Incident response automation engine

• US 9,762,607 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2015
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Splunk Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Phantom Cyber Corporation (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Satish, Sourabh, Friedrichs, Oliver, Mahadik, Atif, Salinas, Govind
• Primary Examiner(s): Song, Hosuk
• Application Number:
  US14/689,973
• Publication Number:
  US 20160164919A1
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• Field of Search: 726 1, 726 11- 15, 726 22- 24, 713153-154, 709223-225, 709229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1425 Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

Systems, methods, and software described herein enhances how security actions are implemented within a computing environment. In one example, a method of implementing security actions for a computing environment comprising a plurality of computing assets includes identifying a security action in a command language for the computing environment. The method further provides identifying one or more computing assets related to the security action, and obtaining hardware and software characteristics for the one or more computing assets. The method also includes translating the security action in the command language to one or more action procedures based on the hardware and software characteristics, and initiating implementation of the one or more action procedures in the one or more computing assets.

Claims

1. A method of operating a processing system of an advisement system to implement security actions for a computing environment comprising a plurality of computing assets, the method comprising:

providing security incident information to an administrator associated with the computing environment, wherein the security incident information comprises asset identifiers for assets related to a security incident and enrichment information for the security incident obtained from internal or external sources;

in response to providing the security incident information, identifying a user generated security action in a command language for the computing environment;

identifying one or more computing assets related to the security action;

obtaining hardware and software characteristics for the one or more computing assets;

translating the security action in the command language to one or more action procedures based on the hardware and software characteristics; and

initiating implementation of the one or more action procedures in the one or more computing assets.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing assets comprise host computing systems, end user computing systems, routers, switches, or virtual processing systems.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the user generated security action in the command language comprises receiving the user generated security action from an administration console associated with an administrator.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the security action comprises an action to block at least one internet protocol (IP) address, an action to remove a process on the one or more computing assets, or an action to enter the one or more computing assets into a virtual local area network (VLAN).

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the command language comprises a visual programming language.

6. An apparatus to manage security actions for a computing environment comprising a plurality of computing assets, the apparatus comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer readable media; and

processing instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable media that, when executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to;

provide security incident information to an administrator associated with the computing environment, wherein the security incident information comprises asset identifiers for assets related to a security incident and enrichment information for the security incident obtained from internal or external sources;

in response to providing the security incident information, identify a user generated security action in a command language for the computing environment;

identify one or more computing assets related to the security action;

obtain hardware and software characteristics for the one or more computing assets;

translate the security action in the command language to one or more action procedures based on the hardware and software characteristics; and

initiate implementation of the one or more action procedures in the one or more computing assets.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the command language comprises a visual programming language.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the computing assets comprise host computing systems, end user computing systems, routers, switches, or virtual processing systems.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the processing instructions further direct the processing system to identify the security incident within the computing environment, and wherein the processing instructions to provide the security incident information to the administrator direct the processing system to provide the security incident information to the administrator in response to identifying the security incident.

10. A computing apparatus to manage security actions for a computing environment comprising a plurality of computing assets, the apparatus comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer readable media;

a processing system operatively coupled to the one or more non-transitory computer readable media; and

processing instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable media that, when executed by the processing system, direct the processing system to at least;

provide security incident information to an administrator associated with the computing environment, wherein the security incident information comprises asset identifiers for assets related to a security incident and enrichment information for the security incident obtained from internal or external sources;

in response to providing the security incident information, identify a user generated security action in a command language for the computing environment;

identify one or more computing assets related to the security action;

obtain hardware and software characteristics for the one or more computing assets;

translate the security action in the command language to one or more action procedures based on the hardware and software characteristics; and

initiate implementation of the one or more action procedures in the one or more computing assets.

11. The computing apparatus of claim 10 wherein the processing instructions further direct the processing system to identify the security incident within the computing environment, and wherein the processing instructions to provide the security incident information to the administrator direct the processing system to provide the security incident information to the administrator in response to identifying the security incident.

12. The computing apparatus of claim 10 wherein the command language comprises a visual programming language.

13. The computing apparatus of claim 10 wherein the computing assets comprises host computing systems, end user computing systems, routers, switches, or virtual processing systems.

14. The computing apparatus of claim 10 wherein the program instructions to identify the user generated security action in the command language direct the processing system to receive the user generated security action from an administration console associated with an administrator.