You should also have experience with Wireshark display filters as described in this additional tutorial. We use a customized column display shown in this tutorial. Note: This tutorial assumes you have a basic knowledge of network traffic and Wireshark. Understanding these traffic patterns can be critical for security professionals when detecting and investigating Qakbot infections. This Wireshark tutorial reviews a recent packet capture (pcap) from a Qakbot infection. This family of malware has been active for years, and Qakbot generates distinct traffic patterns. Data exfiltration occurs in two ways, through outsider attacks and via insider threats.Qakbot is an information stealer also known as Qbot. Both are major risks, and organizations must ensure their data is protected by detecting and preventing data exfiltration at all times.Īn attack from outside the organization occurs when an individual infiltrates a network to steal corporate data and potentially user credentials. This typically is a result of a cyber criminal injecting malware onto a device, such as a computer or smartphone, that is connected to a corporate network. Some strands of malware are designed to spread across an organization’s network and infiltrate other devices, searching for sensitive corporate data in an attempt to exfiltrate information.

Other types of malware will lay dormant on a network to avoid detection by organizations’ security systems until data is exfiltrated subversively or information is gradually collected over a period of time.Īttacks can result from malicious insiders stealing their own organization’s data and sending documents to their personal email address or cloud storage services, potentially to sell to cyber criminals. They can also be caused by careless employee behavior that sees corporate data fall into the hands of bad actors.ĭepending on the type of attack method used, detecting data exfiltration can be a difficult task. Cyberattacks using techniques that are more difficult to detect can be mistaken for regular network traffic. This means they can lurk in networks unnoticed for months and even years, while the data exfiltration will often only be discovered when the damage has been caused to the organization. To detect the presence of bad actors, organizations must look into tools that discover malicious or unusual traffic automatically and in real time. One tool that offers this capability is an intrusion detection system (IDS), which monitors a network and searches for known threats and suspicious or malicious traffic. When it detects a possible threat, the IDS sends an alert to the organization’s IT and security teams. IDS applications can be either software, which runs on hardware or network security solutions, or cloud-based, which protects data and resources in cloud environments. These tools work by searching for known attack signatures and detecting anomalies that deviate from regular network activity. They then issue an alert or report of the anomaly so that system administrators and security teams can examine them at the application and protocol layer. Once risks have been detected, organizations can analyze the risk using tools like static malware analysis and dynamic malware analysis. These enable organizations to understand the threat and the potential impact it could have on devices and networks. In addition to detecting standalone threats, organizations can also build out the entire sequences of an event as it happened, including mapping them to a known kill chain or attack framework. They can then create a custom detection system that meets their unique risk profile without the need for threat hunters and expensive data scientists.Īside from detecting potential risks and protecting data, systems, and users from security attacks without impacting performance and user productivity, organizations should be able to prevent data exfiltration. This has become increasingly difficult given the mobile and remote working trends of the modern workforce. Organizations therefore must prevent sensitive data from being transmitted to unidentified servers in locations with high levels of cyberattacks. They should also prevent the unauthorized transmission of data to third-party servers, which are increasingly becoming the source of modern cyberattacks.

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