity enthusiasts, information systems security staff, or anyone who works with the Elastic Stack for security monitoring, incident response, intelligence analysis, or threat hunting will find this book useful. Basic working knowledge of IT security operations and network and endpoint systems is necessary to get started.




Practical Threat Intelligence and Data-Driven Threat Hunting


Book Description

Get to grips with cyber threat intelligence and data-driven threat hunting while exploring expert tips and techniques Key Features Set up an environment to centralize all data in an Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana (ELK) server that enables threat hunting Carry out atomic hunts to start the threat hunting process and understand the environment Perform advanced hunting using MITRE ATT&CK Evals emulations and Mordor datasets Book DescriptionThreat hunting (TH) provides cybersecurity analysts and enterprises with the opportunity to proactively defend themselves by getting ahead of threats before they can cause major damage to their business. This book is not only an introduction for those who don’t know much about the cyber threat intelligence (CTI) and TH world, but also a guide for those with more advanced knowledge of other cybersecurity fields who are looking to implement a TH program from scratch. You will start by exploring what threat intelligence is and how it can be used to detect and prevent cyber threats. As you progress, you’ll learn how to collect data, along with understanding it by developing data models. The book will also show you how to set up an environment for TH using open source tools. Later, you will focus on how to plan a hunt with practical examples, before going on to explore the MITRE ATT&CK framework. By the end of this book, you’ll have the skills you need to be able to carry out effective hunts in your own environment.What you will learn Understand what CTI is, its key concepts, and how it is useful for preventing threats and protecting your organization Explore the different stages of the TH process Model the data collected and understand how to document the findings Simulate threat actor activity in a lab environment Use the information collected to detect breaches and validate the results of your queries Use documentation and strategies to communicate processes to senior management and the wider business Who this book is for If you are looking to start out in the cyber intelligence and threat hunting domains and want to know more about how to implement a threat hunting division with open-source tools, then this cyber threat intelligence book is for you.




Incident Response in the Age of Cloud


Book Description

Learn to identify security incidents and build a series of best practices to stop cyber attacks before they create serious consequences Key FeaturesDiscover Incident Response (IR), from its evolution to implementationUnderstand cybersecurity essentials and IR best practices through real-world phishing incident scenariosExplore the current challenges in IR through the perspectives of leading expertsBook Description Cybercriminals are always in search of new methods to infiltrate systems. Quickly responding to an incident will help organizations minimize losses, decrease vulnerabilities, and rebuild services and processes. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with most organizations gravitating towards remote working and cloud computing, this book uses frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK® and the SANS IR model to assess security risks. The book begins by introducing you to the cybersecurity landscape and explaining why IR matters. You will understand the evolution of IR, current challenges, key metrics, and the composition of an IR team, along with an array of methods and tools used in an effective IR process. You will then learn how to apply these strategies, with discussions on incident alerting, handling, investigation, recovery, and reporting. Further, you will cover governing IR on multiple platforms and sharing cyber threat intelligence and the procedures involved in IR in the cloud. Finally, the book concludes with an “Ask the Experts” chapter wherein industry experts have provided their perspective on diverse topics in the IR sphere. By the end of this book, you should become proficient at building and applying IR strategies pre-emptively and confidently. What you will learnUnderstand IR and its significanceOrganize an IR teamExplore best practices for managing attack situations with your IR teamForm, organize, and operate a product security team to deal with product vulnerabilities and assess their severityOrganize all the entities involved in product security responseRespond to security vulnerabilities using tools developed by Keepnet Labs and BinalyzeAdapt all the above learnings for the cloudWho this book is for This book is aimed at first-time incident responders, cybersecurity enthusiasts who want to get into IR, and anyone who is responsible for maintaining business security. It will also interest CIOs, CISOs, and members of IR, SOC, and CSIRT teams. However, IR is not just about information technology or security teams, and anyone with a legal, HR, media, or other active business role would benefit from this book. The book assumes you have some admin experience. No prior DFIR experience is required. Some infosec knowledge will be a plus but isn’t mandatory.




Microsoft Azure Sentinel


Book Description

Microsoft Azure Sentinel Plan, deploy, and operate Azure Sentinel, Microsoft’s advanced cloud-based SIEM Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure Sentinel helps you fully leverage advanced AI to automate threat identification and response – without the complexity and scalability challenges of traditional Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions. Now, three of Microsoft’s leading experts review all it can do, and guide you step by step through planning, deployment, and daily operations. Leveraging in-the-trenches experience supporting early customers, they cover everything from configuration to data ingestion, rule development to incident management… even proactive threat hunting to disrupt attacks before you’re exploited. Three of Microsoft’s leading security operations experts show how to: • Use Azure Sentinel to respond to today’s fast-evolving cybersecurity environment, and leverage the benefits of its cloud-native architecture • Review threat intelligence essentials: attacker motivations, potential targets, and tactics, techniques, and procedures • Explore Azure Sentinel components, architecture, design considerations, and initial configuration • Ingest alert log data from services and endpoints you need to monitor • Build and validate rules to analyze ingested data and create cases for investigation • Prevent alert fatigue by projecting how many incidents each rule will generate • Help Security Operation Centers (SOCs) seamlessly manage each incident’s lifecycle • Move towards proactive threat hunting: identify sophisticated threat behaviors and disrupt cyber kill chains before you’re exploited • Do more with data: use programmable Jupyter notebooks and their libraries for machine learning, visualization, and data analysis • Use Playbooks to perform Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) • Save resources by automating responses to low-level events • Create visualizations to spot trends, identify or clarify relationships, and speed decisions • Integrate with partners and other third-parties, including Fortinet, AWS, and Palo Alto




