Operational Security

At a time of mass surveillance, pervasive data collection, and eroding privacy protections, operational security becomes an essential component in the cybersecurity arsenal. Almost all organizations are exposing more sensitive information than they realize—and it’s being collected, stored, and weaponized by more parties than they imagine. Operational security helps security teams keep one of their most important and unruly risks in check by inhibiting how much adversaries can learn about the targets they intend to attack.

An Introduction to Operational Security

What is operational security?

Operational security prevents sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands by following a systematic process of discovering and then minimizing the level of exposure. Bad actors can use everything from social media chatter to stolen secrets to help perpetuate their attacks. Operational security aims to take away this advantage by managing the amount of sensitive information available to be found. It is a complicated and ongoing effort—but one that can have an outsized impact on cybersecurity.

How do teams collect data for operational security?

Traditionally, it has been a time- and labor-intensive process dependent on skills and experience. Operational security specialists had to scour the whole of the internet, including all of social media and as much of the dark web as possible, to find anywhere and everywhere that operational information was being exposed in a public-facing place. Since collecting threat intelligence has historically been a manual process, there have often been visibility gaps, even for teams that practice operational security seriously. Now, thanks to automation, collecting data for operational security has never taken less time or staff, nor searched more sources or found more results.

How do teams utilize data for operational security?

Though operational security has countless potential applications, they fall into two major categories: short-term and long-term. In the short term, teams can use operational security to learn if, when, and how hackers plan to attack an organization, then take responsive measures designed to prevent the attack or minimize the damage. Over the long-term, teams can monitor what kinds of information flow out of their organization to reduce those leaks and promote a culture of privacy and security at all levels. In both cases, operational security plays a vital role in any cybersecurity strategy and gives teams the threat intelligence they need to be more effective at everything.

What are some sources of threat intelligence for operational security?

Knowing the most valuable and voluminous sources of threat intelligence helps to focus operational security efforts where they matter most:

Threat Actor Chat Forums – Cyber criminals discuss, plan, and brag about attacks on secretive chat forums rich with valuable intelligence
Social Media Profiles – Monitoring what bad actors are doing on social media reveals clues about the tactics, technique, and protocols they might use.
Dark Web Marketplaces – See what credentials and secrets are for sale on the dark web to any attacker who can pay the price.
Leak Paste and Dump Sites – These sites contain large amounts of leaked or stolen data, often with sensitive details anyone can sift through.

Why is Operational Security Increasingly Important?

What is the history of operational security?

Using information against an adversary has existed throughout history. It wasn’t until the Vietnam War that the concept of operational security (often called OPSEC) emerged, after military leaders discovered the enemy could anticipate the maneuvers of US forces without having to rely on stolen communications or intelligence assets—they could use information that had been inadvertently exposed, instead. That led to more focus on information awareness and data privacy, and gave rise to the first definition of OPSEC: “The ability to keep knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses away from hostile forces.” Since then, most other security agencies have begun practicing operational security, and with the rise of digital data, it became part of the cybersecurity realm as well.

Why are teams seeking more data for operational security?

Operational security has evolved over time from a fairly specialized discipline practiced by only the largest or most elite security teams into something much more common. Much of that shift is being driven by the need to anticipate and prevent attacks before they cause any material damage rather than depending on detection and response to address attacks. Teams are also looking for ways to do more with less, and using threat intelligence to efficiently and effectively disarm attacks pays dividends in that regard. Finally, the arrival of automated tools for operational security has made it more accessible to organizations that didn’t have the time or resources before.

What is the operational security lifecycle (according to NIST)?

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), along with most other authoritative bodies, defines operational security as a lifecycle of steps that run in order and repeat continuously:

Identification of critical information: Finding any information exposed on the internet that could be used to further an attack against the organization.
Analysis of threats: Exploring which bad actors might want or be able to access that sensitive information, and what capabilities and motives they have.
Analysis of vulnerabilities: Looking at ways that threats could use critical information to compromise an organization.
Assessment of risks: Assessing how much damage an attack could inflict, and how much risk leadership considers acceptable.
Application of countermeasures – Taking steps to prevent adversaries from obtaining, utilizing, or distributing critical information.

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After applying countermeasures in response to one exposure or threat, the hunt for threat intelligence begins again as defenders and attackers battle to gain the information advantage.

How Flare Fortifies Operational Security

How does Flare support operational security needs?

At the core of operational security is understanding exactly which sensitive information about an organization has been exposed so that security teams can first limit that exposure and second prevent future leaks. Flare scans the entire internet, including the dark web, to find every shred of relevant threat intelligence, then collects it on one platform for easy analysis and in many cases automated remediation. Flare makes it easy to find the risks that operational security efforts need to be focused on and just as easy to make those risks irrelevant.

What forms of threat intelligence can Flare supply for operational security?

Flare supplies operational security practitioners with the most valuable threat intelligence of all: a comprehensive repository of exposed information such as stolen credentials or leaked source code, combined with any mentions of a company in discussions among cyber criminals. In essence, Flare helps to reveal when, where, why, and how attackers might target a specific organization, giving them an invaluable advanced warning combined with enough intelligence to confidently prevent, minimize, or neutralize the threat.

What are the benefits of using Flare for operational security?

Eliminate Manual Processes: Automate threat intelligence collection instead of repeatedly spending hours manually scouring various sources.
Extend Data Collection: Look for threat intelligence in more sources to find the most obscure leaked information along with the most recent.
Upgrade Threat Intelligence: Learn the context, risk, and proper remediation process for each piece of threat intelligence discovered.
Automate Takedowns: Get exposed information removed with a single click to scale the takedown process and effectively start minimizing exposures.
Formalize OPSEC: Turn what can often be an occasional, incomplete, or inefficient process into one that has a significant positive impact on cybersecurity.