Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Richard Bejtlich sits down with Jean Schaffer, Corelight’s Federal CTO, to discuss the unique hurdles facing government agencies in an era of escalating state-sponsored threats. Jean highlights the persistent challenge of legacy IT infrastructure and the "technical debt" that complicates modernization efforts across the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, and the civilian sector. The conversation explores the strategic shift toward cloud adoption as a means to decommission vulnerable on-premise hardware and the evolving "whole of nation" defense strategy that requires deeper public-private partnerships.

In this episode of Corelight Defenders, I’m joined by Bernard Brantley, Chief Information Security Officer at Corelight, as we delve into the concept of the enterprise nervous system. Bernard shares insights from his extensive experience in network analysis, explaining how organizations can leverage their network traffic data to enhance security and drive business outcomes. We discuss the importance of understanding the interdependencies between assets, processes, and goals, and how security teams can position themselves as integral to business success rather than just risk mitigators.

In Episode 7 of Corelight DefeNDRs, join me, Richard Bejtlich, as I sit down with Dr. Keith Jones, Corelight's principal security researcher, to discuss the practical applications of AI in enhancing network security. We delve into how large language models (LLMs) can assist in cleaning up documentation and generating Zeek scripts, sharing insights from our extensive experience in incident response and coding. Keith reveals the challenges and successes he has encountered using LLMs to streamline processes, including their role in analyzing MITRE techniques.

In Episode 6 of Corelight DefeNDRs, we delve deeper into the fascinating world of DNS covert channels with Vern Paxson, our chief scientist and co-founder. Continuing from our previous discussion, Vern shares his insights on techniques developed to detect these stealthy channels utilized by intruders to evade security measures. We explore the innovative approach of leveraging time series analysis of DNS lookups, how to distinguish benign traffic from potential threats, and the real-world implications of our findings across significant datasets.

In Episode 5 of Corelight Defenders, I, Richard Bejtlich, engage with Corelight's co-founder and chief scientist, Vern Paxson, to delve into the intricate world of DNS covert channels. We explore how adversaries exploit DNS lookups to silently communicate within tightly controlled enterprise environments. Vern explains various methods attackers may use, from encoding data in seemingly benign domain names to manipulating the timing of requests. Our discussion highlights the challenges of detecting these covert channels, especially in the presence of network monitoring.