IoCs are forensic data threat intelligence teams use to confirm cyberattack occurrences and build cyber-defense strategies. IoCs are critical in identifying system vulnerabilities, and determining how a cyber-crime was executed. While the relevance of IoCs cannot be downplayed in the cyber security space, they are not all that’s needed in building an effective cyber-defense strategy.

The complex and growing cyber threats that impact business cybersecurity require the right intelligence. Cybercrime costs are expected to: Want proof? Cyberattacks increased by 7% globally in the first quarter of 2023 alone. Organizations need a proactive way to prevent and mitigate these threats. Enter Security Operations. Security Operations is crucial in helping organizations find, prevent and mitigate cyber threats.

The term Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP) describes the behavior of a threat actor and a structured framework for executing a cyberattack. The actors can range from hacktivists and hobbyist hackers to autonomous cybercriminals, underground rings and state-sponsored adversaries. By understanding the Tactics, Techniques and Procedures involved in a cyberattack kill chain, businesses can discover, evaluate and respond to security threats with a proactive approach. Let’s take a look.

Data anonymization is becoming an increasingly prominent and important concept for businesses of all sizes. Whether it’s to protect customer data or satisfy regulatory requirements, data privacy remains a top priority for organizations worldwide.

In our last RBA blog post, we introduced the Splunk RBA journey and how to plan for a successful implementation. In this post, we dive deeper into the four levels of this journey. One of the things I've discovered in working with Splunk customers is that there is a big difference between an initial trial of RBA and using it effectively in a production environment.

Humans have been interacting with a version of AI through voice assistants, facial recognition software and phone photo apps for years. AI’s progress in the last few months, however, has been nothing less than mind-blowing. With its new enhanced capabilities, a meteoric rise in AI’s popularity ensued, and the recent new generative AI services are quickly becoming essential tools for users of all kinds.

The Security Operations Center (SOC) is the central unit that manages the overall security posture of any organization. Knowing how your SOC is performing is crucial, so security teams can measure the strength of their operations. This article describes SOC metrics, including their importance, common SOC metrics, and the steps SOC teams can take to improve them.

Welcome to the third entry in our introduction to the PEAK Threat Hunting Framework! Taking our detective theme to the next level, imagine a tough case where you need to call in a specialized investigator (even Sherlock depended on Watson from time to time!). For these unique cases, we can use algorithmically-driven approaches called Model-Assisted Threat Hunting (M-ATH). In this post, we’ll look at M-ATH in detail.

In the complex world of Internet security, TLS encryption reigns. The powers behind the throne are the Certificate Authorities (CAs) that play a crucial role in verifying websites' identities and regulating the trust we place in those sites. However, understanding the trustworthiness of the CAs themselves can be challenging.

Cyberattacks are unauthorized attempts to access data and disrupt your organization's computer systems or networks. It’s reported that 49% of organizations have suffered a data breach over the past two years — it’s possibly higher than that. These data breaches can cause financial loss, reputational damage and legal liabilities. So, organizations develop Red and Blue teams to mitigate the risk of cyberattacks.

Even though this blog discusses some serious topics related to security of mission-critical SAP applications, why not start it with a fun trivia question? So, here it is: “What does SAP stand for?” As per the company’s website, SAP is an acronym for the organization’s original German name “Systemanalyse Programmentwicklung,” which stands for System Analysis Program Development in English. Founded in 1972, SAP is a global leader in enterprise application software.

Cryptomining is essential for creating new cryptocurrencies and functioning blockchain networks. However, the increased complexity of cryptomining drives the need for specialized, cost-effective infrastructure to mine cryptocurrencies. Enter the cloud: Cloud computing has become critical for cryptomining, making cloud cryptomining popular among miners. This article describes cloud cryptomining, its history, and the types of cloud cryptomining.

RSA is a popular and secure cryptographic algorithm that encrypts and decrypts data. It provides a secure method for transmitting sensitive data over the Internet. While RSA has some vulnerabilities, it is still utilized for various applications, like digital signatures to authenticate the source of a message. This article describes RSA, how it works, and its major applications. It also explains the security vulnerabilities of RSA and how to mitigate them.

