How to Think Like a Hacker and Stay Ahead of Threats

To realize success as a cybersecurity analyst, you want to understand the qualities, values, and believed procedures of hackers, together with the applications they use to launch their attacks.

Throughout a webinar referred to as The Hacker Attitude, a Crimson Crew Researcher shared how you can use some of these applications for your very own detection and avoidance of breaches. He also demonstrated how an attack requires put employing the Follina exploit as an case in point.

So, what does “the hacker way of thinking” mean?

The hacker mentality can be characterized by 3 main values: a strong sense of curiosity, an adversarial mindset, and persistence.

3 core values of a hacker’s attitude

1 — “Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it experienced 9 lives.”

Curiosity drives hackers to check out and realize units, networks, and software in purchase to detect vulnerabilities. Not only are they continuously seeking new know-how and techniques to increase their qualities and stay forward of security steps, they’re consistently applying freshly figured out techniques, tricks, and procedures in distinct systems.

2 — “Shift rapidly and crack things”

Despite the fact that considerably different in context from Facebook’s blitz-scaling motto, an adversarial mindset is a way of thinking that is usually seeking for approaches to defeat security actions, challenge the position quo, and force the boundaries of what is possible.

Hackers are typically driven by a want to prove their individual qualities and to test the limits of techniques and networks. Hackers constantly ask by themselves: “how can I crack this?”, “how can I exploit this?”, “how can I bend this to my will and bring about maximum problems?” Cybersecurity groups, on the flip side, are concentrated on safety. Having said that, utilizing an adversarial way of thinking is an crucial critical considering tool that can help dramatically boost the organization’s cyber posture by preemptively detecting and remediating vulnerabilities.

3 — “Of study course I battle, I just you should not stop”

Persistence is an important trait for hackers as they often have to have to attempt many techniques and tactics in buy to discover a way into a technique. They may encounter roadblocks and failures, but they really don’t give up very easily. They’ll will carry on to do the job until finally they have attained their objective.

Frequently hackers remind on their own that cybersecurity groups want to discover and remediate all vulnerabilities although a hacker requires to discover only one. The ​​relentless pursuit of vulnerabilities is at their main.

Why understanding MITRE ATT&CK is key

MITRE ATT&CK is a systematic way of being familiar with and defending in opposition to cyber threats by figuring out the techniques and tactics that attackers use to obtain access to units and steal or problems data.

The framework describes the strategies, tactics, and strategies (TTPs) utilised by cyber attackers. It can be employed to assist companies have an understanding of and protect from cyber threats.

The framework is divided into distinctive “matrices” which deal with numerous varieties of threats like company, cell, and industrial regulate techniques. Just about every matrix lists the distinctive TTPs that attackers might use, like original entry, execution, persistence, and details exfiltration.

The aim of the MITRE ATT&CK framework is to supply a typical language and knowing of the techniques and tactics used by attackers. This enables businesses to greater discover and prioritize their security initiatives, and to create more successful defenses versus cyber threats.

If you recognize the framework, you happen to be one particular step forward in getting the suitable applications that will assist you to acquire visibility into critical belongings like user facts, endpoints, servers, and SaaS applications – letting you to come across the up coming vulnerability in advance of it really is exploited by a hacker.

Want to master extra about having into the hacker frame of mind? Check out the entire recording of The Hacker Way of thinking here.

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Some areas of this article are sourced from:
thehackernews.com