The minefield of online operations

Online operations are integral for security teams. They serve as a critical line of defense against an ever-growing array of cyber threats, essential for safeguarding sensitive information, maintaining business continuity, and protecting national security interests.

Online operations encompass various activities, from simple web browsing to complex data analysis, e-commerce, and virtual collaboration, often involving sensitive information.

Managed attribution is crucial for protecting against cyber threats because it allows users to control how their online presence appears to others, reducing the risk of exposing sensitive information or identifying details. With isolated environments, researchers and investigators can mask their identity, location, and digital footprint, making it more difficult for malicious actors to track, target, or compromise them. This approach is especially important when accessing sensitive sources or investigating potentially hostile online environments.

When a secure browser isn’t enough

Secure internet browsers are useful tools for some online operations, like primary source research. However, in many cases, investigations must go beyond the boundaries of a browser and require an entire virtual environment to operate, such as running open source programs for technical investigations or downloading data dumps in the wake of a breach to notify affected parties.

Our approach to Managed Attribution

Flashpoint Managed Attribution provides a secure virtual environment that is completely isolated from an organization’s browsers, computers, and network infrastructure. This allows analysts and investigators to conduct advanced research, download potentially malicious files, and interact with threat actors and nefarious online content while protecting against malware, trackers, and other cyber threats.

Removing friction points to improve outcomes

To make investigations smoother, Flashpoint Ignite users can pivot directly into the secure system from Ignite to pursue research safely and seamlessly. 

The key benefits of this capability are:

• Enhanced safety: URLs are opened in the secure MA environment so users remain anonymous.
• Improved efficiency: Alleviates the need to manually copy and paste links, saving time and effort.

Common workflows using Managed Attribution

1. Primary Source Research

Primary source research, particularly when conducted online or involving digital data, can be a minefield of cybersecurity risks. These risks include exposure to phishing and social engineering, downloading malware through malicious links or files, data breaches due to insecure access or sharing, and man-in-the-middle attacks when using public or unsecured networks. It’s crucial to be aware of these risks and take necessary precautions. 

2. Technical Investigations

A common use case is to investigate ‘phish kits’ or other potentially malicious websites. There are a lot of open-source applications we can use to do this, such as Crips, Lazy Recon, and others. With Managed Attribution, you can configure your own unique environment by installing advanced open-source analysis tools and browser extensions to support your use cases. 

3. Data Access and Recovery

If your organization or one of your third-party vendors has been breached and appears on a ransomware blog, Managed Attribution allows you to go directly to that blog and see updates as they are posted. Additionally, if the blog makes the information available for download, you can easily download the files directly to your virtual machine to analyze and extract the data. Our file transfer system is capable of supporting Terabyte-sized files.

Empowering secure online operations

The importance of robust Online Operations cannot be overstated in an era where cyber attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and frequent. From state-sponsored hackers to organized crime syndicates, the threat actors targeting our digital infrastructure are relentless and resourceful. Online Operations serve as the vigilant guardians of our digital realm, constantly monitoring, analyzing, and responding to potential threats quickly and effectively. 

Flashpoint Managed Attribution provides a secure virtual environment that allows security teams to conduct online investigations and interact with potentially malicious content while protecting their identity and organization from cyber threats.

To learn more about Flashpoint Managed Attribution, contact our team.