Using NetFlow for Information Security has some unique challenges that NETOPS tools don't have to deal with. I put Splunk head to head against StealthWatch and lay out methodolgies for testing other tools.
How to combine user authentication data with NetFlow audit trails to investigate user behavior.
How NetFlow can quickly reveal application-layer denial of service.
Don't trust your firewalls and NAC without validation. NetFlow is a great way to determine if they are doing what they are supposed to be doing (and alerting you when they are not.)
NetFlow can provide an efficient way of monitoring traffic moving laterally across a network.
APT is a word that means different things to different audiences. It's important to be concise in defining terms and using the correct words to avoid unnecessary conflict and misunderstanding.
Pseudo-code proof that network behavioral anomaly detection (NBAD) of threats is the superior evolution of signature based detection.
Great investigators know the importance of details but often we go too deep, too quickly. An organized approach to incident response will allow more actionable intelligence to be created in less time.
What distributed denial of service (DDoS) is and how NetFlow can give situational awareness when it happens to your network.
Vendors and Analysts want to have conversations around products. Organizations want to talk about their business problems. Vendors rename their products "solutions" and Organizations start evaluating the products and forget about their business problems. Here is an open letter to both sides.
An average organization will lose more than $10M to cyber crime this year in detectable losses and much more in un-quantifiable damages as trade secrets, customer data and financial records are stolen without detection. It's time to re-evaluate the need for advanced security teams in organizations that want to stay afloat in an age of rampant, sophisticated corporate espionage from attackers ranging from organized crime to nation-states.
NetFlow when effectively stored makes a great basis for analyzing indicators of compromise (IOC) like those provided in Mandiant's APT1 report.
The systematic problems the Mandiant APT1 report revealed in enterprise surveillance efforts.
How the importance of physical surveillance throughout human history teaches us why we are failing at network security and how we can fix it.
What SQL Injection is and how intelligent monitoring of NetFlow can detect and deter it.
Using NetFlow to determine if network resources are being sold on the black market.
We are taking a retarded amount of time to discover unknown (zero day) threats and how we can reduce that window.
Summary of the "Network Security School of Ft. Knox" series I penned and the webinar accompanying it.
The last installment explains the importance of knowing what to do when a breach is detected.
InfoSec attackers are not created equal. They range from punk kids to nation states. It's important to know who is coming after your protected assets.
Some easy and free steps to keeping a Windows laptop free of viruses and other nasties.
Figuring out what data sources are best suited for pervasive network surviellance can be tricky. In this fifth installment, we look at the pros and cons of packet capture and NetFlow.
Not all types of cyber attacks are the same. In this third installment we look at different exploit types and their delivered payloads.
Some steps that can be taken to make your web site a tougher target for hackers to exploit and use against your visitors.
