Sometimes…
1. Security Controls Fail
When you rely on technology to alert your team when an incident occurs, there will be failures and errors. Even with machine learning and artificial intelligence, there are times when “bad” things are mistakenly learned to be “good”.
2. Devices are Misconfigured
Configuration errors, conflicting rules, or missing critical updates can create noise on your network and expose your assets to attackers. These common vulnerabilities are regularly exploited to gain access to systems.
3. Policies are Violated
You write policies, train users, and regularly practice scenarios, yet social engineering, unintentional mistakes, sheer laziness, and malicious internal campaigns are still popular ways for attackers to create havoc.
4. Systems are Compromised
Attackers can gain access to a system or network through brute force, impersonating an authorized user, or installing malicious software. They often remain undetected for months collecting intelligence.
Have you experienced a Security Incident?
Reasons Attackers Succeed
1. Lack of Visibility
Most organizations have limited network visibility coming from tools that originally let the attackers in.
2. Lack of Intelligence
Organizations often lack the context of an attack and the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) of the attacker slowing response and misdirecting resources.
3. Lack of Experience
Most organizations struggle to compete for and maintain experienced security professionals.
4. Lack of a Plan
Without a rehearsed plan, missteps, and confusion reign. Coordination with responders, insurers, and knowledgeable lawyers is crucial to success but can take days to organize.
Common Cybersecurity Incidents
Security Alert
The average enterprise generates over 11,000 alerts per day. Many are false positives, and a portion of them will require research and investigation. When you find one that gives you a bad feeling, that is when you need to ask for expert help.
Ransomware
Ransomware attacks rose by 92.7% last year. If you see signs of a ransomware attack (ransom notes, locked files, etc.) it is important that you act swiftly. Trained forensic experts will ensure that damage is minimized, evidence is collected, and regulations are followed.
Fraudulent Payments
The FBI reports that fraud involving email cost businesses over $43B in the last six years. Impersonation, spear-phishing, social engineering, and stolen credentials make this an investigation that requires professionals trained in more than just cybersecurity.
Supply Chain Attack
Supply chain attacks increased by 51% in the second half of last year. The biggest challenge with these incidents is the potential impact on multiple organizations with varying regulatory requirements. The supply chain is only as secure as its weakest link.
Insider Threat
Over the past 24 months, insider threat incidents have risen by 44%. The target of these threats can vary greatly—money, intellectual property, employee data, or customer information. The investigation is challenging as it extends to suppliers, contractors, and former employees.
We detect and eliminate security risks others may miss.
We respond to hundreds of complex breaches every year, usually as a referral from a law firm, private equity group, or cybersecurity channel partner. We’re a team of experienced investigators and threat hunters with deep law enforcement, national security, military, and large enterprise backgrounds. The reason we’re successful is that we developed and use a proprietary set of tools that give us a different vantage point of your network. We also use an Active Defense approach to improve our visibility of your adversaries. If your current security providers wait for them to trigger an alert, that is too late.
Simply, we see, hunt, and eradicate things others can’t.
Active Defense Approach
Total Network Visibility
We see everything on your network in a way that you never have before. It’s all there. This unique vantage point improves our situational awareness and allows us to study changes and activity on your network over time.
Expert Threat Hunting and Investigation
Our team will find the persistent threats lurking in your network. We’ll also use an Active Defense approach with threat hunting, investigative services, and digital forensics to identify adversaries before they trigger alerts at your perimeter.
Global Threat Intelligence
Comparing the anomalous activity we see on your network with public, private and government Intelligence sources helps us to triage, correlate and investigate potential threats quickly. We’ll know the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) your attacker will likely try to execute.
Full Packet Capture
Full Packet Capture is what makes it all work. We capture everything that is happening on your network. Then we add metadata and index it to make it faster, more efficient and easier to find.
Network Traffic Replay
It’s like a DVR for your network traffic. We’ll go back and see the conversations between IP addresses on your network. If something malicious is happening on your network we’ll “rewind” and show you. It’s pretty amazing.
Machine Learning
We use algorithms to look for patterns and trends in your network data and then alert an analyst to take action. This technology helps improve our efficiency and allows our analysts to focus their efforts on the anomalies.
