Inside the Cyber Attack: Navigating the into the UnGUARDED SPACE™

In our previous blog, we discussed how cyber attackers can breach perimeter defenses such as Firewalls, IDS, IPS, VPNs, GSAs, DMZs, Content Filtering and Web Filtering, and Anti DDoS Protection Tools for starters. In this follow-up, we delve deeper into what attackers do once they have infiltrated an organization's network—and they find themselve all alone in your network's unGUARDED SPACE™. Understanding these tactics is crucial for developing robust defenses against sophisticated cyber threats.

Inside the Cyber Attack

Post-Breach Tactics and Techniques

Once attackers have penetrated the perimeter, they engage in several tactics to avoid detection and maximize damage. Here’s a detailed look at their common and advanced methods based on recent research and frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK® and NIST.

Reconnaissance:

• Internal Scanning: Attackers perform internal port scans to identify active devices, open ports, and potential vulnerabilities within the network. This stage is crucial for mapping out the internal landscape and planning further attacks. According to Harvard Business Review, attackers often use legitimate tools to blend in with normal network activity, making detection more challenging.

• Credential Harvesting: Using tools like keyloggers and phishing attacks, attackers gather user credentials to gain access to more systems and sensitive information (Security Intelligence).

Intrusion and Exploitation:

• Exploiting Vulnerabilities: Attackers exploit unpatched software vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, or default credentials to gain deeper access. This often involves deploying malware to maintain persistence. Cybersecurity highlights the use of tools for exfiltration and compression, followed by lateral movement through remote services.

• Privilege Escalation: To gain administrative control, attackers use techniques like password brute-forcing, exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, and leveraging misconfigured permissions (Security Intelligence).

Lateral Movement:

• Moving Across Systems: Once inside, attackers move laterally across the network to compromise additional systems. They use legitimate tools such as PowerShell and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to avoid detection. For example, Kroll’s report emphasizes the use of remote services creation for lateral movement and privilege escalation to domain admin levels within days of initial access.

• Pass-the-Hash and Pass-the-Ticket: Attackers use stolen credentials to move laterally without needing to re-enter passwords, making it harder to detect their activities.

Persistence:

• Backdoors and Rootkits: To ensure continued access, attackers install backdoors and rootkits, which allow them to re-enter the system even if the initial vulnerability is patched.

• Scheduled Tasks and Services: They may create scheduled tasks or malicious services to maintain persistence on the compromised systems.

Obfuscation and Anti-forensics:

• Clearing Logs: Attackers often clear event logs and other traces of their presence to hinder forensic investigations and prolong their undetected stay in the network (DevPro Journal).

• Timestomping: Modifying file creation and modification timestamps to blend malicious activities with legitimate operations.

Exfiltration:

• Data Theft: The final goal is often to exfiltrate sensitive data. This can be done via encrypted channels or through steganography to avoid detection by Data Loss Prevention (DLP) systems. According to IT Governance, attackers are increasingly targeting cloud environments, exploiting legitimate credentials to blend in with normal user activity.

• Command and Control (C2): Maintaining communication with compromised systems to coordinate data exfiltration and further attacks.

Enhancing Security in the UnGUARDED SPACE™

Given these sophisticated and ever evolving tactics, we highly encourage a deep and layered Cybersecurity strategy and posture.

Enhancing and strengthening your cybersecurity posture with activeSENTINEL™—an advanced solution that leverages Digital Twin, AI, Deep Learning (DL), Machine Learning (ML), and Neural Networking technologies. activeSENTINEL™ is specifically designed to protect the UnGUARDED SPACE™—the often overlooked inner network area within every system. Traditional perimeter cybersecurity strategies frequently miss this critical zone, leaving it vulnerable to attackers who use it for shelter, disguise, and Living Off the Land. Once this zone is accessed by attackers, current tools and IT leaders have limited or zero visibility into the attacker’s next move or behavior. With activeSENTINEL™, you can employ a deeper layer of cybersecurity in the UnGUARDED SPACE™ and other vulnerable areas of your network, preventing attackers from compromising your most valuable assets.

Key Benefits:

• Advanced AI and ML Integration: Leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to detect and neutralize threats in real-time.

• Digital Twin Technology: Creates a virtual replicas of your network assets to predict and prevent potential vulnerabilities and deter cyber crime.

• Deep Learning and Neural Networks: Continuously learn and adapt to evolving cyber threats, providing dynamic and robust defense mechanisms.

• Comprehensive Cybersecurity: Focuses on the inner network areas, complementing conventional perimeter strategies to offer full-spectrum protection.

• Continuous Monitoring: activeSENTINEL™ provides real-time monitoring of internal network activities to detect anomalies.

• Integration with Existing Tools: activeSENTINEL™ enhances the efficiency of existing SIEMs and other security tools by feeding them real-time data on threats, enabling a more proactive and comprehensive defense.
  

activeSENTINEL™ is built to identify both known and unknown threats, filling gaps left by traditional security tools. According to a study, “Enterprise SIEMs miss 76% of all MITRE ATT&CK techniques used” (Security Magazine).

By implementing activeSENTINEL™ and being more focused on the UnGUARDED SPACE™ of the network, organizations can build a deeper and more resilient cybersecurity framework that not only defends the perimeter but also secures the internal network against advanced persistent threats.

#CyberSecurity #NetworkProtection #AI #MachineLearning #DeepLearning #DigitalTwin #NeuralNetworking #CyberDefense #NetworkSecurity #DataProtection #ITSecurity #CyberThreats #AdvancedSecurity #UnGUARDEDSPACE #activeSENTINEL #CyberResilience #ProtectYourNetwork