Enhancing Security Monitoring
- Pavan Raja
- Apr 9
- 3 min read
Summary:
This document outlines three strategies for enhancing security monitoring by integrating data sources such as user profiles, asset information, and reputation data. The strategies include:
1. **Security Event with Actors**: To enhance security monitoring during an event, like accessing top-secret files, it is essential to understand the involved parties' context, including their identity (e.g., john.doe), role, department, and authorized access levels (e.g., top-secret files).
2. **Security Event with Assets**: In addition to actors, this approach involves considering the assets in a security event, such as identifying where physical or digital assets are located (e.g., host name and IP address), what kind of data they contain, and assessing any system or application vulnerabilities.
3. **Security Event with Reputation Data**: To further improve monitoring, integrating reputation data about the source attempting to access these assets is beneficial. This includes identifying where the traffic originates, understanding the threat type (e.g., abuse and misuse), and assessing its severity score.
The document also provides a specific example of a security incident involving john.doe accessing top-secret files from an external IP address (xxx.78.195.166) while logged in from the internal network using IP 10.0.26.9, at Headquarters and related to NASA’s mission to Mars. The identified threat type is 'Abuse and Misuse', indicating unauthorized use of sensitive information for inappropriate purposes. The file had a high threat score (80%) due to potential misuse, but no known vulnerabilities were present.
Details:
This text provides three strategies for enhancing security monitoring, focusing on integrating various data sources such as user profiles (Actors), asset information, and reputation data. Each strategy is outlined below:
1. **Security Event with Actors**: When a security event occurs, like someone accessing a top-secret file, it's crucial to have context about the involved parties. This includes identifying who the individual is (e.g., john.doe), what their role and department are, and what access they are authorized to have (e.g., access to top-secret files).
2. **Security Event with Assets**: In addition to actors, it's important to consider the assets involved in a security event. This includes identifying where physical or digital assets are located (e.g., host name and IP address), what kind of data they contain, and whether there are any system or application vulnerabilities present.
3. **Security Event with Reputation Data**: To further enhance security monitoring, it's beneficial to include reputation data about the source attempting to access these assets. This involves identifying where the traffic is coming from (e.g., external), understanding what kind of threat it represents (e.g., abuse and misuse), and assessing its severity score.
These methods help in providing a comprehensive security monitoring approach by integrating multiple layers of information about users, systems, and threats to improve overall security posture and response capabilities.
This document outlines a security incident involving user john.doe accessing a top secret file from an external IP address (xxx.78.195.166) while logged in from the internal network using IP 10.0.26.9. The access occurred at Headquarters and was related to Government Initiatives, specifically NASA’s mission to Mars. The threat type identified is 'Abuse and Misuse', indicating unauthorized use of sensitive information for inappropriate purposes. The file accessed did not have any known vulnerabilities, but the threat score was high (80%) due to potential misuse. Hewlett-Packard Development Company appreciates feedback from users like john.doe; please take a few minutes to complete the session survey.
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