You're reading from Effective Threat Investigation for SOC Analysts The ultimate guide to examining various threats and attacker techniques using security logs

Product type Paperback

Published in Aug 2023

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781837634781

Length 314 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Concepts

Cybersecurity

Author (1):

Mostafa Yahia

View More author details

Table of Contents (22) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1: Email Investigation Techniques

2. Chapter 1: Investigating Email Threats FREE CHAPTER

3. Chapter 2: Email Flow and Header Analysis

4. Part 2: Investigating Windows Threats by Using Event Logs

5. Chapter 3: Introduction to Windows Event Logs

6. Chapter 4: Tracking Accounts Login and Management

7. Chapter 5: Investigating Suspicious Process Execution Using Windows Event Logs

8. Chapter 6: Investigating PowerShell Event Logs

9. Chapter 7: Investigating Persistence and Lateral Movement Using Windows Event Logs

10. Part 3: Investigating Network Threats by Using Firewall and Proxy Logs

11. Chapter 8: Network Firewall Logs Analysis

12. Chapter 9: Investigating Cyber Threats by Using the Firewall Logs

13. Chapter 10: Web Proxy Logs Analysis

14. Chapter 11: Investigating Suspicious Outbound Communications (C&C Communications) by Using Proxy Logs

15. Part 4: Investigating Other Threats and Leveraging External Sources to Investigate Cyber Threats

16. Chapter 12: Investigating External Threats

17. Chapter 13: Investigating Network Flows and Security Solutions Alerts

18. Chapter 14: Threat Intelligence in a SOC Analyst’s Day

19. Chapter 15: Malware Sandboxing – Building a Malware Sandbox

20. Index

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Suspicious outbound communications alerts

After successfully gaining initial access to the victim’s machine and installing malware through one of the various ways, such as employing weaponized Microsoft Office documents or malware spread via removable media, the malware authors usually configure their malware to communicate with their command and control server to get new instructions and commands to be executed on the victim machine. Such malicious communications have a list of aspects that can be detected and investigated over the proxy logs as we will see later in this chapter.

During the SOC analyst’s working shift, they may get an alert from their security information and event management (SIEM) solution regarding communications from one of the organization’s machines to a suspicious/malicious domain or IP that seems to be related to a command and control server. Such alerts may be triggered according to different detection criteria, such as threat intel...