What is the cybersecurity kill chain? You can have more awareness of this topic. If you want to understand more information, read this study.
What is the Cybersecurity Kill Chain?
The cybersecurity kill chain is a model that shows the steps necessary. Also, it is for an attacker to succeed in their attack, the order of the steps is as follows:
- Reconnaissance/initial exploitation
- Weaponization
- Delivery
- Exploitation
- Installation
- Command and control
- Data exfiltration
- Remediation
Cybersecurity Kill Chain Assessment
It’s important to know where your organization is on this model by assessing your current security measures against it. You can do this through a cybersecurity kill chain assessment.
This will allow you to see where the holes are in your defenses and make improvements accordingly. You can use the model to help you create a strategy for your incident response plan. Learn how to create an incident response plan here!
Example
The cybersecurity kill chain is an example of the attacker’s perspective. Let’s take a look at this example:
#1 Reconnaissance/initial exploitation –
First, the attacker gathers information about the target. They do this through reconnaissance and other tactics like phishing or social engineering.
This is the first step in the kill chain because it gives the attacker an idea of what kind of vulnerabilities might be present on your network.
#2 Weaponization –
The attacker takes information gathered in step one and uses it to develop a plan for attacking your organization. They do this by using a combination of malicious software and hacking tools to create a weapon.
#3 Delivery –
The attacker then uses the weapon that they created to deliver their attack to your network. This is the part of the kill chain where the actual malware or virus gets sent to your organization.
#4 Exploitation –
At this point, the malware has been delivered to your network and now it’s time for it to start doing its damage. The next step in the kill chain is exploitation. Also, this is when the malware starts to open holes in your defenses and allow the attacker access into your network.
#5 Installation –
Once inside your network, the attacker begins setting up their attack. This is the installation step in the kill chain. Also, this is when they install malicious software, including backdoors and botnets.
#6 Command and control –
After the attacker is on your network, they need a way to control it. This is where command and control come into play. It’s a lot easier for them to do this if they have remote access via a backdoor or botnet.
#7 Data exfiltration –
Next, it’s time for the attacker to collect any information that they want from your network. This is known as data exfiltration. You can learn more about this in our data exfiltration definition!
#8 Remediation –
Finally, the attacker will remove any traces of their attack from your network. Also, they will try to cover their tracks by deleting logs and making it look like nothing happened.
Challenges
The main challenge of the cybersecurity kill chain assessment will be to know exactly what your organization’s security measures are. You will need to know about security controls and how they work for you to do a complete assessment.
It will also be important to think about how an attacker could go about exploiting your system. This is called the adversary’s perspective.
It’s also important to note that there is no such thing as a perfectly secure network. An attacker can always find a way in if they are determined enough. It’s impossible to make a completely “secure” system because of technological limitations and human error.
Conclusion
As you can see, the cybersecurity kill chain model is a useful tool for understanding how an attacker might go about attacking your organization.
It’s important to understand the model and know where your organization is on it. You can do that by performing a cybersecurity kill chain assessment.
