Incident Handling
Featuring 132 Papers as of September 5, 2017
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The Efficiency of Context: Review of WireX Systems Incident Response Platform Analyst Paper
by Jerry Shenk - September 5, 2017- Associated Webcasts: The Efficiency of Context: Review of WireX Network Forensics Platform
- Sponsored By: WireX Systems
WireX Systems officials think they have found the way to slash the time it takes to spot an intruder by making it easier for mere mortals to read and understand network traffic and identify early signs of a breach. Contextual Capture, a key feature of the WireX Network Forensics Platform, is designed to turn every SOC member into a valuable analyst by providing easy-to-use forensics history (for periods of months) using a unique and intuitive query interface. WireX NFP also creates investigation workflows that can be used by the entire security team to accelerate alert validation and incident response.
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The Conductor Role in Security Automation and Orchestration by Murat Cakir - August 22, 2017
Security Operations Centers (SOCs) are trying to handle hundreds of thousands of events per day and automating any part of their daily routines is considered helpful. Ultimately fast creation of malware variants produces different Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and automated tasks should adapt themselves accordingly. This paper describes the possible use of automation at Threat Hunting, Identification, Triage, Containment, Eradication and Recovery tasks and phases of Incident Handling along with practical examples. Also describes how they can fail or can be systematically forced to fail when orchestration is missing. Orchestration should not only cover dynamic selection of proper paths for handling of specific tasks, but should also provide circumstantial evidence while doing that. Finally, there should be a Conductor who should know "when and how to use the baton" to accept, modify or reject any part of the automated flow.
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A Practical Example of Incident Response to a Network Based Attack STI Graduate Student Research
by Gordon Fraser - August 16, 2017A commonly accepted Incident Response (IR) process includes six phases: Preparation, Identification, Containment, Eradication, Recovery, and Lessons Learned. This paper examines this process in the context of a practical working example of a network based attack. It begins with the identification of a potential incident, followed by the detailed analysis of the network traffic to reconstruct the actions of the attacker, and leads up to determining indicators of compromise that can be used to identify other victims. This paper provides a practical example of responding to a network based incident.
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The Show Must Go On! The 2017 SANS Incident Response Survey Analyst Paper
by Matt Bromiley - June 12, 2017- Associated Webcasts: SANS 2017 Incident Response Survey Results—Part 1: Attack, Response and Maturity SANS 2017 Incident Response Survey Results—Part 2: Threat Intelligence and Improving Incident Response Capabilities
- Sponsored By: Guidance Software McAfee LogRhythm IBM AlienVault Anomali
Overall, the results of 2017 Incident Response survey were very promising. Organizations are building IR teams that suit their environments and their unique set of issues. Malware still looms as the root cause of a large majority of incidents; and IR teams still suffer from a shortage of skilled staff, lack of ownership and business silo issues. Read on to examine the results of the survey and guidelines and feedback to spur improvements.
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Future SOC: SANS 2017 Security Operations Center Survey Analyst Paper
by Christopher Crowley - May 16, 2017- Associated Webcasts: SOCs Grow Up to Protect, Defend, Respond: Results of the 2017 SANS Survey on Security Operations Centers, Part 1 Future SOCs: Results of the 2017 SANS Survey on Security Operations Centers, Part 2
- Sponsored By: Tripwire, Inc. LogRhythm NETSCOUT Systems, Inc. Carbon Black ThreatConnect Endgame
The primary strengths of security operations centers (SOCs) are flexibility and adaptability, while their biggest weakness is lack of visibility. Survey results indicate a need for more automation across the prevention, detection and response functions. There are opportunities to improve security operations, starting with coordination with IT operations. SOCs can improve their understanding how to serve the organization more effectively and their use of metrics.
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Auto-Nuke It from Orbit: A Framework for Critical Security Control Automation STI Graduate Student Research
by Jeremiah Hainly - March 15, 2017Over 83% of security teams report that the use of automation in security needs to increase within the next three years (Algosec, 2016). With automation becoming a reality for a growing number of companies, there will also be an increased demand for open-sourced scripts to get started. This paper will provide a framework for prioritizing and developing security automation and will demonstrate this process by creating a script to automate a common information security response procedure - the reimaging of an infected endpoint. The primary function of the script will be to access the application program interface (API) of various enterprise software solutions to speed up the manual tasks involved in performing a reimage.
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Node Router Sensors: What just happened? by Kim Cary - November 22, 2016
When an airliner crashes, one of the most important tasks is the recovery of the flight recorder or black box. This device gives precise & objective information about what happened and when before the crash. When an information security incident occurs on a network, it is equally important to have access to precise information about what happened to the victim machine and what it did after any compromise. A network of devices can be designed, economically constructed and managed to automatically capture and make available this type of data to information security incident handlers. In any environment, this complete record of network data comes with legal and ethical concerns regarding its use. Proper technical, legal and ethical operation must be baked into the design and operational procedures for devices that capture information on any network. These considerations are particularly necessary on a college campus, where such operations are subject to public discussion. This paper details the benefits, designs, operational procedures and controls and sample results of the use of "Node Router Sensors" in solving information security incidents on a busy college network.
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BGP Hijinks and Hijacks - Incident Response When Your Backbone Is Your Enemy STI Graduate Student Research
by Tim Collyer - November 21, 2016The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is used to route packets across the Internet, usually at the level of the Internet backbone where Internet Service Providers (ISPs) pass traffic amongst themselves. Unfortunately, BGP was not designed with security in mind, like many of the protocols used in modern networks such as the Internet. Lack of security within BGP means that traffic is susceptible to misdirection and manipulation through either misconfiguration or malicious intent. Among the traffic manipulation possible within BGP routing is Autonomous System (AS) path injection, in which a new router can insert itself into the routing path of traffic. This can create a man-in-the-middle condition if the path injection is malicious in nature. Differentiation between a malicious incident and mere misconfiguration can be extremely challenging. Even more difficult for an affected company is to conduct incident response during a BGP-related incident. This paper explores the incident response options currently available to security teams to prevent, detect, and where possible, respond should a BGP incident arise.
