What You Will Learn

Find the Storm in the Cloud

FOR509: Enterprise Cloud Forensics and Incident Response will help you:

• Understand forensic data only available in the cloud
• Implement best practices in cloud logging for DFIR
• Properly handle rapid triage in cloud environments
• Learn how to leverage Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud Platform resources to gather evidence
• Understand what Microsoft 365 has available for analysts to review
• Learn how to move your forensic process to the cloud for fast processing where the data lives

With Enterprise Cloud Forensics examiners will learn how each of the major cloud service providers (Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS and Google Cloud Platform) are extending analyst's capabilities with new evidence sources not available in traditional on-premise investigations. From cloud equivalents of network traffic monitoring to direct hypervisor interaction for evidence preservation, forensics is not dead. It is reborn with new technologies and capabilities.

The new world does not end there. More organizations are moving critical resources into the cloud with Microsoft 365. Examiners no longer have direct access to the email servers and datastores for recovering actions; which means they need to learn the new methods available to them to recreate the same data. But why stop at recreation? These new platforms allow us to extend our reach to data we could not easily access before, which when properly configured, can allow for detection and remediation faster than ever before.

The assumption that a change in where or how data is stored always seems to lead to the false assumption that forensics is dead. With the cloud, forensics is given new capabilities and depth that do not exist in the on-premise world. Learn to preserve, configure and examine new sources of evidence that only exist in the Cloud. Learn how to bring your examination into the cloud and how to triage within the same environment. Constantly updated, the Enterprise Cloud Forensics course (FOR509) addresses today's need to bring examiners up to speed with the rapidly changing world of enterprise cloud environments, where their most valuable data is now stored.

Numerous hands-on labs throughout the course will allow examiners to access evidence generated based on the most common incidents and investigations. Examiners will learn where to pull data from and how to analyze it to find evil.

Incident response and forensics are primarily about following breadcrumbs left behind by attackers. These breadcrumbs are mostly found in logs. Your knowledge of the investigation process is far more important than the mechanics of acquiring the logs. As such, the labs will not directly access the cloud as such a requirement would encounter issues with expiring logs, cloud provider changes, and delays in log availability.

Before, during, and after an investigation cloud resources are constantly changing, FOR509: Enterprise Cloud Forensics will train you and your team to turn on the logs you need for the future, work with the data you have today, and prepare to automate for tomorrow.

FOR509 ENTERPRISE CLOUD FORENSICS WILL PREPARE YOUR TEAM TO:

• Learn and master the tools, techniques, and procedures necessary to effectively locate, identify, and collect data no matter where it is located
• Identify and utilize new data only available from Cloud environments
• Quickly parse and filter large data sets, using scalable technologies such as the Elastic Stack
• Learn how to profile attackers in different cloud environments
• Understand what data is available in different cloud environments

FOR509 ENTERPRISE CLOUD FORENSICS COURSE TOPICS

• Cloud Infrastructure and IR data sources
• Microsoft 365 and Graph API
• AWS Incident Response
• Azure Incident Response
• GCP Incident Response

WHAT YOU WILL RECEIVE

• SOF-ELK(R) Virtual Machine - a publicly available appliance running the Elastic Stack and the author's custom set of configurations and lab data. The VM is preconfigured to ingest cloud logs from AWS, Azure, and GCP, and will be used during the class to help students wade through the large number of records they are likely to encounter during a typical investigation.
• Realistic case data to examine during class.
• Exercise book with detailed step-by-step instructions and examples to help you master cloud forensics

WHAT TO TAKE NEXT

• FOR500: Windows Forensic Analysis
• FOR508: Advanced Incident Response, Threat Hunting & Digital Forensics
• FOR572: Advanced Network Forensics: Threat Hunting, Analysis, and Incident Response
• SEC541: Cloud Security Monitoring and Threat Detection
• SEC510: Public Cloud Security: AWS, Azure & GCP
• SEC588: Cloud Penetration Testing

Who Should Attend

• Incident Response Team Members who may need to response to security incidents/intrusions impacting cloud hosted software, infrastructure or platforms and need to know how to detect, investigate, remediate, and recover from compromised systems across the enterprise cloud.
• Threat Hunters who are seeking to understand threats more fully and how to learn from them in order to more effectively hunt threats and counter their tradecraft.
• SOC Analysts looking to better understand alerts, build the skills necessary to triage events, and fully leverage cloud log sources.
• Experienced Digital Forensic Analysts who want to consolidate and enhance their understanding of cloud-based forensics.
• Information Security Professionals who directly support and aid in responding to data breach incidents and intrusions.
• Federal Agents and Law Enforcement Professionals who want to master advanced intrusion investigations and incident response, and expand their investigative skills beyond traditional host-based digital forensics.
• SANS FOR500, FOR508, SEC541, and SEC504 Graduates looking to add cloud-based forensics to their toolbox.
  

Prerequisites

FOR509 is an Intermediate to Advanced course that focuses on Cloud infrastructure and log analysis. This class teaches students how to make use of cloud provider created data that augments, replaces or extends the artifacts they already learned about in prior SANS classes.

Students may benefit from having taken

• FOR500: Windows Forensic Analysis
• FOR508: Advanced Incident Response, Threat Hunting, and Digital Forensics
• SEC488: Cloud Security Essentials

or having relevant previous experience.

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 FOR509 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.)
• 350 Gigabytes of Free Space - Note that about 150 GB is required for downloaded evidence files. This data can be stored on an external drive
• 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 FOR509 HOST OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

• Host Operating System: Latest version of Windows 10 or macOS 10.15.x
• 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.

PLEASE INSTALL THE FOLLOWING SOFTWARE PRIOR TO CLASS:

1. 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.
2. 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.

If you have additional questions about the laptop specifications, please contact laptop_prep@sans.org.