The OODA Loop: A Holistic Approach to Cyber Security

TK Keanini, CTO Lancope Dude, follow me on twitter @tkeanini

Cyber Security Strategy Retrospective

2

Fragmented Tactics

Deterministic Threat

Push exploits to Enterprise

Single-Step Exploits

Overt Tactics (cost to exploit)

Threat Intelligence Optional

Holistic Strategy

Adaptive Threat

Pull exploits to Enterprise

Multi-Step Exploits

Covert Tactics (cost to remain hidden)

Threat Intelligence Mandatory

Continuously evaluate your strategy

Yesterday Today

A Holistic Approach to Cyber Security

• Holistic Strategy (Framing the Conflict) • Holistic Telemetry (Data Complete) • Holistic Understanding (Information and

Knowledge Complete)

3

Holistic Strategy

• Inclusive of all the players – Not just operations, must include bad guys

• Must be a continuous process – If it does not look like a loop, it’s probably

wrong

• A framework for the changing dynamics of conflict – Understanding the game dynamics

• Sun Tzu • Musashi • Clausewitz

How to Best Frame Conflict

4

Colonel John Boyd (1927 – 1997)

• Fighter Pilot – Forty-Second Boyd

• Military Theories – Energy Maneuverability Theory

• Drove requirements for the F15 and F16 – Discourse on Winning & Losing – Destruction & Creation – Many modern military strategies based on Boyd

• The OODA Loop – the concept that all combat, indeed all human competition from

chess to soccer to business, involves a continuous cycle of Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action

Simplified OODA in the Context of Time

• Intelligence — Observation

— Orientation

• Execution — Decision

— Action

Feedback Loops of the OODA Loop

Conflict: Red vs. Blue O O D A

A D O O

Red Ops Blue Ops

Spin your loop faster than your adversary

OODA for Cyber Security

OODA Loop Summary

• Observation and Orientation (OO) increases your perceptive boundaries. – Superior Situational Awareness

• Sampling Rate of the OO is relative to the rate of change – Fast enough to represent change

• Decision and Actions raise the cost to your adversaries’ Observation/Orientation

• Operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries

Ultimately you are making it more expensive for the adversary to operate and hide

Holistic Telemetry

• Multi Sensor – No place to hide

(space and time)

• Metadata as Context

• Observation of Data – Completeness

• Orientation of Information – User Centric – App Centric

Data Complete

10

Flows

IP

MAC

Noun S: (n) telemetry (automatic transmission and measurement of data from remote sources by wire or radio or other means)

App

Users

Holistic Understanding Intelligence

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Craft Knowledge •Synthesis of Information Sets •Know how •Observer Centric

Fusion of Data Information •Synthesis of Data Sets • Information Sets

Atomic Data • Identifiers, Addresses, Counts, Types, etc. •Sets of Signals & Symbols

Analytic Synthetic

Holistic Cyber Security The Art of Cyberwar

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Decision

Action

Observation

Orientation

Data

Information

Knowledge

Automated

Semi Automated

Manual

SDN Cloud

OODA Loop and the Kill Chain

Infiltration

Exfiltration

Your Infrastructure Provides the Observation...

Internet Atlanta

San Jose

New York

ASR-1000

Cat6k

UCS with Nexus 1000v

ASA Cat6k

3925 ISR

3560-X

3850 Stack(s)

Cat4k Datacenter

WAN

DMZ

Access

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow

NetFlow NetFlow

© 2013 Lancope, Inc. All rights reserved. 14

…for Total Visibility from Edge to Access. StealthWatch delivers the Orientation

Internet Atlanta

San Jose

New York

ASR-1000

Cat6k

UCS with Nexus 1000v

ASA Cat6k

3925 ISR

3560-X

3850 Stack(s)

Cat4k Datacenter

WAN

DMZ

Access

© 2013 Lancope, Inc. All rights reserved. 15

Data Observation

16 © 2013 Lancope, Inc. All rights reserved.

Geographic Traffic Orientation

Time of Day Orientation

User Location Orientation

Data Hoarding Orientation

Data Disclosure Orientation

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Thank You

22 © 2013 Lancope, Inc. All rights reserved.

TK Keanini, Chief Technology Officer tk@lancope.com @tkeanini