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Keys to Effective Anomaly Detection by Matt Bromiley - October 25, 2016
- Sponsored By: Blue Coat Systems, Inc.
Simply put, an anomaly is something that seems abnormal or doesn’t t within an environment. A car with ve driving wheels would be an anomaly. In the context of an enterprise network, an anomaly is very much the same—something that does not t or is out of place. While anomalies in an enterprise network may be indicative of a con guration fault, they are often evidence of something much more worrisome: a malicious presence on the network.
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Detecting Incidents Using McAfee Products by Lucian Andrei - October 10, 2016
Modern attacks against computer systems ask for a combination of multiple solutions in order to be prevented and detected. This paper will do the analysis of the capacities of commercial tools, with minimal configuration, to detect threats. Traditionally, companies use antivirus software to protect against malware, and a firewall combined with an IDS to protect against network attacks. This paper will analyze the efficacy of the following three combinations: antivirus, antivirus plus host IDS, and antivirus combined with a host IDS plus application whitelisting in order to withstand application attacks. Before doing the tests we predicted that the antivirus will block 20% of the attacks, the HIDS will detect an additional 15%, and McAfee Application Control will protect at least against 50% more of the attacks executed by an average attacker using known exploits, without much obfuscation of the payload. The success of defensive commercial tools against attacks will justify the investment a company will be required to make.
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Demystifying Malware Traffic by Sourabh Saxena - August 29, 2016
In today's world, adversaries use established techniques, innovative and intricate methods for cyber-crimes and to infiltrate firms or an individual's system. Usage of Malware is one of those approaches. Malware not only creates an inlet for attacks, but it also turns systems into "zombies" and "bots" forcing them to obey commands and perform activities as per the whims and fancies of the adversary. Thus, attacks like data theft, mail relay, access to confidential/restricted area, Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) can easily be launched against not just the infected system but against other systems and environments as well by utilizing these zombies, bots, and botnets. Attackers not only obfuscate the code but can encrypt payloads as well as malware's traffic simultaneously, using approaches like mutation and polymorphism making their detection difficult not just for antiviruses, but even for firewalls, IDS and IPS, Incident Handlers, and Forensic teams. Organizations, having learned from past mistakes, have also shifted their approach from simple defense mechanisms such as antiviruses, IDS and IPS to aggressive strategies like DNS Sinkhole and Live Traffic Analysis. These strategies not only help in the identification and removal of malware but also in understanding the actual impact, blocking of malicious activities and identification of adversaries.
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Incident Handling Preparation: Learning Normal with the Kansa PowerShell Incident Response Framework by Jason Simsay - August 22, 2016
Preparation is a critical step in establishing an effective incident response program. Information Security professionals that will be called upon to handle an incident must prepare ahead of time. Kansa is a PowerShell Incident Response Framework developed by Dave Hull. The PowerShell Remoting feature is leveraged to establish a highly scalable and extensible system state collection platform. Once data is collected from across the Microsoft environment, an extensive set of frequency analysis scripts may be executed to enable incident handlers to turn unknowns into knowns and to discover anomalies and indicators of compromise.
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“Is there a Yelp for Ransomware?” Incident response planning that doesn’t rely on Plan B by Matt Freeman - August 1, 2016
What if there was a service that could classify the impact of each variant of ransomware?
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Lessons Learned from Treatment of Trauma in Individuals and Organizations Under Repeated Cyber Attacks by Vanessa Pegueros - June 13, 2016
There has been significant research relative to the impacts of trauma on human beings and the associated treatment of that trauma. With the increasing frequency of cyber-attacks and associated breaches, people within organizations are experiencing similar traumatic effects felt by victims of a more physical attack or incident. There are significant parallels between the impacts of cyber-attacks on organizations and the impacts on individuals experiencing some form of trauma. There are key lessons to be learned from the treatment of trauma victims and the techniques to help organizations become more prepared and resilient relative to cyber- attacks. With the continued escalation of cyber-attacks, organizations should be working to implement solutions beyond just security technology and look to the process and people elements of the solution.
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Incident Response Capabilities in 2016: The 2016 SANS Incident Response Survey Analyst Paper
by Matt Bromiley - June 7, 2016- Associated Webcasts: Incident Response Capabilities in 2016 - Part 1: The Current Threat Landscape and Survey Results Incident Response Capabilities in 2016 - Part 2: Emerging Trends in Incident Response and Survey Results
- Sponsored By: IBM McAfee Arbor Networks LogRhythm NETSCOUT Systems, Inc. HP Enterprise Security AlienVault Veriato
Results of the 2016 Incident Response Survey indicate that the IR landscape is ever changing. Advanced industries are able to maintain effective IR teams, but as shown in this report, there are still hurdles to jump to increase the efficiency of many IR teams. Read this report to learn more.
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Under The Ocean of the Internet - The Deep Web by Brett Hawkins - May 27, 2016
The Internet was a revolutionary invention, and its use continues to evolve. People around the world use the Internet every day for things such as social media, shopping, email, reading news, and much more. However, this only makes up a very small piece of the Internet, and the rest is filled by an area called The Deep Web.
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Enterprise Survival Guide for Ransomware Attacks by Shafqat Mehmoon - May 3, 2016
Ransomware or cryptolocker is a type of malware that can be covertly installed on a computer without knowledge or intention of the user.
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Creating a Secure and Compliant Digital Forensics and Incident Response Network with Remote Access STI Graduate Student Research
by Scott Perry - April 29, 2016News stories involving data breaches, cybercrime, and conversely, crimes solved with digital forensics, are becoming daily occurrences.
