CISA’s SilentShield advisory shares key cybersecurity insights from red team

TLDR:

• CISA published a cybersecurity advisory based on its ‘SilentShield’ red team assessment against a federal organization.
• The assessment identified key lessons such as lack of robust controls, log analysis issues, and decentralized team structures.

CISA recently released a cybersecurity advisory based on its ‘SilentShield’ red team assessment conducted against a federal organization. The assessment revealed crucial cybersecurity lessons that organizations can learn from to enhance their cybersecurity measures. Some key points highlighted in the advisory include:

The ‘SilentShield’ red team assessment identified four key lessons:

• Lack of robust controls to prevent and detect malicious activities, including issues with the perimeter network.
• Challenges with log analysis, retention, and processing, leading to defensive analysts missing critical information.
• Decentralized team structures and bureaucratic communication hindering network defenders’ effectiveness.
• Reliance on a ‘known-bad’ detection approach limiting the identification of alternative tactics, techniques, and procedures.

The red team assessment also provided recommendations for organizations to improve their cybersecurity measures, including implementing defense-in-depth principles, robust network segmentation, and behavior-based indicators of compromise. By addressing these key lessons and implementing the suggested strategies, organizations can enhance their cybersecurity posture and better protect against advanced threats.