Page 39 - SAMENA Trends - November 2020

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

ARTICLE

Dynamic Deception Technology Cyberwar Game Changer

As a seamless and non-disruptive addition
to existing security infrastructures, Cyber
Deception-based threat detection closes the
gap on security vulnerabilities. It provides a
critical line of defense for detecting attackers
before they have time to complete their attack

and cause a data breach or harmful doings to
the critical infrastructure.

The massive increase in cyber attacks worldwide has widely increased
over the past decade. Hundreds of cybersecurity incidents have made
headline news with attackers turning to novel techniques to craft
sophisticated malware, tools, techniques, and procedures to surpass
the existing security controls. This type of attack is referred to today
as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT). The main challenge with APTs
besides their complexity is the Dwell time, which is the amount of time
spent by adversaries inside the target network without being detected.
According to the M-Trends 2020 report , the average dwell time in the
EMEA region is 54 days.

The inherent complexity of APTs comes as a result of the fact that the
adversaries, besides using zero-day malware and exploits to penetrate
Fahad Al Ali the network, are using legitimate tools inside the network to maintain their
presence and perform lateral moving activities. The usage of legitimate
Chief Technology Officer tools leads to increased detection complexity, as the tools utilized by
stc Kuwait adversaries are legitimate and cannot be blocked due to business needs.

Dynamic deception is an emerging category of cybersecurity defense
mechanisms used to detect sophisticated APT attacks. In dynamic
deception, the system works on building a honey-component inside
the production network by deploying fake assets (e.g., honeypots,
honeytokens, honey documents, etc.). These honey-components should
have a certain level of authenticity that makes them indistinguishable by
adversaries from other legitimate resources. The honey-component’s goal
is to misdirect the adversaries, luring them into these systems. Dynamic
deception usually works as a complement to other cybersecurity controls
in place to augment the existing security infrastructure. The technology

39 NOVEMBER 2020