
Welcome to FOR578: Cyber Threat Intelligence
What You Will Learn
THERE IS NO TEACHER BUT THE ENEMY!
All security practitioners should attend FOR578: Cyber Threat Intelligence to sharpen their analytical skills. This course is unlike any other technical training you have ever experienced. It focuses on structured analysis in order to establish a solid foundation for any security skillset and to amplify existing skills. The course will help practitioners from across the security spectrum:
- Develop analysis skills to better comprehend, synthesize, and leverage complex scenarios
- Identify and create intelligence requirements through practices such as threat modeling
- Understand and develop skills in tactical, operational, and strategic-level threat intelligence
- Generate threat intelligence to detect, respond to, and defeat focused and targeted threats
- Learn the different sources to collect adversary data and how to exploit and pivot off of those data
- Validate information received externally to minimize the costs of bad intelligence
- Create Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) in formats such as YARA and STIX/TAXII
- Understand and exploit adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures, and leverage frameworks such as the Kill Chain, Diamond Model, and MITRE ATT&CK
- Establish structured analytical techniques to be successful in any security role
It is common for security practitioners to call themselves analysts. But how many of us have taken structured analysis training instead of simply attending technical training? Both are important, but very rarely do analysts focus on training on analytical ways of thinking. This course exposes analysts to new mindsets, methodologies, and techniques to complement their existing knowledge and help them establish new best practices for their security teams. Proper analysis skills are key to the complex world that defenders are exposed to on a daily basis.
The analysis of an adversary's intent, opportunity, and capability to do harm is known as cyber threat intelligence. Intelligence is not a data feed, nor is it something that comes from a tool. Intelligence is actionable information that addresses an organization's key knowledge gaps, pain points, or requirements. This collection, classification, and exploitation of knowledge about adversaries gives defenders an upper hand against adversaries and forces defenders to learn and evolve with each subsequent intrusion they face.
Cyber threat intelligence thus represents a force multiplier for organizations looking to establish or update their response and detection programs to deal with increasingly sophisticated threats. Malware is an adversary's tool, but the real threat is the human one, and cyber threat intelligence focuses on countering those flexible and persistent human threats with empowered and trained human defenders.
Knowledge about the adversary is core to all security teams. The red team needs to understand adversaries' methods in order to emulate their tradecraft. The Security Operations Center needs to know how to prioritize intrusions and quickly deal with those that need immediate attention. The incident response team needs actionable information on how to quickly scope and respond to targeted intrusions. The vulnerability management group needs to understand which vulnerabilities matter most for prioritization and the risk that each one presents. The threat hunting team needs to understand adversary behaviors to search out new threats.
In other words, cyber threat intelligence informs all security practices that deal with adversaries. FOR578: Cyber Threat Intelligence will equip you, your security team, and your organization with the level of tactical, operational, and strategic cyber threat intelligence skills and tradecraft required to better understand the evolving threat landscape and accurately and effectively counter those threats.
Course Syllabus
FOR578.1: Cyber Threat Intelligence and Requirements
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FOR578.2: The Fundamental Skillset: Intrusion AnalysisOverviewIntrusion analysis is at the heart of threat intelligence. It is a fundamental skillset for any security practitioner who wants to use a more complete approach to addressing security. Three of the most commonly used models for assessing adversary intrusions are the Kill Chain, the Diamond Model, and MITRE ATT&CK. These models serve as a framework and structured scheme for analyzing intrusions and extracting patterns such as adversary behaviors and malicious indicators. In this section students will be walked through and participate in multi-phase intrusions from initial notification of adversary activity to the completion of analysis of the event. The section also highlights the importance of this process in terms of structuring and defining adversary campaigns. Exercises
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FOR578.3: Collection SourcesOverviewCyber threat Intelligence analysts must be able to interrogate and fully understand their collection sources. As an example, analysts do not have to be malware reverse engineers, but they must at least understand that work and know what data can be sought. This section continues from the previous one in identifying key collection sources for analysts. The considerable amount of what is commonly referred to as open-source intelligence (OSINT) is also presented. In this section students will learn to seek and exploit information from domains, external datasets, malware, Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer (TLS/SSL) Certificates, and more. Students will also structure the data to be exploited for purposes of sharing internally and externally. Exercises
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FOR578.4: Analysis and Production of IntelligenceOverviewWith great data comes great analysis expectations. Now that students are familiar with different sources of intrusions and collection, it is important to apply analytical rigor to how this information is used in order to satisfy intelligence requirements for long-term analysis. Taking a single intrusion and turning it into a group, and tracking the adversary’s campaigns, are critical to staying ahead of adversaries. In this section students will learn how to structure and store their information over the long term using tools such as MISP; how to leverage analytical tools to identify logical fallacies and cognitive biases; how to perform structured analytic techniques in groups such as analysis of competing hypotheses; and how to cluster intrusions into threat groups. Exercises
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FOR578.5: Dissemination and AttributionOverviewIntelligence is useless if not disseminated and made useful to the consumer. In this section students will learn about dissemination at the various tactical, operational, and strategic levels. Labs will expose students to creating YARA rules, leveraging STIX/TAXII, building campaign heat maps for tracking adversaries over the long term, and analyzing intelligence reports. Students will also learn about state adversary attribution, including when it can be of value and when it is merely a distraction. We’ll cover state-level attribution from previously identified campaigns, and students will take away a more holistic view of the Cyber Threat Intelligence industry to date. The section will finish with a discussion on consuming threat intelligence and actionable takeaways so that students will be able to make significant changes in their organizations once they complete the course. Exercises
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FOR578.6: CapstoneOverview The FOR578 capstone focuses on analysis. Students will be placed on teams, given outputs of technical tools and cases, and work to piece together the relevant information from a single intrusion that enables them to unravel a broader campaign. Students will get practical experience satisfying intelligence requirements ranging from helping the incident response team to satisfying state-level attribution goals. This analytical process will put the students' minds to the test instead of placing a heavy emphasis on using technical tools. At the end of the day the teams will present their analyses on the multi-campaign threat they have uncovered. |
Prerequisites
FOR578 is a good course for anyone who has had security training or prior experience in the field. Students should be comfortable with using the command line in Linux for a few labs (though a walkthrough is provided) and be familiar with security terminology.
