Threat modeling explained: A process for anticipating cyber attacks Understanding the frameworks, methodologies and tools to help you identify, quantify and prioritize the threats you face. Government institutes and independent research bodies also provide threat intelligence feeds with valuable data, typically open for use. Time is of the essence, because a primary goal of users is to become aware of threats and defend against imminent attacks before they happen. Interested in learning more about this topic and others? Modern threat detection using behavioral modeling and machine learning. Consisting of six steps, (see Figure 2), LINDDUN provides a systematic approach to privacy assessment. Threat intelligence feeds stream information in real time—as soon as a new threat or malicious entity is discovered, the information is packaged into the feed format and streamed to subscribers. Have a look at these articles: Orion has over 15 years of experience in cyber security. But in truth many of the methodologies described here are conceptual and not tied to any software implementation. Threat intelligence is data that is collected, processed, and analyzed to understand a threat actor’s motives, targets, and attack behaviors.Threat intelligence enables us to make faster, more informed, data-backed security decisions and change their behavior from reactive to proactive in the fight against threat actors. Each individual threat modeling methodology consists of a somewhat different series of steps, and we'll discuss the nuances of each later in this article. Adam is the author of "Threat Modeling: Designing for Security," and the co-author of "The New School of Information Security. Each step is fairly complex, consisting of several substeps, but the overall sequence is as follows: VAST threat modelingVAST stands for Visual, Agile Threat Modeling. Failures of authentication are often called “spoofing,” and spoofing is the first element of a handy mnemonic, STRIDE: You can use STRIDE, walking through each part of the diagram (including the data flows!) A SIEM built on advanced data science, deep security expertise, and proven open source big data solutions. Building an attack tree is a threat modeling technique that becomes important when you reach the stage where you're determining potential threats against your application or infrastructure. Pricing and Quote Request How does it collect data? Foster City, CA 94404, Terms and Conditions The analyst builds a requirement model by enumerating and understanding the system's actors, assets, intended actions, and rules. Each cell of the matrix is divided into four parts, one for each action of CRUD (creating, reading, updating, and deleting). Cybercrimes are continually evolving. Although Microsoft no longer maintains STRIDE, it is implemented as part of the, The Process for Attack Simulation and Threat Analysis (PASTA), Threat Modeling w/PASTA: Risk Centric Threat Modeling Case Studies, The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), Using attack trees to model threats is one of the oldest and most widely applied techniques on cyber-only systems, cyber-physical systems, and purely physical systems, has since been combined with other methods and frameworks, PnG can help visualize threats from the counterpart side, which can be helpful in the early stages of the threat modeling, SQUARE (Security Quality Requirements Engineering Method). A CVSS score is derived from values assigned by an analyst for each metric. Each goal is represented as a separate tree. A threat intelligence source is the raw data, which can be parsed, analyzed and packaged to create an intelligence feed. With the growth in cybercrime and the huge proliferation of attackers and attack types, threat intelligence has become an industry. If you spend a much time in security, you might realize that I’m talking about authentication. Prior to Exabeam, Orion worked for other notable security vendors including Imperva, Incapsula, Distil Networks, and Armorize Technologies. Additionally, because you’re starting at the architectural level, you can focus your work on the systems that are most important, rather than responding to “random” issues from penetration testing or compliance. It looks at threat modeling from a risk-management and defensive perspective. STRIDE threat modelingAs we noted above, STRIDE is the granddaddy of threat modeling, first developed at Microsoft in the late '90s. You can do that even though you haven’t been to my house, but you’ve been to enough houses that you have a mental model: houses have doors, locks, and windows. However, there are several common difficulties experienced when managing it: Next generation SIEM platforms, like Exabeam’s Security Management Platform, can help organizations effectively consume threat data, and put it to use. By systematically iterating over all model elements and analyzing them from the point of view of threat categories, LINDDUN users identify a threat's applicability to the system and build threat trees. In the next article in this series, we’ll go beyond the individual skills, and speak to what’s involved in managing a threat modeling program from the security leader perspective. There’s an easy part and a hard part to assessing how we did. This broad definition may just sound like the job description of a cybersecurity professional, but the important thing about a threat model is that it is systematic and structured. We also urge you to avoid common threat modeling mistakes. In this paper, you’ll learn what threat modeling is, how it relates to threat intelligence, and how and why