The Cyber Kill Chain by Lockheed Martin, shows the different stages of a cyber attack.
In order for a cyber security analyst to effectively detect threats and stop them, he/she needs to know the different stages in the CKC and what goes on in each stage.
There are seven stages in the CBC, and its shows how an attack begins and progresses.
Reconnaissance: Before any military operation is carried out, information is gathered. You can't defeat an opponent you know nothing about.
In this stage, the hacker gathers information on the target. He looks for open ports on the target network and tries to know what OS is being used, email addresses. He looks for vulnerabilities, that can be exploited to gain entrance into the victim's network.
Weaponization: Once a vulnerability is found, the attacker creates an exploit for it. A malicious payload is crafted.
Delivery: The malicious payload is sent to the victim. It can be sent to the victim via so many means such as; cross site scripting, email attachments, SQL injection, a web link or USB drive.
Exploitation: In this stage the vulnerability is exploited and the malicious payload is executed.
Installation: The malicious payload installs a backdoor, for the attacker to maintain persistent access without being detected.
Command and Control: After installation is complete, the attacker is able to take command and control(have keyboard access of) the victim system via the backdoor created.
Action on Objectives: The attacker is able to carry out their intended objective. This can either be data exfiltration, privilege escalation e.t.c.
All images by me.
