Entries Tagged as 'CERT'

Fuzzy Hashing Against Different Types of Malware

CERT , Fuzzy Hashing , Malware No Comments »

By David French,
CERT Senior Researcher

David FrenchMalware, which is short for “malicious software,” is a growing problem for government and commercial organizations since it disrupts or denies important operations, gathers private information without consent, gains unauthorized access to system resources, and other inappropriate behaviors. A previous blog post described the use of  “fuzzy hashing” to determine whether two files suspected of being malware are similar, which helps analysts potentially save time by identifying opportunities to leverage previous analysis of malware when confronted with a new attack.  This posting continues our coverage of fuzzy hashing by discussing types of malware against which similarity measures of any kind (including fuzzy hashing) may be applied.

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Measures for Managing Operational Resilience

CERT , Operational Resilience , Resilience Management Model (RMM) No Comments »

By Julia Allen,
Principal Researcher
CERT Program

Julia AllenThe SEI has devoted extensive time and effort to defining meaningful metrics and measures for software quality, software security, information security, and continuity of operations. The ability of organizations to measure and track the impact of changes—as well as changes in trends over time—are important tools to effectively manage operational resilience, which is the measure of an organization’s ability to perform its mission in the presence of operational stress and disruption. For any organization—whether Department of Defense (DoD), federal civilian agencies, or industry—the ability to protect and sustain essential assets and services is critical and can help ensure a return to normalcy when the disruption or stress is eliminated. This blog posting describes our research to help organizational leaders manage critical services in the presence of disruption by presenting objectives and strategic measures for operational resilience, as well as tools to help them select and define those measures.

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Fuzzy Hashing Techniques in Applied Malware Analysis

CERT , Fuzzy Hashing , Malware 3 Comments »

By David French,
CERT Senior Researcher

David French Malware—generically defined as software designed to access a computer system without the owner’s informed consent—is a growing problem for government and commercial organizations.  In recent years, research into malware focused on similarity metrics to decide whether two suspected malicious files are similar to one another. Analysts use these metrics to determine whether a suspected malicious file bears any resemblance to already verified malicious files. Using these metrics allows analysts to potentially save time, by identifying opportunities to leverage previous analysis. This post will describe our efforts to develop a technique (known as fuzzy hashing) to help analysts determine whether two pieces of suspected malware are similar.

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