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Incident Response in Amazon EC2: First Responders Guide to Security Incidents in the Cloud by Tom Arnold - April 21, 2016
As Head of Digital Forensics for Payment Software Company Inc. (“PSC”), a company that focuses exclusively on Clients that accept or process payments,1 we’ve responded to sites operating within cloud environments, most notably Amazon EC2.
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Balancing Security and Innovation With Event Driven Automation STI Graduate Student Research
by Teri Radichel - March 22, 2016Organizations seek innovation via use of new technology. In order to save money and deliver new products and features quickly, software development teams want to use open source software (Black Duck Software, 2015), public cloud platforms and continuous deployment strategies (Right Scale, 2016).
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How to Leverage PowerShell to Create a User- Friendly Version of WinDump STI Graduate Student Research
by Robert Adams - January 18, 2016Security professionals rely on a myriad of tools to accomplish their job. This is no different than the toolboxes that plumbers, electricians, and other trade professionals carry with them every day.
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Poaching: Hunting Without Permission by David Switzer - December 23, 2015
In the parlance of information security, hunting is proactively searching out a problem. An intrusion detection system (IDS) can miss a 0-day, so proactive and interactive hunting for indicators of compromise (IOCs) can be more productive than simply relying on automated tools.
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The Power and Implications of Enabling PowerShell Remoting Across the Enterprise STI Graduate Student Research
by Robert Adams - December 23, 2015The marketing department of Company X has been the target of a phishing attack.
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Preparing to withstand a DDoS Attack by Gaurang Pandya - November 2, 2015
The Distributed Denial of Service or DDoS Attack is a distinct form of cyber threat with various aspects that differentiates it from other attack types.
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Deployment of a Flexible Malware Sandbox Environment Using Open Source Software by Jose Ortiz - August 24, 2015
The identification and analysis of malware is one of the many tasks performed by incident handlers. Only a small number of commercial entities provide the technology capable of automating this. Most times these offerings are beyond the reach of small organizations due to the high costs associated with licensing and maintenance. One open source alternative is Cuckoo Sandbox. It is a free software project licensed under GNU GPLv3. It allows the user to analyze and collect data against suspected pieces of malware. The framework installation requires careful configuration by an experienced Linux administrator. The accepted method of deployment is to follow the prescribed steps and test the application “until it works.” Attempting to scale the sandbox environment beyond a few virtual machines becomes a complicated process due to the maintenance required for multiple Windows configurations. By using techniques borrowed from the DevOps methods, a small team of incident handlers can create a sandbox environment that is not only repeatable and consistent, but also scalable. The user can create multiple template “profiles,” which allow for flexible testing.
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Coding For Incident Response: Solving the Language Dilemma STI Graduate Student Research
by Shelly Giesbrecht - July 28, 2015Incident responders frequently are faced with the reality of "doing more with less" due to budget or manpower deficits. The ability to write scripts from scratch or modify the code of others to solve a problem or find data in a data "haystack" are necessary skills in a responder's personal toolkit. The question for IR practitioners is what language should they learn that will be the most useful in their work? In this paper, we will examine several coding languages used in writing tools and scripts used for incident response including Perl, Python, C#, PowerShell and Go. In addition, we will discuss why one language may be more helpful than another depending on the use-case, and look at examples of code for each language.
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Incident Tracking In The Enterprise by Justin Hall - July 20, 2015
Some organizations employ Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) to investigate and respond to security incidents. They often find these investigations to be poorly executed, time consuming, and ultimately ineffective at discovering the root cause of a breach. Unfortunately, this is not usually due to the skill of the investigators, but rather due to the tools and processes they use to manage the investigations. This paper describes the use of purpose built case management software, integrated into the incident response process, to track these investigations. CSIRTs that take an organized, formal tracking approach will collaborate better and find their investigations to be more complete and useful to risk managers.
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Psychology and the hacker - Psychological Incident Handling by Sean Atkinson - July 9, 2015
The understanding of the processes, techniques and skills of hackers or cyber-criminals can be ascertained through the practical application of forensic psychology techniques and behavioral analysis. The actions and methods used within an attack, through the monitoring of logs and forensic discovery, will contribute to a profile of the person/persons behind the intrusion. This information will be a new vector in determining infiltration techniques, if the actions leave a persistent threat (backdoor) or if it is a one-time “smash and grab”. If applied correctly, the detective controls can shorten avenues of determining risk and threats, as well as the magnitude of investigation required based upon the behavioral profile. Incident handling is based on the detection, response and resolution of security incidents. Given a new understanding of the person/persons behind such an incident, the process will be a preliminary part of the incident handling process. Using the methods of behavioral analysis, it creates a new dimension of understanding to the malicious activity and network analysis of what occurred in the environment.
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Knitting SOCs STI Graduate Student Research
by Courtney Imbert - May 26, 2015Over time, the list of "must-have" security appliances and services has become ever larger.
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Honeytokens and honeypots for web ID and IH STI Graduate Student Research
by Rich Graves - May 14, 2015Honeypots and honey tokens can be useful tools for examining follow-up to phishing attacks.
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NetFlow Collection and Analysis Using NFCAPD, Python, and Splunk by David Mashburn - February 10, 2015
NetFlow is a traffic summary technology developed by Cisco systems. While intended as a management and auditing tool for networking professionals, NetFlow data can be a valuable resource for security analysts.
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Cyber Breach Coaching STI Graduate Student Research
by Michael Hoehl - January 12, 2015Data Breaches and Cyber Security are a new source of worry for the modern CEO. As demonstrated by several recent security breaches, how an organization handles a crisis plays a major role in whether the CEO (and CIO, COO, CPO, etc.) stays employed. Further, Corporate officers can be held personally liable if information security safeguards are not sustained in a commercially reasonably manner to prevent breaches from occurring. This paper proposes a new chapter to the CEO Survival Guide, and explores the current Cyber Breach Coaching options available to executives and organizations.