to start. I like getting every architect in the room and letting them argue about what they’re working on. Every day[…], Treachery, Fraud, and Violence; they’re not just the making of the inner circles of Dante’s Inferno, they’re also[…]. In this feature article, you'll learn what threat modeling is, how it relates to threat intelligence, … This Microsoft document from the early days of Redmond's own threat modeling movement goes into more depth on how to build your own data flow diagram for your system or application. Uncover potential threats in your environment with real-time insight into indicators of compromise (IOC) and malicious hosts. Read the SEI Technical Note, A Hybrid Threat Modeling Method by Nancy Mead and colleagues. I encourage readers interested in more detailed information about these methods to read our. You will have noted that a couple of the methodologies listed above — VAST and Trike — are actually built around specific software tools. This is usually the very hardest part. OCTAVE focuses on assessing organizational risks and does not address technological risks. Threat modelers walk through a series of concrete steps in order to fully understand the environment they're trying to secure and identify vulnerabilities and potential attackers. It might have been difficult, but you’ve created a list of things that can go wrong in a system you haven’t built yet. What about the content creation process? Josh Fruhlinger is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles. No one threat-modeling method is recommended over another; organizations should choose which method to use based on the specific needs of their project. The short version: don't focus too much on whatever threats are in the headlines; don't forget that your users can be some of the biggest inadvertent threats of all; and don't forget that a threat model should be a living document and needs constant updating. Information Security Blog SIEM Threat Intelligence: Threat Feeds, Tools, and Challenges. In this article, we'll help you understand what all these methodologies have in common, and which specific techniques may be right for you. They can be combined to create a more robust and well-rounded view of potential threats. While at Microsoft, he drove the Autorun fix into Windows Update, was the lead designer of the SDL Threat Modeling Tool v3 and created the "Elevation of Privilege" game. When I work with organizations, 80-90% of the issues they find with threat modeling are reasonably straightforward to fix. Now that you know that threat modeling is important and you have an outline of how to start threat modeling, you should. Some examples include: For other issues, it’s more complex, and for this short white paper, I’ll refer you to my book, Threat Modeling: Designing for Security. How does the web app know which customer is which? As this presentation from Luca Bongiorni explains, some of the most popular tools for threat modeling are Microsoft Visio and Excel. The CVSS method is often used in combination with other threat-modeling methods. We list some of the leading tools in the tools section below. Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc. Security Management Terms Defined, 10 Must-Have Features to be a Modern SIEM. Figure 1. Threat intelligence is knowledge about security threats, threat actors, exploits, malware, vulnerabilities, and compromise indicators (according to SANS) that can help bolster your SIEM security. Reliably collect logs from over 40 cloud services into Exabeam or any other SIEM to enhance your cloud security. See examples in Figure 5. As he puts it, the purpose of a threat model is to answer four questions: The threat modeling process should, in turn, involve four broad steps, each of which will produce an answer to one of those questions. Organizations should have their own sources, and not base all their knowledge on external providers. Attack trees were initially applied as a stand-alone method and has since been combined with other methods and frameworks. Actors are rated on five-point scales for the risks they are assumed to present (lower number = higher risk) to the asset. The metrics are explained extensively in the documentation. How could someone tamper with it…”. They are not a formal method but, rather, a kind of brainstorming technique. In these cells, the analyst assigns one of three values: allowed action, disallowed action, or action with rules. Most organizations that experience breaches might take a long time to discover the breach, and even then, may not publicly report it. Add automation and orchestration to your SOC to make your cyber security incident response team more productive. This activity shows the dependencies among attack categories and low-level component attributes. It consists of three phases: NIST threat modelingThe U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology has its own data-centric threat modeling methodology, which consists of four steps: The NIST draft also includes a detailed example of how this methodology would be applied in practice. Advanced Analytics Use Case: Detecting Compromised Credentials, Detecting Anomalous Activity in Financial SWIFT Transactions With Machine Learning and Behavioral Analytics, What Is an Insider Threat? Threat modeling can be particularly helpful in the area of cyber-physical systems. (This is an organizational evaluation. MISTI's upcoming InfoSec World Conference & Expo offers up the perfect networking and learning experience. In this[…], Today at Spotlight20, I announced that Exabeam is refocusing to help security teams outsmart the odds.