Hunting Threat Actors Using OSINT

SANS Digital Forensics and Incident Response
SANS Digital Forensics and Incident Response
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Published 2022-11-28
SANS DFIR Summit 2022

Speaker: Abi Waddell

Little attention is given to tracking the perpetrators of cyber-attacks in the world of forensics. DFIR teams can usually attempt to answer the question of what an attacker did, how they did it and when, but rarely who has done something. Fortunately, there are some methods of answering this question using open-source intelligence – methods which have been used successfully to trace the location and identity of threat actors in recent years. Attendees will learn how to get OSINT leading to the identification of a threat actor, based on real life examples, techniques and demos of new free tools including:

• Revealing deleted parts of screenshots and PDF files
• Discerning fake social media accounts
• Finding IP addresses belonging to VPN services likely to be used by cyber criminals
• Results of original research of thousands of leaked accounts, into identifying gender, age and predicted passwords in use, from the chosen usernames and passwords.
• Uncovering identities from pseudonyms
• Using account leaks, search engine analytics, maps, social media, images and more, to hunt threat actors.

This talk will show how focusing more on finding the source of cyber breaches will reduce attacks in the long run and how OSINT can be harnessed legally to discover the identity of cyber criminals. Key takeaways:

Techniques and tools to find the identity of a threat actor based on real life examples, how focusing more on finding the source of cyber breaches will reduce these attacks in the long run and the types of OSINT and how it can be harnessed legally to discover the identity of threat actors.

View upcoming Summits: www.sans.org/u/DuS
Download the presentation slides (SANS account required) at www.sans.org/u/1iaE
All Comments (7)
  • @mattdoesflyfishing
    The information on gender based password selection was super interesting! Can't say I was a fan of the subtle hint at men considering ships, cars and women as "inanimate" objects. In contrast, I would propose that ships, planes and cars much, like women, elicited an emotional response and thus they are named after women. This should be seen as an endearing quality in men. You know, just in case the speakers comments might be taken out of context.