C1000-162 IBM Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 Analysis Questions and Answers

• QRadar uses a red star icon to visually identify events that directly contributed to triggering an offense. These events fully matched all the criteria specified in the rule that generated the offense.
• Partially matched events may also be associated with the offense (especially for rules using match counts), but they won't have the red star. These events are still valuable for providing context during investigations.

• X-Force Exchange: The primary repository for contributed QRadar content, including compliance-focused content packs.
• HIPAA Packs: Likely contain:
• Other Options (less suitable):

References:

• IBM X-Force Exchange: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/hub (Search for HIPAA)

QRadar supports generating reports in various file formats, including PDF, HTML, XML, and XLS. These formats provide flexibility in how reports are viewed and shared, catering to different needs and preferences for report presentation and analysis​​.

Adding indexed properties to QRadar can significantly improve the efficiency of searches by reducing the size of the data set required to locate matches for non-indexed search values. Indexing creates references to unique terms in the data and their locations, which means that the search engine can filter the data set by indexed properties first, eliminating irrelevant portions of the data set and thereby reducing the overall volume of data that needs to be searched​​.

A Quick filter search in IBM Security QRadar SIEM operates on raw event or flow data. This type of search allows users to rapidly filter through large volumes of data to find specific events or flows of interest without the need for complex query syntax. Quick filter searches are particularly useful for conducting initial analyses or when looking for specific indicators within the raw data streams. The ability to search directly on raw event or flow data enables analysts to work with the most granular level of information available, facilitating detailed investigations and the identification of subtle patterns or anomalies that might indicate security issues .

In IBM Security QRadar SIEM V7.5, the integration with MITRE ATT&CK framework is a valuable feature that enhances the understanding of threat tactics and techniques. The Use Case Manager within QRadar provides detailed insights into various MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with different offenses or alerts. To get more information about a specific MITRE entry, users can click on the Tactic’s Explore icon associated with the entry. This action opens the corresponding page on the MITRE ATT&CK website, providing detailed information about the tactic or technique, including its description, examples of use, and mitigation strategies. This direct link to the MITRE ATT&CK website enriches the user's knowledge and aids in the analysis of security incidents, making it easier to understand the context and implications of specific attack behaviors observed in the monitored environment.

In QRadar, when you save search criteria, especially on the Offenses tab, the configured search criteria are retained for future use and do not expire. This permanence ensures that users can quickly access and reuse their preferred search configurations, thereby streamlining the process of monitoring and investigating offenses over time​​.

When an analyst right-clicks on the Source IP or Destination IP that is associated with an offense at the Offense Summary in QRadar, two of the top-level options are DNS Lookup and WHOIS Lookup1. These options provide additional information about the IP address, such as its domain name (DNS Lookup) and registration information (WHOIS Lookup)1.

• AQL Focus:AQL is QRadar's search language primarily used for analyzing:

To identify events that were missed by the Custom Rule Engine (CRE) in IBM Security QRadar SIEM, an analyst would primarily look for "Log Only Events sent to a Data Store" and "High Level Category Unknown Events." Log Only Events are those that are stored directly without being processed by the CRE, indicating they might have been overlooked or not matched by any existing rules. High Level Category Unknown Events are those that do not fit into any of the predefined categories in QRadar, suggesting that the CRE might not have rules to handle or categorize these events properly. These types of events are crucial for analysts to review to ensure that no significant incidents are missed and to refine the rule set for better detection in the future.

Behavioral rule test parameters in QRadar SIEM are crucial for configuring how anomaly detection functions within rules. Here's a breakdown of each parameter:

• Season:This is themost importantparameter. It defines the historical time period used to establish a baseline of "normal" behavior. Consider the nature of the traffic you're monitoring when choosing a season:
• Current traffic level:Represents the current value of the property being monitored by the rule (e.g., number of login failures, bandwidth usage, etc.).
• Predicted value:This is an estimation of what the traffic level "should" be, based on the established season and historical trends.

How the Parameters Work Together

Behavioral rules primarily identify deviations between theCurrent traffic leveland thePredicted valuewithin the context of the definedSeason. Significant discrepancies can trigger alerts.