Some of the courses that lead in to FOR578:
- SEC401 - Security Essentials Bootcamp Style
- SEC511 - Continuous Monitoring and Security Operations
- FOR508 - Advanced Digital Forensics, Incident Response & Threat Hunting
- FOR572 - Advanced Network Forensics
- FOR526 - Memory Forensics In-Depth
- FOR610 - REM: Malware Analysis
- ICS515 - ICS Active Defense and Incident Response
Students who have not taken any of the above courses but have real-world experience or have attended other security training, such as any other SANS class, will be comfortable in the course. New students and veterans will be exposed to new concepts given the unique style of the class focused on analysis training.
Lab Requirements
Important! Bring your own system configured according to these instructions!
A properly configured system is required to fully participate in this course. If you do not carefully read and follow these instructions, you will likely leave the class unsatisfied because you will not be able to participate in hands-on exercises that are essential to this course. Therefore, we strongly urge you to arrive with a system meeting all the requirements specified for the course.
This is common sense, but we will say it anyway. Back up your system before class. Better yet, do not have any sensitive data stored on the system. SANS can't responsible for your system or data.
MANDATORY FOR578 SYSTEM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
- CPU: 64-bit Intel i5/i7 (4th generation+) - x64 bit 2.0+ GHz processor or more recent processor is mandatory for this class (Important - Please Read: a 64-bit system processor is mandatory)
- CRITICAL NOTE: Apple systems using the M1 processor line cannot perform the necessary virtualization functionality and therefore cannot in any way be used for this course.
- It is critical that your CPU and operating system support 64-bit so that our 64-bit guest virtual machine will run on your laptop. VMware provides a free tool for Windows that will detect whether or not your host supports 64-bit guest virtual machines. For further troubleshooting, this article also provides good instructions for Windows users to determine more about the CPU and OS capabilities. For Macs, please use this support page from Apple to determine 64-bit capability.
- BIOS settings must be set to enable virtualization technology, such as "Intel-VT".
- Be absolutely certain you can access your BIOS if it is password protected, in case changes are necessary. Test it!
- 16 GB (Gigabytes) of RAM or higher is mandatory for this class (Important - Please Read: 16 GB of RAM or higher of RAM is mandatory and minimum.
- USB 3.0 Type-A port is required. At least one open and working USB 3.0 Type-A port is required. (A Type-C to Type-A adapter may be necessary for newer laptops.) (Note: Some endpoint protection software prevents the use of USB devices - test your system with a USB drive before class to ensure you can load the course data.)
- 100 Gigabytes of Free Space on your System Hard Drive - Free Space on Hard Drive is critical to host the VMs we distribute
- Local Administrator Access is required. This is absolutely required. Don't let your IT team tell you otherwise. If your company will not permit this access for the duration of the course, then you should make arrangements to bring a different laptop.
- Wireless 802.11 Capability
MANDATORY FOR578 HOST CONFIGURATION AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
- Host Operating System: Latest version of Windows 10 or macOS 10.15.x
- Must have a Windows OS for the class either as your host or as a VM
- Please note: It is necessary to fully update your host operating system prior to the class to ensure you have the right drivers and patches installed to utilize the latest USB 3.0 devices.
- Those who use a Linux host must also be able to access ExFAT partitions using the appropriate kernel or FUSE modules.
PLEASE INSTALL THE FOLLOWING SOFTWARE PRIOR TO CLASS:
- Microsoft Office (2012+) - Note that you can download Office Trial Software online (free for 60 days).
- Download and install VMware Workstation Pro 15.5.X+, VMware Player 15.5.X+ or Fusion 11.5+ on your system prior to class beginning. If you do not own a licensed copy of VMware Workstation or Fusion, you can download a free 30-day trial copy from VMware. VMware will send you a time-limited serial number if you register for the trial at their website.
- Download and install 7Zip (for Windows Hosts) or Keka (macOS).
Your course media will now be delivered via download. The media files for class can be large, some in the 40 - 50 GB range. You need to allow plenty of time for the download to complete. Internet connections and speed vary greatly and are dependent on many different factors. Therefore, it is not possible to give an estimate of the length of time it will take to download your materials. Please start your course media downloads as you get the link. You will need your course media immediately on the first day of class. Waiting until the night before the class starts to begin your download has a high probability of failure.
SANS has begun providing printed materials in PDF form. Additionally, certain classes are using an electronic workbook in addition to the PDFs. The number of classes using eWorkbooks will grow quickly. In this new environment, we have found that a second monitor and/or a tablet device can be useful by keeping the class materials visible while the instructor is presenting or while you are working on lab exercises.