Right now, most organizations are fighting a losing battle against initial stage compromises. Malware, bots and client side attacks are eating many security programs alive. The security team is having a nearly impossible time keeping up with the onslaught and end-user systems are falling left and right in many organizations. Worse, security teams that are focused on traditional perimeter security postures and the idea of “keeping the bad guys outside the walls” are likely unaware that these threats are already active inside their networks.

There are a number of ways that second stage compromises occur. Usually, a compromised mobile device or system comes into the environment via remote access, VPN or by being hand carried in by an employee or consultant. These systems, along with systems that have been exploited by client-side vulnerabilities in the day to day network represent the initial stage compromise. The machines are already under attacker control and the data on these machines should already be considered as compromised.

However, attackers are not content with these machines and their data load. In most cases, they want to use the initial stage victims to compromise additional workstations and servers in whatever environment or environments they can ride those systems into. This threat is the “second stage compromise”. The attackers use the initial stage victims as “pivot points” or bots to attack other systems and networks that are visible from their initial victim.

Commonly, the attacker will install bot-net software capable of scanning other systems and exploiting a few key vulnerabilities and bad passwords. These flaws are all too common and are likely to get the attacker quite a bit of success. The attacker then commands the bot victim to scan on new connections or at designated times, thus spreading the attacker’s presence and leading to deeper and deeper compromise of systems and data.

This pattern can be combated in a number of ways. Obviously, organizations can fight the initial stage compromise. Headway has been made in many organizations, but the majority are still falling quite short when it comes to protecting against a growing diverse set of attack vectors that the bot herders and cyber-criminals use. Every day, the attackers get more and more sophisticated in their campaigns, targeting and approach. That said, what can we do if we can’t prevent such attacks? Perhaps, if we can’t prevent them easily, we can strengthen our defenses in other ways. Here are a couple if ideas:

One approach is to begin to embrace enclave computing. This is network and system trust segregation at the core. It is an approach whereby organizations build their trust models carefully, allowing for initial stage compromises and being focused on minimizing the damage that an attacker can do with a compromised workstation. While you can’t prevent compromise, the goal is to create enough defensive posture to give your team time to detect, isolate and respond to the attack. You can read more about this approach in our 80/20 rule of Information Security.

A second idea is to use HoneyPoint decoy hosts on network segments where exposures and initial stage compromise risks are high. These decoy hosts should be dropped where they can be easily scanned and probed by infected hosts. VPN segments, user segments, DMZs and other high exposure areas are likely candidates for the decoy placement. The idea is that the systems are designed to receive the scans. They offer up services that are fake and implemented just for this purpose. The decoy systems have no other use and purpose than to detect scans and probes, making any interaction with them suspicious or malicious. Decoy services, called HoneyPoints, can also be implemented on the servers and other systems present in these network segments. Each deployed HoneyPoint Agent ups the odds of catching bots and other tools deployed by the attacker in the initial stage compromise.

Both of these strategies can be combined and leveraged for even more defense in depth against initial stage compromises. If you would like to learn more about how these tools and techniques can help, drop us a line or give us a call. We would be happy to discuss them with you.

In the meantime, take a look at how your team is prepared to fight initial stage compromises. What you find may be interesting, especially if your team’s security focus has been on the firewall and other perimeter controls.