BTH: Behavior-Based Structured Threat Hunting Framework to Analyze and Detect Advanced Adversaries

Abstract

Organizations of every size and industry are facing a new normal. Adversaries have become more sophisticated and persistent than ever before. Every network is facing never-ending onslaughts. Yet many organizations continue to rely on signature-based reactive threat detection and mitigation solutions as the primary line of defense against new-age, cutting-edge attacks. Even conventional attacks can bypass such security solutions. This means legacy protection solutions leave the organization’s data vulnerable to damage, destruction, and theft. Adversarial attacks are like ocean waves: they are very persistent and keep coming like attack campaigns. Sometimes the waves, in our case, attacks, look the same, where indicators of compromise (IoCs) effectively detect the attacks, while sometimes, the waves or attacks change and continue to look different, especially over a while. If somehow the defenders can recognize what is making those attacks or waves and the conditions, then detecting threats and attacks can have a longer-lasting effect of success. This study focuses on the behavior and habits of the attackers that can provide better and long-lasting results when matching adversarial profiles instead of using just IoCs. The paper presents a unique framework for behavior-based structured threat hunting to deliver rapid, consistent remediation against emerging threats and malware on systems and networks.