RE: unusual user activities

[William Baltas <bill.baltas () cleanwaterteam com>]

   Unusual behavior is difficult to define if you don't define normal behavior first.  For example, several years ago I 
worked for a police agency.  When IT started analyzing traffic patterns we noticed items we thought very unusual 
(traffic to adult/porn sites, download of suspicious files, etc.)  We contacted the Detective Bureau with our findings, 
and found that the officers in question were conducting ongoing investigations; this traffic was normal.  In my current 
position, this traffic would be grounds for termination.
   
   The following might be considered unusual:
   
   Traffic to the internet using the SMB protocol.
   Sending email directly from a workstation, bypassing smtp servers
   Connections to thousands of hosts from a single workstation
   Anti-Virus/Malware alarms on a workstation over a period of time (it's not unusual for someone to get infected from 
time to time)
   Users that have A/D accounts consistently locked out (this is probably not the user with the locked account, but 
someone trying to access the locked account.)
   Be aware of staff that asks for permissions to files and directories where they are not authorized.
   Look for traffic such as port scanning
   Watch for applications such as sam spade, angry IP scanner, cain and able, nmap and others
   If you have port security set on your switches, watch for ports that are continually disabled
   Look for DNS zone transfers from workstations and servers that are not your DNS servers.
   
   I hope this helps.
   
   Bill
   
   
   -----Original Message-----
From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com] On Behalf Of websicher () googlemail com
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 1:03 AM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: unusual user activities
   
   Hi,
   
   "unusual behaviour" is a very wide field from my perspective - but let's give it a try:
   
   #1: Use of (web) proxy:
   You could monitor the URLs the user called. If ofentimes a web proxy website is visited (e.g. hidemyass.com) it 
could be hint for illegal web activities (e.g. trying to hack sth.)
   
   #2: Online bookmarks:
   Primarily it's not a network topic but a security issue I witnessed some years ago. A company's employee stored his 
bookmarks to internal servers (including port numbers, etc.) on a publicly accessible external bookmarking website.
   
   #3: Number of uploads:
   If there's a remarkable number of uploads from the user's PC it may be the case that he "exports" company data to 
his own storage area, e.g. Google Docs. You should monitor the upload traffic.
   
   #4: Upload / Download volume:
   You should compare the user's upload and download data volumes compared to the average of employees with the same 
job position or in the same department. (e.g. an IT person will probably have a higher volume than an HR employee)
   If the volumes are significantly above the average you should closely monitor the traffic.
   
   Well that's all I can think of at the moment. If you provide more details on which areas you'd specifically like to 
cover maybe we can add more ideas.
   
   Cheers,
   Pascal
   
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it benefits your company and how your customers can tell if a site is secure. You will find out how to test, purchase, 
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