Tactics, Techniques and Procedures

Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) refer to the specific methods, tools, and approaches used by threat actors to carry out cyber attacks or achieve their objectives. Understanding and cataloging TTPs is a crucial part of cyber threat intelligence and incident response efforts.

1. Tactics: Tactics represent the high-level goals or objectives of a threat actor. These can include initial access, persistence, privilege escalation, defense evasion, credential access, discovery, lateral movement, collection, exfiltration, and command and control. Tactics provide insight into the overall strategy and intent of the adversary.

2. Techniques: Techniques are the specific methods or actions employed by threat actors to achieve their tactical goals. These can include exploitation of vulnerabilities, malware deployment, social engineering, credential dumping, remote access tools, pivoting, data staging, and various other techniques used at different stages of an attack.

3. Procedures: Procedures refer to the detailed steps or sequences of actions taken by threat actors to execute a particular technique. These can include the specific commands, scripts, or tools used, the order in which they are executed, and any configuration settings or parameters involved.

Understanding TTPs is important for several reasons:

1. Threat Detection and Hunting: Knowing the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by threat actors can aid in detecting and identifying potential threats or compromises within an organization's systems and networks.

2. Incident Response and Mitigation: During an incident response effort, understanding the adversary's TTPs can help analysts determine the scope of the incident, identify potential indicators of compromise (IoCs), and implement appropriate mitigation strategies.

3. Risk Assessment and Prioritization: By analyzing the TTPs of different threat actors or groups, organizations can assess their risk exposure and prioritize their security efforts based on the most relevant and pressing threats they face.

4. Threat Actor Attribution: TTPs can sometimes provide clues or patterns that can help attribute specific cyber attacks or campaigns to known threat actor groups or advanced persistent threats (APTs).

5. Proactive Defense and Hardening: With knowledge of adversary TTPs, organizations can implement proactive defense measures, such as hardening systems against specific techniques, updating security controls, or adjusting monitoring and detection mechanisms.

TTPs are often cataloged and shared within the cybersecurity community through threat intelligence platforms, reports, and frameworks like the MITRE ATT&CK matrix. By continuously updating and sharing TTP knowledge, organizations can stay ahead of evolving cyber threats and enhance their overall security posture.