- CISA released its first guide on using cyber decoys for detection and response
- The guide is titled Using Cyber Decoys to Strengthen Detection and Response
- It draws on the MITRE ATT&CK Matrix and MITRE Engage framework
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has published its first detailed guidance on defensive cyber decoys, outlining how critical infrastructure organizations can use decoy systems and information assets to identify malicious activity within their networks.
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What Does the Guide Cover?
The agency said Wednesday that its Using Cyber Decoys to Strengthen Detection and Response guide outlines how organizations can add decoy capabilities to their existing network defenses. CISA recommends using realistic decoy assets inside networks and systems, particularly near resources that could be valuable to an intruder.
Attackers often blend in by using credentials and tools that already belong on the network, a tactic known as living off the land, which makes it hard to tell normal activity from an intrusion in progress. CISA encourages organizations to use cyber decoys alongside zero trust models as a way to counter that blind spot. The idea is to catch intruders sooner, learn from how they behave once inside and use that behavior to decide where defensive attention is best spent.
What Can Organizations Learn From the Guidance?
As decoys tend to produce alerts defenders can trust, CISA said they also shorten how long it takes to spot a breach in the first place. The agency said the approach can provide defenders with information about activity occurring during intrusions.
Chris Butera, CISA acting executive assistant director for cybersecurity, said the guide is intended to help defensive teams understand cyber decoy techniques and the steps involved in establishing decoy operations. CISA and several other agencies released separate guidance earlier this year applying zero trust principles to operational technology systems, an approach the new decoy guide also recommends pairing with decoy deployment.
What Frameworks Support the CISA Guide?
The guide leans on two MITRE resources, the ATT&CK knowledge base and the Engage framework, to walk organizations through building out a decoy strategy of their own.
Getting the most out of the guide assumes some working knowledge of MITRE’s ATT&CK framework, along with the security tools most enterprises already have in place.
