Reverse Deception

Reverse Deception: Organized Cyber Threat Counter-Exploitation is a book by Sean Bodmer, Max Kilger, Gregory Carpenter, and Jade Jones. It investigates methods and criteria to address organizational responses to Advanced Persistent Threats and cyber deception. It details how to identify APTs and prioritize actions by applying skilled, field-tested private and government sector processes and methods, which often involve cyber deception.

Content
The book reviews the most historical and significant malware: Titan Rain, Moonlight Maze, Stakkato, and Stuxnet are reviewed in light of APT criteria. The exploits of Stuxnet and these major cyber events are reviewed from an operational aspect. These exploits were complex and expensive because the development of APT is resource-intensive. It is most often believed to be sponsored by a government, in essence conducting an offensive action. In some countries, this can be a crime, while others consider it an aggressive defensive technique.

The work contains four stories regarding deception and counter-deception. These are explained to be fictionalized works based on actual events that occurred somewhere in the law enforcement and intelligence worlds, but there is no way of vetting this, and it is not clear if these works are rooted in US domestic or international work. The cases are varied and considered compelling by noted cybercritics and reviewers of this work.

The authors introduce the first theory for classifying a threat on the opportunistic-APT continuum as either persistent or non-persistent. The APT classifications and criteria are now widely used in the industry and are built on an evaluation of the following criteria:

APT CRITERIA
 * Objectives
 * Timeliness
 * Resources
 * Risk tolerance (by the adversary)
 * Skills and methods
 * Actions
 * Attack origination points
 * Numbers involved in the attack
 * Knowledge source


 * Threat Intelligence
 * Analysis of cyber espionage tactics contrasted with types of permissible countermeasures
 * How to use deception and disinformation campaigns
 * Case studies and real stories from the authors’ FBI, DOD, NSA, and private sector work.
 * Value Chain Management
 * Counter espionage and espionage
 * Legal interpretations of capacities, limitations, and stipulations for assisting law enforcement investigations.