Book Image

The Foundations of Threat Hunting

By : Chad Maurice, Jeremy Thompson, William Copeland
Book Image

The Foundations of Threat Hunting

By: Chad Maurice, Jeremy Thompson, William Copeland

Overview of this book

Threat hunting is a concept that takes traditional cyber defense and spins it onto its head. It moves the bar for network defenses beyond looking at the known threats and allows a team to pursue adversaries that are attacking in novel ways that have not previously been seen. To successfully track down and remove these advanced attackers, a solid understanding of the foundational concepts and requirements of the threat hunting framework is needed. Moreover, to confidently employ threat hunting in a business landscape, the same team will need to be able to customize that framework to fit a customer’s particular use case. This book breaks down the fundamental pieces of a threat hunting team, the stages of a hunt, and the process that needs to be followed through planning, execution, and recovery. It will take you through the process of threat hunting, starting from understanding cybersecurity basics through to the in-depth requirements of building a mature hunting capability. This is provided through written instructions as well as multiple story-driven scenarios that show the correct (and incorrect) way to effectively conduct a threat hunt. By the end of this cyber threat hunting book, you’ll be able to identify the processes of handicapping an immature cyber threat hunt team and systematically progress the hunting capabilities to maturity.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Part 1: Preparation – Why and How to Start the Hunting Process
9
Part 2: Execution – Conducting a Hunt
14
Part 3: Recovery – Post-Hunt Activity

Feedback rules of engagement

Regardless of how many times the team has conducted a group feedback session, it is imperative to always start by outlining the rules of engagement (ROEs). This review sets the tone for the entire conversation and focuses the team's energy on the direction intended by the team lead.

The following are some examples of ROEs:

  • Leave your feelings at the door; do not take things personally.
  • Each active member of the team has an equal voice.
  • Treat each other with respect – don't talk over one another.
  • Focus on the problem, not the individual.
  • Look at one item at a time and stay on track.
  • Speak openly and directly – do not talk around the issue or concern.
  • Stick to the facts – for example, this action happened at this time; this event was caused by this individual.
  • If it is an assumption or perception, it needs to be introduced as such.
  • If you saw something happen, chances are other people...