Technology Email Accounts

In the context of cybersecurity, technology email accounts are non-human accounts designed to support and manage IT infrastructure, tools, and platforms. These accounts are not tied to a person but rather to a specific technology, service, or system, such as a code repository, a continuous integration server, or a remote access protocol. They are essential for automated processes, including software development, system administration, and network management.

From a cybersecurity perspective, technology email accounts present a unique set of risks. Since they are often configured with privileged access to perform their functions, their compromise can lead to significant security breaches. For example, an attacker who gains control of a jenkins email account could potentially access and manipulate build processes, injecting malicious code into applications. Similarly, compromising an ssh or vpn email account could grant an attacker a persistent foothold in a network. These accounts often lack the same level of monitoring and oversight as human user accounts, making them prime targets for attackers seeking to move laterally within an environment and establish a long-term, undetected presence.

ThreatNG can significantly enhance an organization's security posture by helping to manage and protect its technology email accounts. It does this by focusing on external exposures and providing detailed intelligence on associated risks.

External Discovery and Assessment

ThreatNG's external discovery capabilities function without any internal network access. It can identify publicly exposed email addresses from various sources, including dark web forums, code repositories, social media platforms, and archived web pages. Once an email is discovered, the platform's external assessment capabilities provide a detailed risk analysis by linking the email to other findings. For example, ThreatNG can assess the susceptibility of an email account to BEC & Phishing by analyzing its email security presence (DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records). It also checks if the email is part of a data leak by looking for it in compromised credential databases on the dark web.

• Example: ThreatNG might discover an email address, git@example.com, on a public code-sharing platform. Its sensitive code exposure module then determines if this email is hard-coded with a password or API key, leading to a high-risk score. This finding would highlight a critical security gap that could allow an attacker to gain unauthorized access to the company's code repositories.

Continuous Monitoring and Reporting

ThreatNG's continuous monitoring feature tracks the external attack surface of an organization, ensuring that new exposures of technology email accounts are detected and flagged in real-time. This is crucial for catching new risks as they emerge. All of this information is compiled into various reports (Executive, Technical, Prioritized, and more). These reports detail the source of the exposure, the severity of the risk, and provide recommendations for mitigation, helping security teams prioritize their response. A technical report, for instance, could classify the exposure of an ssh email account as a "High" priority and advise immediate remediation.

Investigation Modules and Intelligence Repositories

ThreatNG’s investigation modules provide deep context for discovered email exposures. The Domain Intelligence module, for example, can be used to investigate terraform email addresses and identify if the associated domain is part of a malicious campaign or a look-alike domain designed for phishing. Meanwhile, the Sensitive Code Exposure module searches public code repositories for emails like jenkins or docker that might be present in configuration files with sensitive data.

ThreatNG's intelligence repositories, branded as DarCache, are another key component. These repositories, which include DarCache Dark Web, DarCache Rupture (compromised credentials), and DarCache Vulnerability, are continuously updated. This allows ThreatNG to cross-reference discovered technology emails against known breaches and vulnerabilities, providing rich, contextual threat intelligence.

Complementary Solutions

ThreatNG's focus on external discovery and assessment can work in synergy with complementary solutions to create a more comprehensive defense strategy.

• With an Identity and Access Management (IAM) Solution: When ThreatNG discovers a vpn service email exposed in a breach, it can trigger an automated workflow through a complementary IAM solution to force a password reset and enable MFA for that account.

• With a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) System: Findings from ThreatNG regarding a high-risk devops email can be ingested by a SIEM, allowing internal logs to be cross-referenced for any suspicious activity related to that account.

• With a Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Platform: A SOAR platform can be configured to pull an exposed automatically svc email from a ThreatNG report, create a ticket for the security team, and initiate a sandbox analysis of any related URLs or attachments found during the investigation.