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A No-Budget Approach to Malware Containment STI Graduate Student Research
by Paul Ackerman - January 9, 2015Many small/medium sized businesses have little budget for Information Security yet face the same malware threat as larger organizations. In Information Security, we say that prevention is ideal and detection is necessary but what comes after detection? Specifically, what should a small team do to contain a malware infection? This paper is for those readers that do not have expensive tools to defend against malware and are left wondering how to contain an infection.
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Under Threat or Compromise - Every Detail Counts Analyst Paper
by Jake Williams - August 20, 2014- Associated Webcasts: Under Threat or Compromise: Every Detail Counts
- Sponsored By: Blue Coat Systems, Inc.
This paper outlines five major components of a life-cycle approach to defense and how companies can adopt this model to maximize security in the current threat landscape.
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Incident Response: How to Fight Back Analyst Paper
by Alissa Torres - August 13, 2014- Associated Webcasts: Incident Response Part 1: Incident Response Techniques and Processes: Where We Are in the Six-Step Process Incident Response Part 2: Growing and Maturing An IR Capability
- Sponsored By: McAfee AccessData Corp. Arbor Networks HP Carbon Black AlienVault
A spate of high-profile security breaches and attacks means that security practitioners find themselves thinking a lot about incident response. A new SANS incident response survey explores how practitioners are dealing with these numerous incidents and provides insight into incident response plans, attack histories, where organizations should focus their response efforts, and how to put all of the pieces together.
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Securing Aviation Avionics by Marc Panet-Raymond - June 3, 2014
For the safety of the flying public, the majority of security research does not directly target the primary flight instruments
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Incident Handling Annual Testing and Training by Kurtis Holland - April 29, 2014
Cybercrimes and the annual costs incurred by business are on the rise year over year.
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Enhancing incident response through forensic, memory analysis and malware sandboxing techniques STI Graduate Student Research
by Wylie Shanks - April 9, 2014Almost daily, there are reports of successful data breaches and new threat vectors including compromised systems or vulnerable software.
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Finding Advanced Threats Before They Strike: A Review of Damballa Failsafe Advanced Threat Protection and Containment Analyst Paper
by Jerry Shenk - March 18, 2014- Associated Webcasts: Finding Advanced Threats Before They Strike: Advanced Threat Protection and Containment
- Sponsored By: Damballa, Inc.
Review of Damballa Failsafe's ability to collect and analyze evidence and presents precise information about infected devices.
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Active Security Or: How I learned to stop worrying and use IPS with Incident handling by Doug Brown - January 9, 2014
Beyond the obvious nomenclature for viruses and worms, several lessons can also be gleaned from the world of epidemiology and applied to information security.
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War Pi by Scott Christie - December 16, 2013
Wardriving requires a computer system with the proper tools installed and a Wi-Fi receiver. Locating Wi-Fi access points has evolved from lugging large computers around in cars, to wardriving apps on smartphones such as WiGLE Wi-Fi Service for Android devices (WiGLE, 2013).
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Finding Hidden Threats by Decrypting SSL Analyst Paper
by Michael Butler - November 8, 2013- Associated Webcasts: Finding Hidden Threats by Decrypting SSL/TLS
- Sponsored By: Blue Coat Systems, Inc.
Paper describes the role of SSL, the role SSL decryption/inspection tools play in security, options for deploying inspection tools, and how the information generated by such inspection can be shared with other security monitoring systems.
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Correlating Event Data for Vulnerability Detection and Remediation Analyst Paper
by Jacob Williams - October 8, 2013- Associated Webcasts: Correlating Real-Time Event Data with SIEM for Forensics and Incident Handling
- Sponsored By: McAfee
Examination of how 2012 Saudi Aramco “spearphishing” attacks could have been thwarted with the help of a SIEM platform that combines the power of historical data with real-time data from network data sources and security policies.
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The SANS Survey of Digital Forensics and Incident Response Analyst Paper
by Paul Henry, Jacob Williams, and Benjamin Wright - July 18, 2013- Associated Webcasts: Digital Forensics in Modern Times: A SANS Survey
- Sponsored By: Guidance Software FireEye Carbon Black Cellebrite
2013 Digital Forensics Survey to identify the nontraditional areas where digital forensics techniques are used.
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A Practical Social Media Incident Runbook STI Graduate Student Research
by Trenton Bond - June 20, 2013In the course of a few short years, social media has clearly become a valuable marketing and communication tool in business strategies.
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Need for Speed: Streamlining Response and Reaction to Attacks Analyst Paper
by Michael Butler - June 7, 2013- Sponsored By: McAfee
Exploration of how to correlate information from disparately managed systems and bring visibility to their behavior with accurate, actionable reporting in as near-real time as possible.
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Security Intelligence in Action: SANS Review of McAfee Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) 9.2 Analyst Paper
by Dave Shackleford - May 22, 2013- Associated Webcasts: Advanced Intelligence in Action: Review of McAfee Enterprise Security Manager 9.2
Review of McAfee’s Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) 9.2 with focus on fundamental SIEM features and capabilities to meet business demand for security and threat intelligence.
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Corporate vs. Product Security by Philip Watson - May 22, 2013
When people hear "I deal with security" from any employee, the typical thought is that they are defending the enterprise, the web servers, the corporate email, and corporate secrets.
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Event Monitoring and Incident Response by Ryan Boyle - May 15, 2013
System security policies can still have security holes after implementation and may even introduce unintended consequences.
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Using IOC (Indicators of Compromise) in Malware Forensics by Hun-Ya Lock - April 17, 2013
In the IT operations of an enterprise, malware forensics is often used to support the investigations of incidents.
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Track 3 - Intrusion Detection In-Depth GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst (GCIA) Practical Assignment Version 4.0 by Jan Stodola - October 19, 2012
Atrix Network Consulting (ANC) is a privately held network security company, mandated with security audit of ABC University network logs.
