Methods of Evasion and Countermeasures Against Scanning in Cybersecurity

Methods of Evasion and Countermeasures Against Scanning in Cybersecurity

Scanning evasion, especially in cyber security, is a critical concern for enterprises protecting sensitive data and systems. Malicious actors employ scanning to find network or system vulnerabilities to obtain unauthorized access or launch attacks. Organizations require strong defenses to counter these scans. This paper discusses ways to avoid scanning and how corporations might reduce these dangers.

Attackers use stealth techniques, including slow scanning, randomizing scan patterns, and proxy servers to mask their IP addresses to avoid detection. They may also utilize encryption or tunneling to hide malicious activity from security systems. Attackers also spoof network traffic to imitate genuine businesses or hide their identity. IP address spoofing involves an attacker forging packet source IP addresses to look like they come from trusted network sources. An attacker employs MAC address spoofing to seem as if they are using authorized devices on a network to overcome access controls and get unauthorized access. Hackers may also fragment or segment their malicious payloads to avoid intrusion detection systems (IDS) or firewall filters that inspect traffic based on predetermined signatures or patterns (Northcutt & Novak, 2002). Attackers can avoid discovery by reassembling payloads inside a target network.

Security measures and best practices can help organizations combat these evasion methods. This includes installing powerful intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) that can detect and mitigate scanning and evasion methods. To address new threats and vulnerabilities, companies should regularly update their security policies and configurations. Additionally, organizations should frequently undertake vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify and fix network and system vulnerabilities. By finding and fixing vulnerabilities before attackers can, organizations can reduce their risk of scanning and other attacks.

The defense-in-depth technique, which combines several security controls and procedures to protect against attacks, is one of the best strategies to avoid scanning. Network segmentation, access control, encryption, endpoint protection, and other protections create several barriers for adversaries to infiltrate company resources. Companies may use Snort, an open-source network intrusion detection prevention system, to detect scanning and evasion. Snort can detect and stop scanning, spoofing, and evasion efforts via signature-based detection, protocol analysis, and anomaly-based detection (Roesch, 2009). By installing Snort and other security technologies, organizations can better notice and respond to scans and evasions.

References

Northcutt, S., & Novak, J. (2002). Network intrusion detection. Sams Publishing.

Roesch, M. (2009, November). Snort: Lightweight intrusion detection for networks. In Lisa (Vol. 99, No. 1, pp. 229-238).

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Discuss the various methods to evade scanning. What steps can an organization take to counter scans?

What do you think is the most effective way to evade scanning? Share an example or a tool to support your response.