Effective Threat Investigation for SOC Analysts: The ultimate guide to examining various threats and attacker techniques using security logs

Book Synopsis: Detect and investigate various cyber threats and techniques carried out by malicious actors by analyzing logs generated from different sourcesPurchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Key Features

• Understand and analyze various modern cyber threats and attackers' techniques
• Gain in-depth knowledge of email security, Windows, firewall, proxy, WAF, and security solution logs
• Explore popular cyber threat intelligence platforms to investigate suspicious artifacts

Book Description

Effective threat investigation requires strong technical expertise, analytical skills, and a deep understanding of cyber threats and attacker techniques. It's a crucial skill for SOC analysts, enabling them to analyze different threats and identify security incident origins. This book provides insights into the most common cyber threats and various attacker techniques to help you hone your incident investigation skills.

The book begins by explaining phishing and email attack types and how to detect and investigate them, along with Microsoft log types such as Security, System, PowerShell, and their events. Next, you'll learn how to detect and investigate attackers' techniques and malicious activities within Windows environments. As you make progress, you'll find out how to analyze the firewalls, flows, and proxy logs, as well as detect and investigate cyber threats using various security solution alerts, including EDR, IPS, and IDS. You'll also explore popular threat intelligence platforms such as VirusTotal, AbuseIPDB, and X-Force for investigating cyber threats and successfully build your own sandbox environment for effective malware analysis.

By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to analyze popular systems and security appliance logs that exist in any environment and explore various attackers' techniques to detect and investigate them with ease.

What you will learn

• Get familiarized with and investigate various threat types and attacker techniques
• Analyze email security solution logs and understand email flow and headers
• Find out how to analyze Microsoft event logs
• Practical investigation of the various Windows threats and attacks
• Analyze web proxy logs to investigate C&C communication attributes
• Understand web application firewall (WAF) logs and examine various external attacks
• Analyze FW logs and security alerts to investigate cyber threats
• Understand the role of CTI in investigation and identify potential threats

Who this book is for

This book is for Security Operation Center (SOC) analysts, security professionals, cybersecurity incident investigators, incident handlers, incident responders, or anyone looking to explore attacker techniques and delve deeper into detecting and investigating attacks. If you want to efficiently detect and investigate cyberattacks by analyzing logs generated from different log sources, then this is the book for you. Basic knowledge of cybersecurity and networking domains and entry-level security concepts are necessary to get the most out of this book.

Table of Contents

1. Investigating Email Threats
2. Email Flow and Header Analysis
3. Introduction to Windows Event Logs
4. Tracking Accounts Login and Management
5. Investigating Suspicious Process Execution Using Windows Event Logs
6. Investigating PowerShell Event Logs
7. Investigating Persistence and Lateral Movement Using Windows Event Logs
8. Network Firewall Logs Analysis
9. Investigating Cyber Threats by Using the Firewall Logs
10. Web Proxy Logs Analysis
11. (N.B. Please use the Look Inside option to see further chapters)