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Incident Handling in the Healthcare Cloud: Liquid Data and the Need for Adaptive Patient Consent Management STI Graduate Student Research
by Barbara Filkins - October 18, 2012The increasing use of electronic health record (EHR) systems, health information exchange (HIE) networks, and cloud computing significantly increases the exposure of sensitive medical information to loss of confidentiality, integrity, and availability due to data-related attacks, such as medical identity theft or insider threats (Ponemon Institute, 2011).
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InfiniBand Fabric and Userland Attacks STI Graduate Student Research
by Aron Warren - October 18, 2012InfiniBand™ is not a word used much in the hacking community. It is much like the phrase "Apple exploits" was to "Windows exploits" about 5 years ago or so.
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When Breaches Happen: Top Five Questions to Prepare For Analyst Paper
by Dave Shackleford - June 17, 2012- Sponsored By: Solera Networks
This paper explores how to create processes to sort through data in the event of a breach that enable IT security and operations teams to respond immediately with actionable information.
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Shedding Light on Security Incidents Using Network Flows by Kevin Gennuso - May 16, 2012
Incident handlers, and information security teams in general, face significant challenges when dealing with incidents in modern networks.
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Incident Handler's Handbook by Patrick Kral - February 21, 2012
An incident is a matter of when, not if, a compromise or violation of an organization's security will happen.
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Quick and Effective Windows System Baselining and Comparative Analysis for Troubleshooting and Incident Response by Kevin Fuller - February 14, 2012
What is a baseline? The primary definition of baseline is that it is a line that is a basis of measurement (Farlex Inc, 2011).
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Computer Forensic Timeline Analysis with Tapestry by Derek Edwards - November 29, 2011
One question commonly asked of investigators and incident responders is, "What happened?" The answer often takes the form of a story designed to convey understanding of complex mechanisms and interactions in a simple, straightforward way.
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Identifying Malicious Code Infections Out of Network by Ken Dunham - August 29, 2011
Forensics is a complex subject, where details matter greatly. Even more complicated are investigations where forensic methods are used to further understand, identify, capture, and mature and understanding of a malicious attack that may have taken place on a computer.
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Responding to Zero Day Threats by Adam Kliarsky - July 20, 2011
The internet has become a pervasive threat vector to organizations of all sizes. As new technologies are adopted to keep pace with business trends, surreptitious sources lurk in the shadows to exploit the weaknesses exposed. Sophisticated, targeted attacks such as Aurora, APT, Stuxnet, and Night Dragon have been making headlines, with goals of monetary gain and intellectual property theft.
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Creating Your Own SIEM and Incident Response Toolkit Using Open Source Tools by Jonny Sweeny - June 28, 2011
When an information security analyst is investigating incidents, he or she needs to have an organized set of tools.
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Wireless Networks and the Windows Registry - Just where has your computer been? STI Graduate Student Research
by Jonathan Risto - May 6, 2011The Windows Registry stores all of the information that is needed by the host operating system. This database contains all of the configurations, settings and options that are both created initially by the operating system, as well as user configuring settings and installed software.
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Following Incidents into the Cloud by Jeff Reed - March 1, 2011
The availability and use of cloud computing continues to grow. Discussions of and references to its benefits and issues grow at a similar pace. As it continues to move from a sort of ‘SOA of the Wild West’ into the mainstream, more companies will face the myriad questions arising from its use. When, why, where and how should integration with the cloud occur? How can one be certain that a cloud provider will survive through an organization’s technology integration lifecycle?
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Wireless Mobile Security by Erik Couture - December 3, 2010
Mobile Security: Current threats and emerging protective measures
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Grow Your Own Forensic Tools: A Taxonomy of Python Libraries Helpful for Forensic Analysis STI Graduate Student Research
by T.J. OConnor - September 13, 2010Forensics tools exist in abundance on the Web. Want to find a tool to dump the Windows SAM database out of volatile memory? Google and you will quickly find out that it exists. Want to mount and examine the contents of an iPhone backup? A tool exists to solve that problem as well. But what happens when a tool does not already exist? Anyone who has recently performed a forensic investigation knows that you are often left with a sense of frustration, knowing data existed only you had a tool that could access it.
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Integrating Forensic Investigation Methodology into eDiscovery by Colin Chisholm - September 7, 2010
The intent of this paper is twofold; to provide a primer on the eDiscovery process for forensic analysts and to provide guidance on the application of forensic investigative methodology to said process. Even though security practitioners such as forensic analysts operate in the legal vertical, they necessarily view and approach eDiscovery from a different perspective than legal professionals. This paper proposes that both parties can benefit when they integrate their processes; forensic tools and techniques have been used in the collection, analysis and presentation of evidence in the legal system for years. The history, and precedent, of applying forensic science to the legal process can be leveraged into the eDiscovery process. This paper will also detail how the scope and work for a forensic investigator during the eDiscovery process differs from a typical forensic investigation.
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Orion Incident Response Live CD STI Graduate Student Research
by John Jarocki - May 7, 2010There are many frameworks for incident handling, including the Security Incident Handling Guide from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (Scarefone, Grance, & Masone, 2008), (Mandia, Prosise, & Pepe, 2003), and the SANS six-step handling process (Skoudis, 2009). Carnegie-Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute even provided a study of these and more along with a framework for creating an incident management process tuned for a specific organization (Albert, Dorofee, Killcrece, & Zajicek, 2004). Tools for incident handling and response also exist, but responder tool kits are often built by collecting important tools one at a time until the expert incident handler has a custom set. This makes it difficult to bring in less-experienced incident response team members, and it creates challenges for collaboration during the incident as well as consistent collection and storage of evidence. Some Incident Response environments do exist, but they primarily focus on the analysis process, and do not provide a communication and collaboration framework. Nor do they usually provide a workflow based environment.
