"Offensive Countermeasures: The Art of Active Defense" by John Strand and Paul Asadoorian outlines a strategy of utilizing limited offensive actions to disrupt attackers after they have breached a perimeter. The text centers on the pillars of annoyance, attribution, and attack to raise the costs for adversaries, while emphasizing legal and ethical constraints. Access the digital book at Internet Archive Offensive Countermeasures: The Art of Active Defense
Deploying aggressive countermeasures carries the risk of impacting innocent third parties. Attackers frequently use compromised proxy servers or corporate networks to launch attacks. Counter-attacking these nodes can harm blameless organizations.
Opening fake ports that, when scanned, trigger an alert or slow down the attacker's scanning tools (tarpitting). offensive countermeasures the art of active defense pdf
"Offensive Countermeasures: The Art of Active Defense" represents a critical, often misunderstood, concept in cybersecurity. It involves actively engaging with attackers, manipulating their techniques, and taking steps to disrupt their operations, rather than simply patching vulnerabilities. What is Active Defense?
Many of today's active defense tactics fall under the umbrella of . This involves building a false reality for attackers, tricking them into revealing their methods. Common techniques include: "Offensive Countermeasures: The Art of Active Defense" by
Illegitimate OCM (Felony):
These are decoys designed to lure attackers. When an attacker interacts with a honeypot, they are actually being monitored, allowing defenders to analyze their techniques without risking production systems. honeytokens (fake credentials)
Attackers rely heavily on automated scanners to find vulnerabilities. Web deception involves injecting fake directories or vulnerabilities into web applications.
Whether you are focusing on a particular (e.g., insider threats vs. external ransomware groups).
Active Defense is a strategy that involves taking direct action against an adversary to deny them the ability to succeed in their mission. Unlike traditional defense, which focuses on hardening the perimeter, Active Defense seeks to: of the attack for the adversary. Decrease the value of the stolen data. Identify and attribute the attacker’s activities.
, honeytokens (fake credentials), and fake user accounts to trick attackers and trigger alerts. Aikido Analogy