Friday, September 30, 2016

SANS 504 Notes - Process/Preparation

Well, my GCIH certification is up for renewal this year.  This time, since it has been a while since I've reviewed this material, I decided to redo the exam rather than the alternate renewal options.  As such, I'll be starting a series of notes for the SANS 504 course notes.  I remember taking this course way back when, it is a super exciting course and I highly recommend it.  It gives a good base on how to run an Incident and the steps involved.  Ultimately, the tools discussed in this course are real world, and give a ton of insight into how to defend networks/systems against them.

This post will be some points in the first section, around the incident handling process and the preparation phase.

  • What is incident handling
    • an action plan for dealing with the misuse of computer systems and networks
    • generally a set of written policies and procedures that outline what to do when an incident occurs
    • Pre-planning of response parameters/controls/scope
  • An incident refers to an adverse event in an information system or network
    • implies harm or the attempt to do harm
    • contrast to an event, which is any observable occurrence in a system or network
  • Ultimately, the definition of which events are classified as an incident is up to the handler and the company
  • Think of incident handling as first aid
    • incident handlers need a easy method to follow under pressure to resolve issues
    • Core Stages: Preparation, Identification, Containment, Eradication, Recovery, Lessons Learned
  • Preparation Phase
    • The WHY:  You need to enable the enterprise, both technically and from a people perspective, to respond to incidents.
    • People
      • Focus on training (sometimes reoccurring training)
      • Test user and the team often
        • fake incidents
        • social engineering attacks
      • Establish communication mechanisms (easy to use) for end users to report suspicious activities (TSA: See something, say something policy)
      • Coordinate with helpdesk staff (they are often the first line of defense against this)
        • establish training plans
    •  Policy
      • Policy should be established
        • in general
        • consequences of insider actions 
        • share information with authorities (or not)
        • peer notification
        • understand breach laws
      • Warning banners allow for lawful recording of actions (also serves to remind users, like airline safety training)
      • Get management buy-in and delegation of authority to the incident response teams
    • Notes
      • maintain excellent notes, preferably in written form on notebooks
      • understand the chain of custody requirements and follow procedures
    • Management Support
      • work to achieve management buy-in
      • show quarterly reports on incidents
    • Building A Team
      • aim for a multi-disciplinary team
        • technical domains (server, network, storage, forensics, etc)
        • Non-technical domains (marketing, law, public affairs, etc)
      • Establish roles if no specific members exist and assign the responsibility to someone
      • Conduct routing training and testing with the team
        • many online resources (counterhack challenges)
        • conduct sessions on log reading, etc
      • Establish appropriate compensation plans (work times, etc)
      • Establish response times, response locations
        • Might need a command post (secure location to sore files and hold meetings)
        • Remote people may be required to be the "techie on site" 
      • Establish a budget for the team ahead of time (no need to seek approvals to spend during an incident)
    • Checklists
      • Have a firm understanding on how to rebuild systems from known good backups or from scratch
    • Emergency communication Plan
      • Create a call list, test this call list
      • identify requirements for secured communication channels (ahead of time)
    • Granting access
      • have an access strategy in place for incident response team members to access critical systems and data
    • Jump Bag
      • thing about the things you will need in an incident
      • Tailor this to your environment
      • Technology: Gold images, rootkit checkers, debugging tools, forensic tools
      • People: clothing, medications, food, etc
      • Other things: cd/usb/media, jumpers, extra harddrives, taps, laptop with multiple OS, call list, cell phones with extra batteries

No comments:

Post a Comment