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Scareware Traversing the World via a Web App Exploit by Mark Hillick - April 19, 2010
This paper will discuss the reasons behind this attack but more importantly, through following the six phases of Incident Handling in the SANS GCIH 504 course, it will provide direction on how such an incident should be handled from both the web-application side and the desktop perspective. This description will highlight how the attack was constructed with great precision and with greater control, resiliency and reliability than many top legitimate companies when they implement their IT solutions.
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Incident Handling as a Service by Michel Lundell - March 1, 2010
This paper is about providing an incident handling service to companies that focus on their primary business and have limited resources to have an in-house IT security organization.
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Winquisitor: Windows Information Gathering Tool by Michael Cardosa - January 19, 2010
Winquisitor is a tool that facilitates the timely retrieval of information from multiple Windows systems enabling the administrator to respond in an appropriate amount of time. Unlike other command line tools, Winquisitor allows multiple types of queries in a single command with several output formats.
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Preventing Incidents with a Hardened Web Browser by Chris Crowley - December 15, 2009
There is substantial industry documentation on web browser security because the web browser is currently a frequently used vector of attack. This paper investigates current literature discussing the threats present in today's environment.
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Cisco Security Agent and Incident Handling STI Graduate Student Research
by Greg Farnham - October 1, 2009An implementation of Cisco Security Agent (CSA) is analyzed and impacts to the incident handling process are identified. In addition, guidance is provided to configure CSA to support the incident handling process.
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Simple Windows Batch Scripting for Intrusion Discovery STI Graduate Student Research
by Tim Proffitt - September 29, 2009Common free tools and automatic batch scripting that can be used to identify an intrusion on a Windows operating system.
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Mitigating Insider Sabotage by Joseph Garcia - September 28, 2009
How failing to create an effective termination policy and deploy correct user access controls to deter insider threats can be costly.
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Investigative Tree Models STI Graduate Student Research
by Rodney Caudle - September 15, 2009Investigative tree models provide a structured approach to incident handling during incident response. This SANS whitepaper explores definable, reproducible structures to be created facilitating controlled cost exposure during an incident response cycle.
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Security Incident Handling in High Availability Environments by Algis Kibirkstis - September 15, 2009
SANS Whitepaper discussing a security incident handling process for high-availability systems.
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Protecting Against Insider Attacks STI Graduate Student Research
by Brad Ruppert - August 10, 2009Key factors in enhancing internal security controls and protecting a company from internal attacks. Often the greatest damage can be done by someone already inside these defenses. It is imperative that companies implement internal controls to monitor, detect, and prevent access to sensitive resources to only those individuals that require it to perform their specific job function. The goal of this paper will be to identify high risk areas commonly neglected and to provide some best practice tips to enhance internal security controls.
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Incident Handlers Guide to SQL Injection Worms by Justin Folkerts - June 18, 2009
This paper seeks to demystify an innovative type of attack known as a SQL Injection Worm.
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Virtual Rapid Response Systems by Chris Mohan - June 10, 2009
This paper aims to provide organizations with a quick and effective response to IT security breaches at remote locations with a virtual response platform.
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The SirEG Toolkit by François Bégin - April 23, 2009
This paper provides the reader an overview of the SirEG Toolkit, then discusses the type of data it captures on a suspicious host and more importantly, how that data is captured.
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A Guide to Encrypted Storage Incident Handling STI Graduate Student Research
by Wylie Shanks - April 9, 2009Encrypted storage solutions provide confidentiality of data; however, they have also created a need for effective incident response. Privacy legislation and regulatory compliance mandates are increasingly driving encrypted storage solution deployments. This document provides incident handlers with a few tools and processes in order to respond effectively to incidents involving encrypted storage solutions.
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Security Incident Handling in Small Organizations by Glenn Kennedy - December 16, 2008
Considerable research has been accomplished, with a focus on the steps necessary to create and organize an Incident Handling Team in large organizations, but the resources required for such a project do not scale down to anything usable by the Small Business community. This paper reviews current best practices in the security community, and proposes a compromise that scales these steps into something workable and acceptable to the SB community. The paper also references SANS checklists to assist the SB owner step through the processes before, during, and after a security incident, along with literature, vendor, and tool resources.
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Intrusion Detection Likelihood: A Risk-Based Approach by Blake Hartstein - November 5, 2008
The goal of this paper is to highlight the useful aspects of Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) and Network Intrusion Prevention System (NIPS).
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Expanding Response: Deeper Analysis for Incident Handlers STI Graduate Student Research
by Russ McRee - October 9, 2008Most incident handlers likely have a toolkit they’re fond of that, in all probability, contains tools most handlers are familiar with. It is the intent of this paper to expand common horizons and discuss tools that may not readily appear in a typical toolkit.
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Tips for Making Security Intelligence More Useful STI Graduate Student Research
by Mason Pokladnik - October 9, 2008Trends and incidents show us when security is working. When security is failing to meet the organization’s intended goal of reducing risk, we have to reevaluate our controls with the benefit of new security intelligence information. Just imagine what improvements could be made if we spent anywhere near the effort investigating the security implications of IT projects as we do the compliance issues.
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Malware 101 - Viruses by Aman Hardikar - July 15, 2008
This paper provides new insights into establishing Incident Handling procedures for dealing with various types of malware. It also aims to give a detailed perspective into the various types of malware or malicious software and their propagation mechanisms.
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Mining gold... A primer on incident handling and response by Stacy Jordan - June 23, 2008
Incident handling and response is a key area in the IT security arena. As a part of the GIAC GOLD program, several outstanding papers on the subject have been generated. This paper has collected information from those papers to serve as basic for future research. Topical areas in the paper include: defining what a incident is, incident handling process, how to create a computer incident response team and tools/resources for supporting incident handlers.