Security, Privacy, and Digital Forensics in the Cloud


Book Description

In a unique and systematic way, this book discusses the security and privacy aspects of the cloud, and the relevant cloud forensics. Cloud computing is an emerging yet revolutionary technology that has been changing the way people live and work. However, with the continuous growth of cloud computing and related services, security and privacy has become a critical issue. Written by some of the top experts in the field, this book specifically discusses security and privacy of the cloud, as well as the digital forensics of cloud data, applications, and services. The first half of the book enables readers to have a comprehensive understanding and background of cloud security, which will help them through the digital investigation guidance and recommendations found in the second half of the book. Part One of Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics in the Cloud covers cloud infrastructure security; confidentiality of data; access control in cloud IaaS; cloud security and privacy management; hacking and countermeasures; risk management and disaster recovery; auditing and compliance; and security as a service (SaaS). Part Two addresses cloud forensics – model, challenges, and approaches; cyberterrorism in the cloud; digital forensic process and model in the cloud; data acquisition; digital evidence management, presentation, and court preparation; analysis of digital evidence; and forensics as a service (FaaS). Thoroughly covers both security and privacy of cloud and digital forensics Contributions by top researchers from the U.S., the European and other countries, and professionals active in the field of information and network security, digital and computer forensics, and cloud and big data Of interest to those focused upon security and implementation, and incident management Logical, well-structured, and organized to facilitate comprehension Security, Privacy and Digital Forensics in the Cloud is an ideal book for advanced undergraduate and master's-level students in information systems, information technology, computer and network forensics, as well as computer science. It can also serve as a good reference book for security professionals, digital forensics practitioners and cloud service providers.




Trust in Computer Systems and the Cloud


Book Description

Learn to analyze and measure risk by exploring the nature of trust and its application to cybersecurity Trust in Computer Systems and the Cloud delivers an insightful and practical new take on what it means to trust in the context of computer and network security and the impact on the emerging field of Confidential Computing. Author Mike Bursell’s experience, ranging from Chief Security Architect at Red Hat to CEO at a Confidential Computing start-up grounds the reader in fundamental concepts of trust and related ideas before discussing the more sophisticated applications of these concepts to various areas in computing. The book demonstrates in the importance of understanding and quantifying risk and draws on the social and computer sciences to explain hardware and software security, complex systems, and open source communities. It takes a detailed look at the impact of Confidential Computing on security, trust and risk and also describes the emerging concept of trust domains, which provide an alternative to standard layered security. Foundational definitions of trust from sociology and other social sciences, how they evolved, and what modern concepts of trust mean to computer professionals A comprehensive examination of the importance of systems, from open-source communities to HSMs, TPMs, and Confidential Computing with TEEs. A thorough exploration of trust domains, including explorations of communities of practice, the centralization of control and policies, and monitoring Perfect for security architects at the CISSP level or higher, Trust in Computer Systems and the Cloud is also an indispensable addition to the libraries of system architects, security system engineers, and master’s students in software architecture and security.




Security, Privacy, and Forensics Issues in Big Data


Book Description

With the proliferation of devices connected to the internet and connected to each other, the volume of data collected, stored, and processed is increasing every day, which brings new challenges in terms of information security. As big data expands with the help of public clouds, traditional security solutions tailored to private computing infrastructures and confined to a well-defined security perimeter, such as firewalls and demilitarized zones (DMZs), are no longer effective. New security functions are required to work over the heterogenous composition of diverse hardware, operating systems, and network domains. Security, Privacy, and Forensics Issues in Big Data is an essential research book that examines recent advancements in big data and the impact that these advancements have on information security and privacy measures needed for these networks. Highlighting a range of topics including cryptography, data analytics, and threat detection, this is an excellent reference source for students, software developers and engineers, security analysts, IT consultants, academicians, researchers, and professionals.




Practical Cloud Security


Book Description

With their rapidly changing architecture and API-driven automation, cloud platforms come with unique security challenges and opportunities. This hands-on book guides you through security best practices for multivendor cloud environments, whether your company plans to move legacy on-premises projects to the cloud or build a new infrastructure from the ground up. Developers, IT architects, and security professionals will learn cloud-specific techniques for securing popular cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and IBM Cloud. Chris Dotson—an IBM senior technical staff member—shows you how to establish data asset management, identity and access management, vulnerability management, network security, and incident response in your cloud environment.




Zero Trust Networks


Book Description

The perimeter defenses guarding your network perhaps are not as secure as you think. Hosts behind the firewall have no defenses of their own, so when a host in the "trusted" zone is breached, access to your data center is not far behind. That’s an all-too-familiar scenario today. With this practical book, you’ll learn the principles behind zero trust architecture, along with details necessary to implement it. The Zero Trust Model treats all hosts as if they’re internet-facing, and considers the entire network to be compromised and hostile. By taking this approach, you’ll focus on building strong authentication, authorization, and encryption throughout, while providing compartmentalized access and better operational agility. Understand how perimeter-based defenses have evolved to become the broken model we use today Explore two case studies of zero trust in production networks on the client side (Google) and on the server side (PagerDuty) Get example configuration for open source tools that you can use to build a zero trust network Learn how to migrate from a perimeter-based network to a zero trust network in production