CySA+
  • Introduction
  • Exam Objectives
    • Quiz
      • Threat and Vulnerability Management Competency
        • Questions
  • 1.0 Threat and Vulnerability Management
    • 1.1 Explain the importance of threat data and intelligence
      • Page 1
      • Intelligence Sources
      • Confidence Levels
      • Indicator Management
        • Trusted Automated eXchange of Indicator Information (TAXII)
        • OpenIoC
      • Threat classification
        • Known threat vs. unknown threat
        • Zero-day
        • Advanced persistent threat
      • Open-source intelligence
      • Proprietary / closed-source intelligence
      • Timeliness, Relevancy, Accuracy
    • 1.2 Given a scenario, utilise threat intelligence to support organisational security
    • 1.3 Given a scenario, perform vulnerability management activities
    • 1.4 Given a scenario, analyse the output from common vulnerability assessment tools
    • 1.5 Explain the threats and vulnerabilities associated with specialised technology
    • 1.6 Explain the threats and vulnerabilities associated with operating in the cloud
    • 1.7 Given a scenario, implement controls to mitigate attacks and software vulnerabilities
  • 2.0 Software and Systems Security
    • 2.2 Explain software assurance best practices
    • 2.1 Given a scenario, apply security solutions for infrastructure management
    • 2.3 Explain hardware assurance best practices
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  1. 1.0 Threat and Vulnerability Management
  2. 1.1 Explain the importance of threat data and intelligence
  3. Threat classification

Known threat vs. unknown threat

Cybersecurity techniques depend on the identification of "static" known threats, such as viruses, rootkits, Trojans, and botnets. It is straightforward to identify and scan for this type of threat with automated software by matching the malicious code to a signature in a database of known malware.

An example of a known unknown is that malware authors can use various obfuscation techniques to circumvent signature matching. The exact form that such malware will take is unknown, but its likely to use and operation within an attack is predictable.

Recycled threats - combining and modifying parts of existing exploit code to create new threats that are not as easily identified by automated scanning.

Unknown unknowns - completely new attack vectors and exploits. One of the purposes of security research is to try to discover these, using techniques such as analysis of data collected in honeypots and monitoring of discussion boards used by threat actors.

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Last updated 2 years ago