Incident Response: A Strategic Guide to Handling System and Network Security Breaches

Tracing Methods

Several tracing methods can be used to attempt to pinpoint (or at least guess) the source of an attack. This section describes some of the most useful of these methods.

Search Engines

The first tracing method covered here, using search engines, is a bit “shaky” from a technical perspective. It is nevertheless potentially very useful. The basic notion is that people who do bad things to computing systems and networks often have big mouths. You might remember the old military slogan,“Loose lips sink ships.” The same applies to security-related attacks that occur. Perpetrators often brag about their exploits. In so doing, they often reveal information both about the source of any attacks they have launched and even about their ...