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An approach to the ultimate in-depth security event management framework by Nicolas Pachis - June 23, 2008
"SANS 504: Hacker Techniques, Exploits and Incident Handling" illustrates the six steps to the incident handling process: preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery and lessons learned. This incident response system is derived from the SANS booklet, "Computer Security Incident Handling Step by Step: A Survival Guide for Computer Security Incident Handling". The two phases we want to take a look at in this paper are preparation and identification. While the other steps are important for the continuation of the business processes for your group, paying close attention during the preparation and identification phases can speed up your response time to an incident.
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Creating and Maintaining Policies for Working with Law Enforcement STI Graduate Student Research
by Tim Proffitt - May 21, 2008 -
Incident Handling for SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises) by Terry Morreale - May 20, 2008
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Breach Notification in Incident Handling by Jeffery Buffington - March 4, 2008
This document will provide the IT professional with a general understanding of what "breach notification" is, and demonstrate some of the variety found among the legal requirements for actually conducting notification. In addition, this document will identify some of the tools currently available that may assist an incident handler with determining what data may have actually been exposed, and offer suggested means of conducting the actual notification.
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Espionage - Utilizing Web 2.0, SSH Tunneling and a Trusted Insider by Ahmed Abdel-Aziz - February 11, 2008
Since the threat trend is moving from large number and unfocused attacks to fewer, highly targeted and financially motivated attacks [Kinghorn 2007], Espionage security incidents are naturally expected to be on the rise. Through the technical report, I hope to demonstrate to the readers an example of how social networking sites that are becoming evermore popular can aid an attacker [Walls 2007], especially in the reconnaissance and exploit stages of the attack. Also highlighting the danger of the improper use of the SSH reverse tunneling technique, and how important it is to have security policy that users are aware of and follow.
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Baselines and Incident Handling by Chris Christianson - January 29, 2008
Preparation is an important part of the incident handling process (SANS, n.d.); it is the only part of the process that an incident handler can do ahead of time. Preparing well can help an incident handler to identify and respond to an incident more quickly. It can also help him or her to be more efficient throughout the entire incident handling process.
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Documentation is to Incident Response as an Air Tank is to Scuba Diving by Chet Langin - December 11, 2007
That IP address you just traced may result in a search warrant, an arrest, and court action. Can your documentation justify these actions, and is it ready for scrutiny? Even routine vulnerability scans and bot incidents can have unexpected results. Getting it done right the first time saves effort in the long run, preserves requisite credibility, and can save face, possibly even your job.
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Multi-Tool DVD Sets: An important addition to the Incident Handler/ Pen Tester's toolkit by Jamal Bandukwala - November 20, 2007
This paper will aid the incident handling and security community by explaining and demonstrating forensically sound processes to create a powerful multi session DVD. This can be customized to contain several of the most popular Linux live CDs and a second DVD/CD that contains other tools that may not be contained on the live multi session DVD.
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Creating and Managing an Incident Response Team for a Large Company STI Graduate Student Research
by Timothy Proffitt - July 18, 2007Using good communication skills, clear policies, professional team members and utilizing training opportunities, a company can run a successful incident response team.
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An Incident Handling Process for Small and Medium Businesses STI Graduate Student Research
by Mason Pokladnik - June 18, 2007This paper's intention is to assist you in getting an incident response capability off the ground in a SMB environment by analyzing some of the constraints of a smaller corporate environment.
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International Cybercrime Treaty: Looking Beyond Ratification by Daniel Robel - March 28, 2007
For the purposes of this paper, a global incident can be defined as an incident involving the computers, network, or assets of more than one nation-state. An incident implies harm or the attempt to harm. The term incident refers to an adverse event in an information system and/or network or the threat of the occurrence of such an event.
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Pros and Cons of using Linux and Windows Live CDs in Incident Handling and Forensics STI Graduate Student Research
by Ricky Smith - February 9, 2007One of the first things that an incident handler takes for a potential computer incident is verifying that an incident has actually occurred. As part of the verification process, the incident handler will need to examine the system looking for the evidence of the incident.
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Incident Management 101 Preparation & Initial Response (aka Identification) by Robin Dickerson - January 17, 2005
According to SANS, there are six steps involved in properly handling a computer incident: Preparation, Identification, Containment, Eradication, Recovery, and Lessons Learned. Incident Management 101 provides guidelines, procedures, and tools designed to assist security specialists with the first two phases of Incident Management Preparation and Initial Response (aka Identification phase).
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Reporting Incidents to an ISP with BlackICE ClearICE Report Utility and the Importance of Submitting Firewall Logs to the Dshield.org Project by Victor Arnaud - March 9, 2004
This practical has two objectives: guide users of BlackICE to report incidents to their ISPs (using ClearICE Report Utility) and show users the importance of submitting firewall logs to the dshield.org project.
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Windows Responders Guide by Koon Tan - July 14, 2003
This paper provides the first responder guide to handle incident occur on a Windows platform system.
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Implementing a Computer Incident Response Team in a Smaller, Limited Resource Organizational Setting by Mary Hall - June 2, 2003
Development and implementation of a Computer Incident Response Team is a major undertaking in any organization.
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Building a Low Cost Forensics Workstation by Matthew McMillon - April 6, 2003
This paper will outline the fundamentals of computer forensic investigation and then, based on these essentials, create requirements for a low cost forensics workstation for use in electronic investigations.
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Forgetting to Lock the Back Door: A Break-in Analysis on a Red Hat Linux 6.2 Machine by Gary Belshaw - August 4, 2002
This document is intended to highlight the steps taken in ascertaining the level of damage done in a network break-in (or hack attack) on our system, and the steps taken in rectifying the damage.
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What You Don't See On Your Hard Drive by Brian Kuepper - April 4, 2002
This paper will address the issue of retrieving data that has been deleted and hidden access and control of your computer, looking at the recent development of rootkits designed for Microsoft Windows operating systems.
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Computer Forensics - We've Had an Incident, Who Do We Get to Investigate? by Karen Ryder - March 26, 2002
So how does a manager (IT or not) decide how to investigate an incident? This paper's aim is to provide Australian managers with a basis to make this decision by providing an insight into computer forensics and evidence handling, and giving advantages and disadvantages for each option.
