Introduction:
Cyber threats are emerging much more quickly than before, and the methods used by attackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. For cybersecurity professionals, one of the most dangerous types of threats are Zero-Day Threats and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). This type of threat is extremely hard to track and if detected late can prove to be quite damaging. For Security Operations Centers (SOCs) and those leveraging managed soc services, the challenge is not just detecting these threats, but ensuring a swift and satisfactory remediation action has been taken to thwart these threats.
In this blog, we discuss how modern tools and strategies can equip your SOC with the capability of tracking sophisticated zero-day threats and APTs. This blog will provide insights on the nature of these threats, their manifestations, and effective monitoring practices through the SOC.
What Are Zero-Day Threats and APTs?
A deep understanding of the terms zero-day threats and APTs is essential before diving into detection and response strategies.
Zero-Day Threats are attacks that target an organization’s obsolete software or hardware. These attacks depict the cat-and-mouse game that evolves between hackers and firms trying to provide structural security. Zero-day threats are hacks that take advantage of an organization’s unpatched software, as they perform a cat-and-mouse game between the hacker and the firm.
One of numerous kinds of APT – Advanced Persistent Target Attacks – are long-term strikes on an organization’s system. Once inside, the culprits lurk undetected for quite some time, performing data analysis to adjust. APTs aspire for information extraction, remote system control, or simply have untraceable access to important data. It’s been proven that APT attacks mostly derive the access and control components over months and even years.
Both categories require corresponding response strategies for them to be tracked accordingly and systematically.
Establish Comprehensive Monitoring Solutions to Prevent Them Both
To track and monitor Zero Day and APT threats, the first thing is ensuring monitoring both use the same source detection framework. Suspicious activities concerning advanced tracking of both zero-day threats and APT’s require frameworks centered more towards their even deeper underlining methods of concealment.
Using Behavioral Analytics: Use behavioral analytics for unusual or suspicious activities within your systems instead of relying on known signatures. This involves monitoring user behaviors, traffic, system access, and any deviations from the baseline set. If an attacker utilizes a zero-day exploit or carries out an APT, the attacker’s actions will most probably be exceptional.
Heuristic Detection: Malware and all other types of attacks that do not have signatures can also be identified using heuristic analysis. This type of analysis is important for zero-day exploits and other previously unidentified threats.
Anomaly Detection Tools: With APTs becoming increasingly common, use tools that identify irregular patterns of activities needing verification, such as logins at strange times or data exfiltration, to flag it as an APT attack.
Insights In Real Time With Threat Intelligence Feeds
Threat intelligence feeds remain one of the most viable methods of tracking and monitoring APTs as well as zero-day threats. The feeds include the latest information on emerging threats in real time including IOCs, TTPs, and others.
Integrating a threat intelligence feed directly into your SOC’s monitoring infrastructure allows for proactive detection of risks and gaps. This helps avert their exploitation well ahead in time. Plenty of threat intelligence vendors check feeds for new zero-day vulnerabilities. This means your SOC can monitor for indicators of exploitation in real time.
These feeds help track specific APT groups over a period of time and can provide additional context. For example, if an APT group notorious for a certain exploit has shifted their focus to a new vulnerability, your SOC can look for indication of exploitation in your environment.
Focus On These Elements:
IOCs (Indicators of Compromise): These are pieces of evidence like IP addresses, urls, or malware hashes that prove a breach has taken place.
TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures): TTPs indicate the methods an attacker employs during various stages of an attack.
Use Behavioral Surveillance and Endpoint Detection Systems
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) and zero-day exploits often make use of advanced malware designed to bypass detection. To recover from these types of attacks, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) systems are critical. With an EDR solution, you can monitor file access, registry modifications, process creation, and even network activity for clues about persistent attackers inside your systems.
Moreover, Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) tools can be very valuable for detecting suspicious or unusual activities involving a network or its traffic. NTA tools can warn your Information Security Operations Center (ISOC) about the presence of APT or zero-day attack in real time by tracking uncommon traffic, unusual access to important systems, or even abnormal data transfer behaviors.
Main Aspects To Observe:
Accessing or modifying files in unusual ways.
Unusual network traffic or data transfers occurring.
Unauthorized sign-ins with elevated user rights.
Processes on endpoints that are suspicious in nature.
Work with Incident Response Teams
Threats such as APT and zero-day attacks require immediate attention upon detection. The incident response (IR) team has the responsibility of containment, analysis, and mitigation of the threat. Understanding the scope and details of the attack becomes much easier with this collaboration.
Your SOC should be able to support the IR team with monitoring and analytic processes. Providing live feedback, your SOC can help the IR team track the progression of the attack, understand what systems have been compromised, and assist in preventing further injuries.
Key Steps in Incident Response:
Containment: Block critical systems immediately to control the extent of damage.
Eradication: Erase all the attack-tailored malicious software and tools which your system timezone has used.
Recovery: Retrieve systems and information, guaranteeing that all potential threats are neutralized.
Post-Incident Analysis: Perform thorough analysis with your team after the attack, while preparing new defenses to the level of risk the new level suggests.
Continuously Improving SOC’s Detection and Response Capabilities
Tracking zero-day risks and threats by advanced persistent cyber attackers (APTs) is an ongoing mission with no space for slack. Your SOC has to advance and strengthen its defenses for every single tactic and vulnerability that gets discovered, and therefore its ability to adapt and evolve is paramount.
This can be done by attending zero-day vulnerability AND APT tactics workshops and conferences, adopting community threat intelligence, upgrading regularly the security tools in use at your SOC, practicing fortifying outdated protocols, and forcibly repelling absolscent methods. Unlike other threats, APTs persist, adapting and evolving, and continuously refining their sophistication, which is why strong, proactive defenses are an absolute must.
Key Improvement Strategies:
Threat intelligence feeds should be updated regularly, replacing older IOCs and TTPs with new ones.
Address potential vulnerabilities through regular penetration testing.
New attack methods are emerging, ensure your EDR and NTA tools are up-to-date.
Improve incident response with training and tabletop exercises inculcated within your SOC team.
Conclusion:
To monitor zero-day threats and APTs, your SOC needs sophisticated tracking technology, advanced strategies, and unwavering attention to detail. Implementing behavioral analytics and threat intelligence, alongside using EDR and NTA tools, collaborating with your incident response teams, and streamlining your processes will help your SOC counteract these sophisticated cyber threats.
Detecting and responding to zero-day threats and APTs requires proactive measures. Coupled with the right methodologies and tools, your SOC will be able mitigate the risk of targeted successful attacks, securing your organization from ever-evolving sophisticated cyber threats.
