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

Chapter 3: Team Construct

When constructing the line-up of a team, the goal is normally to have an effective hunt team that can tackle a specific objective with very little flailing. A team's construct will be unique in each organization and situation. Just as no two threat hunts are exactly the same, no two teams will be exactly the same. They will, however, have some shared fundamental concepts.

Assembling a highly effective hunt team takes time for both the organization and the individuals concerned. Certifications, degrees, and experience are all nice to have; however, they will all mean very little if the people behind them do not have the proper drive or mindset. Always start with personnel that is driven to unravel the puzzles they find in cybersecurity, and go from there. You can build people up into the positions that are needed if they have the proper mindset.

In this chapter, we are going to cover the following topics:

  • Roles performed within a team
  • ...