How to Mitigate Security Threats and Intrusions?
How to Mitigate Security Threats: Essential Tips for Protecting Your Business
It’s time we discovered the Power of Active Defence in Safeguarding Against Security Threats and Intrusions.
Cybercriminals have multiplied in size and advanced in capabilities over the last few years; hence, it has become evident that the traditional means of protecting data are inadequate.
Miscreants and hackers are using newer and more advanced tools and techniques.Â
Due to the increased number of zero-day exploits and the compressed time available to attackers, it has become extremely difficult to fix security vulnerabilities, forcing organizations to move from detection mode to proactive measures to resist the emerging attacks.
Many industries have security teams focused on a reactive security approach, especially those that prioritize traffic encryption.
Therefore, organizations require a paradigm shift towards an aggressive and preventive approach to defending the cyber landscape, which they can certainly achieve.
As security personnel, are you aware of early theft warning intelligence technologies and protection measures that are industry firsts and hence can deal with mere emerging threats and vulnerability loads?
Active defence is a cybersecurity approach that entails understanding the new and emerging Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) of all threats and actors through the acquisition of intelligence from various sources.
Security vendors should take a more active role in acquiring new technology to ensure its proper implementation, not just for threat data collection; these capabilities will ultimately serve as the first line of defence against advanced threats.
Since attackers can take advantage of weaknesses in networks or applications that are not well secured, deploying a proactive defence has become a crucial trend in modern cybersecurity.
Understanding Security Threats and Active Defence
When attempting to sneak into a company-owned network, offenders frequently display markers, which, when analysed, can provide the necessary insights.
Active Defence tactics, such as those that exploit TTPs, help to obtain detailed information about fraudulent acts.
According to Fortinet (n.d.), active defence entails action-based strategies in which organizations proactively outsmart hackers to reduce the likelihood of their illicit activities.
By impeding the progress of cyber attackers, organizations adopting this approach achieve a measure of success, forcing hackers to commit errors that either reveal their location or reveal their operational methods.
The active defence scheme integrates the Deception technology, which discloses the attackers at the early attack phase.
Machines use strategies such as digital baits and littering gadgets to conceal the attack surface and deceive intruders.
The diversion plan confuses the attackers, causing them to invest more time and resources in computation, thereby exposing civilizations to the ongoing cyber threat.
In some situations, active defence involves attack, and the countermeasures may initially include counterattacks against hackers.
However, law enforcement authorities, with all the necessary resources and permissions, most frequently employ this radical approach to combat cybercrime.
Threat Intelligence as Part of Active Defence
The term “honeypot” refers to a cybersecurity mechanism that tricks and lures potential hackers.
It behaves like a simulated and appealing target or system, attracting hackers to interact with it.
A high-interaction honeypot is another type that aims to collect crucial data on cyber threats and the strategies employed by malicious actors (Manglicmot, 2015).
By drawing on and monitoring the actions of hackers, companies can gain insights into the development of new attack methods, the vulnerabilities, and the consequences of potential security flaws.
Honeypots contain no information.
They also lack connectivity to crucial systems, which makes them an indispensable tool.
Enhance network security, identify threats, and raise defences against cyber-attacks (Petruni, 2015).
Following the same set of guidelines, a company with the capacity to protect the network can adopt additional practices:
Creating fake email addresses: Cyber attackers frequently target emails, particularly with malicious attachments and fake website links.
Businesses can deploy fake email addresses to lure hackers, who provide valuable information on the attacker’s phishing tactics.
Deploying fake database data: Yet another tactic popular among victimized organizations is that of planting baited data, fake records, or content on the segmented network, so the attackers steal the sham data.
This strategy will provide the companies with comprehensive insights into the intrusion process.
The attackers use and exploit the weaknesses they like to exploit.
Embedding web beacons: Web beacons are made up of a web address linked to a particular file inside a document, and they are purposely set up in a manner that is punitive to detect or visible from the outside.
The beacon controller, with respect to the hijacked file, collects information about the target computer and its online activities.
It is in this way that the tracker functions.
Like with spurious executables, the program, i.e., feeding the machine the remote-control signals (the Wireshark tool), subscribes to the source computer’s command, saving it from the effort of the attacker to bypass the firewall.
Fake executable files: instances of the ‘.exe’ file, which are, in reality, dummy files, mimic programs, but when the intruder starts these files, they will initiate a function that will establish a connection to the command server.
This operation serves as bait for the attacking party to obtain the attacker’s complete Internet Protocol (IP) address and system details through the ‘Hack Back’ process.
This technique may result in the penetration of the attacker’s system, potentially leading to significant legal and privacy implications.
Active data baiting: On the CYBERAIM platform, there are access management tools for administrators.
Access passwords and digital keys are required to use these apps.
Given the relevance of this information to cybercriminals, the organizations have the option to keep these things in different places.
Cybercriminals are interested in these types of certificates because they can achieve success by altering the company’s architecture.
The most important thing is to execute licenses and alerts, employ security policies, and start investigating.
If an organization can conceptualize a new device, then this is the updated feature for monitoring.
Counterfeit (Html Encoding)
Data logging methods and the latest technologies in honeypots can assist organizations in examining, monitoring, and documenting the activities of probable intruders.
For the most part, all of those are capitalised to saturate a honeypot with traffic that contains no real data.
Besides, there are four diverse categories of honeypots:
1-low-interaction honeypots,
2-medium-interaction honeypots,
3-high-interaction honeypots, and pure honeypots,
4-depending on the purpose.
According to Trends, Digital Company Constants, and the Global Honeynet Network, the use of honeynets has become essential for organizations to monitor internet traffic and to rigorously train network security equipment to achieve optimal performance and withstand future attacks (Pawar, 2023). (All Source Courtesy: EC Council) *
 In our next piece, find some insights on the role of the Security Operations Centre (SOC) in active defence.
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