Cyber Network Defense Analyst

Castalia Systems•Arlington, VA

6h•Onsite

About The Position

The DHSs Hunt and Incident Response Team (HIRT) secures the Nations cyber and communications infrastructure. HIRT provides DHSs front-line response for cyber incidents and proactively hunting for malicious cyber activity. Castalia Systems performs HIRT investigations to develop a preliminary diagnosis of the severity of breaches. Castalia provides HIRT remote and onsite advanced technical assistance, proactive hunting, rapid onsite incident response, and immediate investigation and resolution using host-based, network-based and cloud-based cybersecurity analysis capabilities. Contract personnel provide front line response for digital forensics/incident response (DFIR) and proactively hunting for malicious cyber activity. Castalia Systems is seeking a Cyber Network Defense Analyst (CNDA) to support this critical customer mission. The Cyber Network Defense Analyst uses information collected from a variety of sources to monitor network activity and analyze it for evidence of suspicious behavior. Monitoring and analysis are performed to identify and report events that occur, or might occur, within the network, to protect information, information systems, and networks from threats. CNDAs review data collected to analyze cyber events, and the network environment, to find trends, patterns or anomaly correlations that indicate more serious attacks or future threats. The CNDAs will recommend proactive measures to contain the incident. These proactive measures include, but are not limited to, identification of intruder local changes/suspect interactions, isolation, in-depth digital media analysis, consultation with law enforcement or counterintelligence organizations, development of signatures to detect this malicious behavior and development and deployment of eradication tools.

Requirements

5+ years of direct relevant experience in cyber defense analysis using leading edge technologies and industry standard cyber defense tools
BS Computer Science, Cyber Security, Computer Engineering, or related degree; or HS Diploma & 7-9 years of network investigations experience.
Experience successfully developing and deploying signatures
Experience detecting host and network-based intrusions via intrusion detection technologies (e.g., Snort)
Experience implementing incident handling methodologies
Experience implementing protocol analyzers
Experience collecting data from a variety of cyber defense resources
Experience reading and interpreting signatures (e.g. snort)
Experience performing packet-level analysis
Experience conducting trend analysis
Active TS/SCI and must be able to obtain a DHS Suitability
Must be a U.S. Citizen

Nice To Haves

ArcSight (or other SEIM solution) and Python programming experience would be ideal
Strong math and science background.
Experience with Carnegie Mellon SiLK tool suite
One or more of the following professional certifications: GNFA, GCIH, GCIA, GSEC, CASP+, CySA+, PaLMS, FedVTE , Network+, Security+

Responsibilities

Characterize and analyze network traffic to identify anomalous activity and potential threats to network resources
Coordinate with enterprise-wide cyber defense staff to validate network alerts
Document and escalate incidents (including events history, status, and potential impact for further action) that may cause ongoing and immediate impact on the environment
Perform cyber defense trend analysis and reporting
Perform event correlation using information gathered from a variety of sources within the enterprise to gain situational awareness and determine the effectiveness of an observed attack
Provide daily summary reports of network events and activity relevant to cyber defense practices
Receive and analyze network alerts from various sources within the enterprise and determine possible causes of alerts
Provide timely detection, identification, and alerting of possible attacks/intrusions, anomalous activities, and misuse activities and distinguish these incidents and events from benign activities
Use cyber defense tools for continual monitoring and analysis of system activity to identify malicious activity
Analyze identified malicious activity to determine weaknesses exploited, exploitation methods, effects on system and information
Determine tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) for intrusion sets
Examine network topologies to understand data flows through the network
Identify and analyze anomalies in network traffic using metadata
Conduct research, analysis, and correlation across a wide variety of all source data sets (indications and warnings)
Validate intrusion detection system (IDS) alerts against network traffic using packet analysis tools
Identify applications and operating systems of a network device based on network traffic
Reconstruct a malicious attack or activity based off network traffic
Identify network mapping and operating system (OS) fingerprinting activities
Assist in the construction of signatures which can be implemented on cyber defense network tools in response to new or observed threats within the network environment or enclave
Notify designated managers, cyber incident responders, and cybersecurity service provider team members of suspected cyber incidents and articulate the event's history, status, and potential impact for further action in accordance with the organization's cyber incident response plan
Prepare and update manuals, instructions, and operating procedures
Evaluate established methods and procedures and prepare recommendations for changes in methods and practices where appropriate
Plan and carry out difficult and complex assignments and develop new methods, approaches, and procedures
Conduct analyses and recommend resolution of complex issues affecting the specialty area
Ensure optimal use of commercially available products
Prepare and present reports
Evaluate the effectiveness of installed systems and services