“Who you gonna call?” - Ghostbusters Before we get to the main topic of this blog, I would like to provide some historical background on how I got to the topic. Hopefully, this context will be both informative and useful as we try to use call detail records (CDR) for doing good things.

While most people understand that cybercrime is rising, it’s challenging to fathom just how widespread it is. In 2007, researchers found there was a cyberattack every 39 seconds. By 2022, those numbers seemed small and innocent in comparison: The sheer scale of attacks makes it a challenge to understand and find emerging threats or identify trends. Cyberattack maps provide visuals that clarify numbers that can be otherwise difficult to understand and bring to light the dark activities online.

Typosquatting goes by many names: URL hijacking, domain mimicry and domain typo-squatting, to name a few. However, they all mean the same thing: malicious attackers register domain names similar to popular websites but with common typos and variations. Typosquatting aims to trick users who mistype the legitimate URL into visiting and using the fraudulent site. It is a widespread practice.

Authentication and authorization are two processes that play a significant role in any web application. These concepts ensure that only trusted individuals are granted access to the resources of the application. Plus, with all the web applications and services we use regularly, it is increasingly difficult to manage credentials for multiple user accounts. SAML technology provides a means for securely logging into multiple applications using a single set of credentials.

When it comes to cyber threats, few are as feared as Advanced Persistent Threats. An Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) is a sophisticated, highly targeted and often long-term cyberattack orchestrated by well-funded and highly skilled threat actors. In some cases, they’re even backed by governments: North Korea, Russia and China have all been caught orchestrating APT attacks in the past two years. APTs differ from traditional cyber threats, which are more persistent, targeted, and sophisticated.

The digital world is a lot like the Old West: lawless criminals are looking to take advantage of any bug, flaw or vulnerability to exploit. To combat the problems from these flaws, many organizations offer bounties to anyone who can find them before cybercriminals. Because bugs can be challenging to spot, bug bounty programs leverage ethical hackers' expertise to spot corporate software's flaws. Some of the largest corporations in the world, including Google, Microsoft, and the U.S.

Picture yourself as a cyber detective, ready to uncover the hidden threats lurking in the shadows of your organization's network. Sounds exciting, right? Well, hypothesis-driven hunting is all about channeling your inner Hercule Poirot to stay one step ahead of adversaries working against you. The PEAK threat hunting framework identifies three primary types of hunts: In this post, we’re going to look at hypothesis-driven hunting in detail.

Password spraying is a cyber threat that exploits weak passwords in order to easily compromise user accounts. That means it is critical to enforce strict access controls when authenticating users into a system. This article provides an overview of password spraying attacks, including how they work and a few real-world examples of these attacks. I’ll also look at how these attacks impact businesses, along with mechanisms to detect and prevent them.

Co-author: Matthias Maier, Product Marketing Director at Splunk. With increasing focus on implementing security standards within the digital supply chain, national and industry-specific certifications have become increasingly important. Today, we are excited to announce that Splunk Services Germany GmbH has become a TISAX participant. The alignment with TISAX requirements demonstrates Splunk’s continued commitment to support the heightened security expectations in the automotive industry.

In our last RBA blog post, we talked about some of the problems RBA can help solve. In this post, we explain the methodology we use with Splunk customers as their security teams start working with RBA. In working with our customers, the Splunk Superstar RBA Braintrust has developed a powerful methodology to kickstart your RBA implementation. From first moves to production, these four levels take you step-by-step through the process of successfully getting RBA up and running.

Security professionals have become all too familiar with the threat posed by phishing. Whether it’s a convincing looking email asking an employee to click a link to update their login credentials or a surprise text from the CEO asking them to send over gift card codes for a customer, phishing attacks have only continued to grow over the years. For 2023 alone, 33 million data records are expected to be compromised due to phishing attacks.

There are about 90 DNS resource record types (RR) of which many of them are obsolete today. Of the RR’s used, DNS TXT record offers the most flexibility in content by allowing user defined text. The TXT record initially designed to hold descriptive text (RFC 1035) is widely used for email verification, spam prevention and domain ownership verification.