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The Coroners Toolkit - In depth by Clarke Jeffris - February 9, 2002
In this paper describes evidence gathering on a Unix system using 'The Coroners Toolkit' version 1.09 hereafter referred to as TCT.
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Deterring Cyber Attacks by Christy Bilardo - January 27, 2002
This paper provides a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats [SWOT] Analysis to help you analyze three alternatives and recommend the best one to upper management.
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One Incident Of Remediating The CRC 32 sshd1 Vulnerability by Rebecca Sander - January 12, 2002
The purpose of this paper is to document the process I used to respond to the CRC32 sshd1 vulnerability.
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Computer Forensic Legal Standards and Equipment by Damian Tsoutsouris - December 6, 2001
Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs), network security, and intellectual property (IP) security are growing in importance and are becoming many companies' top priority in this age of increased security conscious commerce
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Computer Forensics: Introduction to Incident Response and Investigation of Windows NT/2000 by Norman Haase - December 4, 2001
The purpose of this paper is to be an introduction to computer forensics.
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From Events to Incidents by Charles Pham - November 29, 2001
This paper is an attempt at clarifying "events" and "incidents" for training purposes so that effective filtering can be apply when it come to reporting an incident.
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Corporate Incident Handling Guidelines by David Theunissen - November 14, 2001
If you are a large multinational corporation without a large security function, this paper will help you approach some of the common problems in preparing incident handling procedures.
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Combating Computer Crime by Jason Upchurch - September 26, 2001
Computer crime and computer related crimes are growing areas of concern for both law enforcement and businesses alike.
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An Overview of Disk Imaging Tool in Computer Forensics by Madihah Saudi - September 24, 2001
The objective of this paper is to educate users on disk imaging tool, issues that arise in using disk imaging, offer recommended solutions to these issues and examples of disk imaging tool.
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Incident Response and Creating the CSIRT in Corporate America by Chris Thompson - September 19, 2001
The purpose of this document is to discuss implementing a formal incident response organization.
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Computer Incident Response Team by Michelle Borodkin - September 15, 2001
This paper is designed to answer the big questions about Computer Incident Response Teams including: What is a CIRT? Who should be on a CIRT and what function will they serve? And, What steps need to be taken to implement a CIRT?
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Investigating an Internal Case of Internet Abuse by Mal Wright - September 6, 2001
I was recently required to investigate an incident of Internet abuse and this essay describes the detection, investigation and various tools used to collect the evidence.
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CodeRed II: Incident Handling Process and Procedures by Michael Goodwin - September 5, 2001
This paper uses the CodeRed II virus as a template to generate questions to help you better prepare for the next virus outbreak.
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Adventures in Computer Forensics by Diana Michaud - September 4, 2001
Computer forensics is one piece to the investigative puzzle.
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Collection and Dissemination of Computer and Internet Security Related Information by Scott Fox - August 21, 2001
Ongoing advances in technology and the growth of the Internet are introducing not only an increase in the number of vulnerabilities being found, but also an increase in the complexity of system administration, incident handling and forensic analysis work.
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Information Security: Handling Compromises by Craig Bowser - August 15, 2001
While the corporate sector may not be guarding national secrets, they are protecting valuable information such as trade secrets, financial documents and personal information.
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Successful Partnerships for Fighting Computer Crime by Beth Binde - August 11, 2001
Given the wide range of possible criminal activities in the high technology arena, computer security officers need to be prepared to respond to computing incidents that are not only against the local acceptable use policy for computers and networks, but also violate federal, state or local statutes.
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The Enemy Within: The Role of the Security Administrator in Apprehending and Terminating the Malicio by Robin Stuart - August 8, 2001
The following information is set forth to generally describe the tools available to security administrators to facilitate the apprehension and participate in the resolution of internal threats to your organization's sensitive or restricted resources.
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Reporting Unauthorized Intrusions: A "How To" Guide by Melton Roland - July 26, 2001
This paper provides a "how to" guide for reporting unauthorized intrusions.
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Nailing the Intruder by Vinay Disley - July 24, 2001
This paper is an attempt to link the various aspects of evidence relating to computer crime, the sources of such evidence and some tips on how to identify systems compromised and cull out evidence from the same.
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Secure File Deletion: Fact or Fiction? by John Mallery - July 16, 2001
This paper will deal with how and where some of these files are created and how to securely remove them from a system.
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Proposed Conceptual Tools for Managing Cost and Complexity When Securing Networks by Kathleen Howard - July 5, 2001
This paper will describe the cost and complexity issues facing security professionals, outline the desired outcome in facing these issues, and finally will suggest initial proposals for reaching those goals.
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Identify Intrusions with Microsoft Proxy Server, Web Proxy Service and WinSock Proxy Service Log Fil by Saundra Coward - July 5, 2001
This paper provides a guide on how to identify intrusions using Microsoft's Proxy Server log files.
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Developing a Computer Forensics Team by Christine Vecchio-Flaim - July 4, 2001
Efforts to establish sound information assurance programs are rapidly evolving due to increased connectivity, enhanced technology, and the continuous introduction of operating and application systems software.
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Building an Incident Response Program To Suit Your Business by Tia Osborne - July 3, 2001
The purpose of this paper is to outline the key concepts of an Incident Response Program (IRP).
Most of the computer security white papers in the Reading Room have been written by students seeking GIAC certification to fulfill part of their certification requirements and are provided by SANS as a resource to benefit the security community at large. SANS attempts to ensure the accuracy of information, but papers are published "as is". Errors or inconsistencies may exist or may be introduced over time as material becomes dated. If you suspect a serious error, please contact webmaster@sans.org.
All papers are copyrighted. No re-posting or distribution of papers is permitted.
STI Graduate Student Research - This paper was created by a SANS Technology Institute student as part of the graduate program curriculum.
