Vidya Murthy

Capstone Project 

Advisor: K. O'Meara - Threat Researcher and Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University 

Research Period: January 2020 - May 2020 

Co-authors: C. Harris, K. Rota, H. Manganello, S. Vagell 

This report is a framework that a company could use as a guide to create a cyber threat intelligence team. Companies with cyber threat intelligence teams claimed that their average return on investment three years after creating the team was 284%, according to a survey conducted by Recorded Future, and the companies' risk was reduced by approximately 10 times due to identifying threats sooner.

Our approach offers nine steps to institute a new, small cyber threat intelligence team. For each step, we provide its goal, scope of implementation, best practices based on personal experiences and literature reviews of US Government and private sector company methodologies, and recommendations for improving the team’s performance over time. Our intent is that the framework is practical, such that it outlines methods to accomplish each step rather than merely identifying lofty goals without any explanation of how to achieve them.

In addition to providing a procedure to set up a cyber threat intelligence team, we have included a workflow of the team’s daily operations, including how the team could integrate with senior leaders. Each component in the workflow refers back to the detailed descriptions contained within the nine steps, which should aid a manager in tailoring the team’s processes to match the company’s vision for the cyber threat intelligence team.

Independent Study 

Advisor: M.J Butkovic -  Director-Risk and Resilience CERT Division-Software Engineering Institute 

Research Period: January 2020 - May 2020

 The theft worth billions of dollars of intellectual property (IP) due to malicious cyber activity threatens the U.S. economy and national security. In an attempt to curb the exfiltration of Controlled Unclassified Information from the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), the United States Department of Defense announced that it will implement the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). 

The CMMC model draws from existing maturity models such as Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and the CERT Resilience Management Model (CERT-RMM) . This new model certifies defense contractors based on their cyber hygiene. Certifications range from ‘Basic Cyber Hygiene’ at Level 1 to ‘Advanced/Progressive’. Contractors will be eligible to bid on contracts based on their certification level. 

This paper studies the implementation of such maturity models before delving into the CMMC. Insights gained from analyzing CMMI and RMM are used to make recommendations for organizations to prepare for the implementation of CMMC. Additionally, certain changes are recommended for future versions of CMMC with the aim of improving the efficiency of CMMC and eventually, reduce the exfiltration of CUI from the DIB.

Speaker at Women In Cyber Security Conference 2020

Research Period October 2019-April 2020

Co-presenter: Addison Moran 

A digital footprint is a trail of data you create while using the Internet. It includes the websites you visit, emails you send, and information you submit to online services. 

In this presentation, we identified the sources of digital footprints, some were typical sources like Social media, but we also found some unusual sources like Venmo or Google Maps. 

We then discussed possible scenarios where your digital footprint could be used to hack your accounts. 

The first scenario was a black box test - where the attacker did not know the target personally. The second scenario was an insider threat case where the attacker was connected to the target across various social media platforms. 

Finally, we discussed certain tactics that can help in protecting privacy and recommended some best practices.