| ID | Technique | Tactic |
|---|---|---|
| T1566 | Phishing | Initial Access |
Detection: Zscaler Employment Search Web Activity
Description
The following analytic identifies web activity related to employment searches within a network. It leverages Zscaler web proxy logs, focusing on entries categorized as 'Job/Employment Search'. Key data points such as device owner, user, URL category, destination URL, and IP are analyzed. This detection is significant for SOCs as it helps monitor potential insider threats by identifying users who may be seeking new employment. If confirmed malicious, this activity could indicate a risk of data exfiltration or other insider threats, potentially leading to sensitive information leakage or other security breaches.
Search
1`zscaler_proxy` urlsupercategory="Job/Employment Search"
2| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by action deviceowner user urlcategory url src dest
3| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
4| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
5| `zscaler_employment_search_web_activity_filter`
Data Source
No data sources specified for this detection.
Macros Used
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| security_content_ctime | convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$) |
| zscaler_employment_search_web_activity_filter | search * |
zscaler_employment_search_web_activity_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.
Annotations
MITRE ATT&CK
Kill Chain Phases
NIST
CIS
Threat Actors
KillChainPhase.DELIVERY
NistCategory.DE_AE
Cis18Value.CIS_10
Axiom
GOLD SOUTHFIELD
INC Ransom
Default Configuration
This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Disabled | true |
| Cron Schedule | 0 * * * * |
| Earliest Time | -70m@m |
| Latest Time | -10m@m |
| Schedule Window | auto |
| Creates Risk Event | True |
This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.
Implementation
You must install the latest version of Zscaler Add-on from Splunkbase. You must be ingesting Zscaler events into your Splunk environment through an ingester. This analytic was written to be used with the "zscalernss-web" sourcetype leveraging the Zscaler proxy data. This enables the integration with Splunk Enterprise Security. Security teams are encouraged to adjust the detection parameters, ensuring the detection is tailored to their specific environment.
Known False Positives
False positives are limited to Zscaler configuration.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
| Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Potential Employment Search Web Activity from dest -[$dest$] on $src$ for user-[$user$]. | 4 | 5 | 80 |
The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.
References
Detection Testing
| Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Validation | ✅ Passing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | zscaler |
zscalernss-web |
| Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | zscaler |
zscalernss-web |
Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI.
Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range
Source: GitHub | Version: 3