Enhanced Cybersecurity Services: Protecting Critical Infrastructure

Enhanced Cybersecurity Services framework

At its core, the embedded system pc is a voluntary information-sharing framework that facilitates the dissemination of government-furnished cyber threat information to CI entities in both the public and private sectors. Through the program, sensitive and classified embedded system information is collected by agencies across the United States Government (USG) or EINSTEIN sensors1 placed on Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agency networks, and then analyzed by DHS to develop "threat indicators". DHS-developed threat indicators are then provided to Commercial Service Providers (CSPs)2 that, after being vetted and entering a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with DHS, may commercially offer approved ECS services to entities that have been validated as part of United States CI. The ECS services can then be used to supplement existing cyber defenses operated by or available to CI entities and CSPs to prevent unauthorized access, exploitation, and data exfiltration.

In addition, CSPs may also provide limited, anonymized, and industrial cybersecurity metrics to the DHS Office of Cybersecurity & Communications (CS&C) with the permission of the participating CI entity. Called Optional Statistical Information Sharing, this practice aids in understanding the effectiveness of the ECS program and its threat indicators, and promotes coordinated protection, prevention, and responses to malicious cyber threats across federal and commercial domains.

Enhanced Cybersecurity Services countermeasures the initial implementation of ECS, including two countermeasures for combating cyber threats: Domain Name Service (DNS) sinkholing and embedded pc e-mail filtering.

DNS sinkholing technology is particularly effective against malwares like Stuxnet that are equipped with distributed command and control network capabilities, which allows threats to open a connection back to a command and control server so that its creators can remotely access it, give it commands, and update it. The DNS sinkholing capability enables CSPs to prevent communication with known or suspected malicious Internet domains by redirecting the network connection away from those domains. Instead, CSPs direct network traffic to "safe servers" or "sinkhole servers," both hindering the spread of the malware and preventing its communications with embedded pc cyber attackers.

The e-mail filtering capability is effective in combating cyber threats like Duqu, for example, which spread to targets through contaminated Microsoft Word e-mail attachments (also known as phishing), then used a command and control network to exfiltrate data encrypted in image files back to its creators. The e-mail filtering capability enables CSPs to scan attachments, URLs, and other potential malware hidden in e-mail destined for an entity’s networks and potentially quarantine it before delivery to end users.

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