Data Breach Investigation
Data Breach Investigation is the systematic process of examining a security incident in which sensitive or confidential data has been potentially or confirmed to have been accessed, disclosed, or acquired without authorization. It's a critical response to a security failure that aims to understand what happened, how it happened, and what needs to be done to prevent it from happening again.
Here's a breakdown of the key components of a Data Breach Investigation:
Detection and Initial Response: The investigation begins with detecting a potential data breach. This could occur through various means, such as security alerts, system logs, or reports from external parties. The initial response involves containing the breach to prevent further damage and preserving evidence.
Scope and Objectives: Defining the scope and objectives of the investigation is crucial. This includes determining:
What data was potentially affected?
Which systems or applications were involved?
What are the legal and regulatory requirements for reporting the breach?
Evidence Collection and Preservation: This is a critical phase, as digital evidence is often fragile and can be easily altered or destroyed. It involves:
Gathering logs from systems and applications
Analyzing network traffic
Imaging affected devices
Documenting all actions taken
Analysis: The collected evidence is analyzed to reconstruct the events of the breach. This involves:
Determining the initial point of entry
Identifying the attacker's actions
Understanding how the attacker was able to bypass security controls
Assessing the extent of data accessed or exfiltrated
Root Cause Analysis: This step focuses on identifying the underlying causes of the breach, such as vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, or human error.
Reporting: A detailed report is prepared, summarizing the investigation findings. This report may be used for:
Internal review and improvement
Legal and regulatory compliance
Communication with affected parties
Remediation and Prevention: Based on the investigation findings, actions are taken to:
Fix vulnerabilities
Improve security controls
Enhance monitoring and detection capabilities
Implement employee training
A Data Breach Investigation is a thorough and methodical examination of a security incident to uncover the facts, mitigate the damage, and prevent future occurrences.
ThreatNG's capabilities can contribute to various stages of a Data Breach Investigation, providing valuable information about the external attack surface and potential breach vectors.
ThreatNG's external discovery helps define the scope of a potential data breach by identifying all external-facing assets.
It is "able to perform purely external unauthenticated discovery using no connectors". This capability allows ThreatNG to map the organization's external footprint, crucial for understanding all potential entry points and exposed assets.
Example: ThreatNG discovers all subdomains, cloud services, and exposed systems, providing a comprehensive view of where a data breach might originate or which assets might be affected.
Complementary Solutions:
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Systems: EDR systems provide detailed information about activity on individual devices, which can be combined with ThreatNG's external view to understand the full scope of a breach.
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Tools: NTA tools can provide insights into network traffic patterns, which can help identify data exfiltration and other malicious activity related to a data breach.
ThreatNG's external assessments provide valuable information about potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses that could be exploited in a data breach.
ThreatNG can perform all the following assessment ratings:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: Assesses vulnerabilities in web applications that could lead to data breaches.
Data Leak Susceptibility: Identifies potential for data leaks from external-facing systems.
Code Secret Exposure: Discovers exposed code repositories and sensitive data within them.
Examples:
The "Web Application Hijack Susceptibility" assessment can help identify web application vulnerabilities that might have been used to gain initial access during a data breach.
The "Code Secret Exposure" assessment can reveal if credentials or API keys were exposed in code repositories, which could be a source of unauthorized access for a data breach.
Complementary Solutions:
Vulnerability Scanners: These tools can provide more detailed vulnerability information (e.g., CVEs) that can help determine the exploitability and severity of vulnerabilities identified by ThreatNG.
Penetration Testing Tools: Penetration testing can simulate real-world attacks to validate vulnerabilities and assess their potential impact on a data breach.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG's reporting capabilities can aid in documenting and communicating findings during a data breach investigation.
It offers various reporting formats, including technical reports that provide detailed information about vulnerabilities and security risks.
Example: ThreatNG's reports on "Data Leak Susceptibility" and "Code Secret Exposure" can provide evidence of potential data exfiltration vectors or compromised credentials, crucial findings in a data breach investigation.
Complementary Solutions:
Incident Response Platforms: These platforms can use ThreatNG's data to track the investigation, manage communication, and coordinate response activities.
Forensic Reporting Tools: Forensic tools can provide detailed reports on digital evidence, combined with ThreatNG's findings to create a comprehensive picture of the data breach.
ThreatNG's continuous monitoring can help detect ongoing data breaches or identify changes in the external attack surface that might be relevant to an investigation.
ThreatNG provides "Continuous Monitoring of external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings of all organizations".
Example: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring can detect new or changed external assets that might be involved in a data breach, such as a newly exposed database or a compromised web server.
Complementary Solutions:
Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS): These systems can monitor network traffic in real time for malicious activity that might indicate a data breach.
Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Platforms: SOAR platforms can automate the correlation of ThreatNG's monitoring data with other security alerts to identify and respond to potential data breaches.
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide detailed information and search capabilities to aid data breach investigations.
These modules include:
Domain Intelligence: Provides information about domains, subdomains, and DNS records, which can be relevant to investigating phishing or other domain-based attacks.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This helps investigate whether exposed code repositories were a source of compromised credentials or other sensitive information.
Mobile Application Discovery: Aids in investigating if mobile apps were involved in a data breach, by discovering mobile apps and the presence of credentials.
Examples:
The "Domain Intelligence" module can help investigate if a data breach involved phishing attacks by providing information about suspicious or lookalike domains.
The "Sensitive Code Exposure" module can help determine if exposed credentials in code repositories were used to gain unauthorized access.
Complementary Solutions:
Digital Forensics Tools: These tools provide in-depth analysis of digital devices to recover evidence and understand attacker activity.
Log Analysis Tools: These tools can help analyze logs from various systems to identify the timeline of events and the extent of the breach.
ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide valuable context and threat intelligence that can be used during a data breach investigation.
These repositories ("DarCache") include information on:
Dark Web: Provides intelligence on dark web activity, which can help identify if stolen data is being sold or discussed online.
Compromised Credentials: This information on compromised credentials can help determine whether stolen credentials were used in the breach.
Example: The "DarCache Dark Web" repository can help investigators determine if compromised credentials related to the organization are being traded or sold on the dark web, indicating potential data exfiltration.
Complementary Solutions:
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): Integrating with TIPs can provide a broader and more diverse set of threat intelligence, enriching the investigation with information about threat actors, campaigns, and tactics.
Breach Notification Databases: These databases can provide information about similar breaches in other organizations, which can help understand the current breach's scope and impact.
ThreatNG offers a range of capabilities that can be valuable during a Data Breach Investigation. By providing information about the external attack surface, vulnerabilities, and threat intelligence, ThreatNG can help organizations understand how a breach might have occurred, what data might be at risk, and how to prevent future incidents. The potential to work with complementary solutions further enhances the effectiveness of the investigation process.