Our Solutions
Enterprise Security Assessment
How do you know if your cybersecurity policies, procedures, and controls are protecting your organization? PacketWatch ESA will give you a holistic view of your IT and Security environments. Our cybersecurity experts will validate your risk and security posture.
- Where are you strong
- Where are your gaps
- Validates your security posture
- Provides a roadmap for improvement
Incident Response
Even with an Incident Response Plan, responding to a major security incident is likely unfamiliar and scary for most IT organizations. PacketWatch IR engages our battle-hardened experts to help your team respond to security incidents caused by all forms of attack.
- Immediate engagement
- Direct access to our experts
- Investigation & Forensics
- Recovery Services
Managed Detection and Response
PacketWatch MDR is designed to quickly and efficiently identify and verify anomalous and malicious activities on your network. With packet-level tools and recordings, our experts can “rewind” and analyze historic network activities to pinpoint incident details.
- Daily Threat Hunting
- Global Threat Intelligence
- Network & Endpoint Security
- Concierge-level Support, 24×7
Active Security
When it’s time to test your team, controls, applications, or processes, our experts will build custom scenarios based on real-world adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TPPs). These Purple Teaming exercises will show your team what a real attack will look like without the damage of experiencing an actual breach.
- Penetration Testing
- Adversary Emulation
- Vulnerability Management
- Tabletop Exercises (.pdf)
Advisory Services
Improve your overall security posture with assessments, plans, policies, governance, and training prepared specifically for your organization, industry, and regulatory requirements.
- Assess Your Environment
- Write Policies
- Build a Plan
- Educate Your Team
M&A Cyber Due Diligence
PacketWatch M&A is a comprehensive set of cybersecurity services for buyers and sellers delivered in a cost-effective and progressive 7-step due diligence approach that increases in intensity as indicators of compromise and risk are uncovered.
- Assess Security Posture
- Develop Security Intelligence Profile
- Identify Threats and Vulnerabilities
- Monitor Network and Hunt Threats
Law Firms
Increasingly attorneys require objective technical expertise to properly advise clients on complex incident response, compliance issues, disclosures, and privacy matters. PacketWatch provides technical response services, forensic analysis, assessments, and expert witness testimony to support attorneys and their clients. The quality, professionalism, and experience of our people provide a level of comfort and assurance to all involved.
Private Equity / M&A
Whether on the buy-side or sell-side of a transaction, properly understanding the cyber risk profile of a prospective organization is paramount. Enterprise value can be significantly diminished or wiped out altogether by a cyber incident. Traditional due diligence questionnaires and checklists are helpful but woefully inadequate. PacketWatch takes a progressive approach to evaluating risk by actually collecting network data over an entire business cycle, interviewing key personnel, and providing a much more thorough analysis of the effectiveness of controls, existing threats, vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, gaps, and incident response plans.
Channel Partners
To be a trusted advisor to their clients, IT and security service providers frequently need to deliver professional and managed services through partners. The cybersecurity services delivered by PacketWatch require highly specialized experts and tools that are difficult to find. Partnering with PacketWatch for incident response, managed security services, active security services, and advisory services is a great way to extend your line card and expand your relationship with your clients.
Responsive Expertise
“We engaged the PacketWatch team for a 30-Day Network Security Assessment. Almost immediately after deployment, they called to tell us they found several major network configuration errors that left our perimeter vulnerable to attack. The PacketWatch team immediately helped us make the necessary changes and tested the new configurations. What we accomplished in that first week justified the cost of the entire assessment for us!”
Advisory Services
Advisory Services are incremental to our standard service offerings. You can mix and match the services to build a custom program specific to your requirements. You do not have to be a PacketWatch client to take advantage of these services. Education programs are always customized to meet your specific end-user requirements.
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He’s on to Something.
MDR is when a “vendor performs dedicated threat hunting investigations and incident response on behalf of a customer,” according to SC Media.
Cybersecurity Law Report Includes PacketWatch Expertise
Cybersecurity Law Report interviewed Michael McAndrews for their “Ten Cybersecurity Resolutions for Financial Services Firms in 2023” article.
There’s Your Sign.
Getting more security tools can never replace getting more experienced people—threat hunters, cybersecurity analysts, and DevOps engineers.