Playbook Objectives:
- To effectively simulate a data exfiltration scenario in a controlled environment to evaluate the company’s readiness and response capabilities.
- To identify potential weaknesses in the existing security infrastructure and improve upon the incident response strategy.
- To train IT teams on recognizing the signs of data exfiltration and taking swift, appropriate measures to prevent real-world breaches.
- To validate and improve the efficacy of existing data loss prevention (DLP) tools and strategies.
Difficulty level:
- Advanced
Scenario:
- Cybervault Inc., a renowned financial services firm, prides itself on managing sensitive financial data for their clients. Recently, they have been targeted by a series of sophisticated cyberattacks aimed at extracting confidential client information. To combat these threats and protect their reputation, Cybervault has decided to conduct a detailed Cyber Range exercise focusing on Data Exfiltration Prevention Techniques.
- In this scenario, the Red Team (attackers) has been assigned to simulate an insider threat. One of Cybervault Inc.’s employees, Jordan Smith, a disgruntled Security Analyst, plans to exfiltrate sensitive client information. Jordan has found a vulnerability in the network’s endpoint devices and intends to exploit it using a combination of phishing emails, malware, and obfuscation techniques to evade detection by the DLP systems.
- The exercise is set within the company’s secure lab environment, emulating Cybervault’s live network structure, which includes a mix of Windows and Linux endpoints, email servers, a DLP system, an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), and centralized logging and monitoring systems.
- The objective for Cybervault is to detect and prevent the exfiltration attempt by monitoring the simulation through their Security Operations Center (SOC) and incident response team, updating their DLP rules and configurations, and improving staff awareness and readiness.
Category:
- Data Loss Prevention / Insider Threat Mitigation
Exercise Attack Steps:
- Reconnaissance & Initial Compromise: Jordan Smith conducts internal network reconnaissance to identify potential data repositories and vulnerable endpoints for initial compromise.
- Privilege Escalation: After a successful phishing attempt, Jordan uses a payload to escalate privileges on the local endpoint that is undetected by the antivirus system.
- Lateral Movement: With elevated privileges, Jordan attempts lateral movement in order to find a system with stored sensitive data.
- Data Collection: Jordan gathers targeted data discreetly and bundles it for exfiltration.
- Exfiltration Attempt #1 – Direct Transfer: Jordan first attempts to directly transfer the data outside the network using an encrypted channel, which should be detected by the DLP system.
- Exfiltration Attempt #2 – Obfuscation: Upon the initial attempt being blocked, Jordan tries to obfuscate the data, splitting it into smaller chunks and encrypting it with commonly used business file types to avoid detection.
- Exfiltration Attempt #3 – Physical Removal: As a final step, Jordan plans to copy data to a USB drive for physical removal from the premises; this should trigger an alert from the endpoint protection system that monitors removable media.
- Review & Mitigation: Monitoring and incident response teams analyze the attack vectors, perform a forensic investigation, and implement steps to mitigate the threats exposed by the exercise.
- Post-Exercise Evaluation: Debriefing to encapsulate learning experiences, adjustments needed in policies, and improvement in technical controls, followed by an update to the current Data Exfiltration Prevention Techniques Playbook.
