Book Image

Adversarial Tradecraft in Cybersecurity

By : Dan Borges
Book Image

Adversarial Tradecraft in Cybersecurity

By: Dan Borges

Overview of this book

Little has been written about what to do when live hackers are on your system and running amok. Even experienced hackers tend to choke up when they realize the network defender has caught them and is zoning in on their implants in real time. This book will provide tips and tricks all along the kill chain of an attack, showing where hackers can have the upper hand in a live conflict and how defenders can outsmart them in this adversarial game of computer cat and mouse. This book contains two subsections in each chapter, specifically focusing on the offensive and defensive teams. It begins by introducing you to adversarial operations and principles of computer conflict where you will explore the core principles of deception, humanity, economy, and more about human-on-human conflicts. Additionally, you will understand everything from planning to setting up infrastructure and tooling that both sides should have in place. Throughout this book, you will learn how to gain an advantage over opponents by disappearing from what they can detect. You will further understand how to blend in, uncover other actors’ motivations and means, and learn to tamper with them to hinder their ability to detect your presence. Finally, you will learn how to gain an advantage through advanced research and thoughtfully concluding an operation. By the end of this book, you will have achieved a solid understanding of cyberattacks from both an attacker’s and a defender’s perspective.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)

Gaming the game

I lied at the beginning of the book when I said that these security competitions don't have a Nash equilibrium or optimal gameplay state at their highest levels. While it's true that these are vastly complex competitions, sometimes there are flaws in the competition or rule set that allow the game to be shorted or manipulated in some unintended way. In the spirit of hacking, it's important to be aware that often teams or individuals will abuse mechanics in a game scenario within the rules. I think this is worth mentioning because if a tactic can be performed within the rules, and you've checked with the competition admins, then it's worth abusing the technique even if it's considered cheap. While this sounds tacky, it is the very essence of exploiting an advantage to win. The important part is operating within the rules, not cheating, but finding some way to abuse some aspect of the game.

Sometimes, gaming the game creates a Nash equilibrium...