References

• IBM Security QRadar Documentation - Anomaly Detection Rules: (https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/qradar-on-cloud?topic=rules-anomaly-detection). Search for "behavioral rule test parameter options" within the relevant documentation for QRadar SIEM V7.5.

• Offense Summary Window: The Offense Summary window provides detailed information about a specific offense.
• Display Menu: Within this window, the "Display" menu offers options to customize what information is shown.
• Rules Option: Selecting "Display > Rules" will reveal a list of rules that contributed to the chained offense sequence.

References

• IBM QRadar Documentation - Offense Summary: [invalid URL removed]
• IBM QRadar Documentation: Offense Chaining https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/qsip/7.4?topic=management-offense-chaining

• Context Menu:Right-clicking on an IP address in the Offense Summary window offers quick investigation actions.
• IP-Related Tools:WHOIS and DNS Lookups are essential tools for:

On the Offenses tab within QRadar, the "Offense Type" column explains the cause of the offense. The offense type is determined by the rule that triggered the offense, and it dictates the kind of information displayed in the Offense Source Summary pane. This helps analysts understand the nature and origin of the offense, facilitating more effective investigation and response actions​​.

QRadar supports different types of content extensions that can be downloaded from the IBM X-Force Exchange portal. Among the supported content extensions are "Custom Functions" and "Offenses." These extensions allow for enhanced functionality and customization within QRadar, providing users with the ability to tailor the system to specific security needs and requirements​​.

Within IBM Security QRadar's Ariel Query Language (AQL), functions play a crucial role in manipulating data, performing calculations, and formatting results for more insightful analysis. Among the options provided, "LOWER" (C) and "STRLEN" (D) are valid AQL functions used for formatting and calculations, respectively. The "LOWER" function is used to convert a string to lowercase, which can be useful for case-insensitive comparisons or data normalization. The "STRLEN" function calculates the length of a string, providing valuable information about the data content, such as detecting unusually long or short values that might indicate anomalies or issues within the event or flow data .

In IBM Security QRadar SIEM V7.5, the feature that utilizes existing asset profile data to define unknown server types and assign them to server definitions in building blocks and in the network hierarchy is known as "Server Discovery." This feature grants permission to discover servers, thereby enabling administrators to identify and classify various server types within their network infrastructure, enhancing the overall asset management and security posture​​.

• Indexing Principle: QRadar creates indexes on default properties to quickly locate data matching your queries.
• Lookup vs. Scan: Instead of scanning all raw data, QRadar utilizes the index like a 'phonebook' for targeted lookups.
• Optimization: Searching using indexed properties dramatically decreases the amount of data QRadar needs to process.

In the Dynamic Search window on the Admin tab of QRadar, the available data sources include "Assets" and "Offenses." These options allow administrators and analysts to construct queries based on asset information or offense data, enabling targeted searches and analyses tailored to specific security concerns within the organization​​.

For pie charts in the Pulse app of QRadar, the available aggregation types include "Total" and "Average." These aggregation types allow for the representation of data in a manner that summarizes the total sum of the data points or their average value, respectively, providing insightful and concise visualizations of the data within the Pulse app dashboards. This information is implied from the general capabilities of dashboard items in QRadar, as detailed in the provided documentation, which typically includes such aggregation options for data visualization​​.

When deleting a generated content report in QRadar, all reports that were generated from the report template are deleted, but the report template itself is retained. This ensures that the structure for generating future reports remains intact, while only the instances of reports generated from that template are removed​​.

• Pie Chart Logic: Pie charts represent proportions of a whole.expand_more QRadar Pulse supports the following aggregations suitable for this:

The Application Overview dashboard in QRadar includes various default items1. Two of these items are Top Applications (Total Bytes) and Outbound Traffic by Country (Total Bytes)1.

Default dashboards - IBM Documentation

According to the IBM Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 documentation, the Application Overview dashboard by default includes items such as "Inbound Traffic by Country (Total Bytes)," "Outbound Traffic by Country (Total Bytes)," and "Top Applications (Total Bytes)" among others. This confirms that options C and D are displayed by default on the Application Overview dashboard​​.

The MITRE ATT&CK heatmap within the QRadar Use Case Manager app visualizes how well your security defenses align against the MITRE ATT&CK framework. The colors on the heatmap are determined by the following:

• Level of Mapping Confidence: The confidence level with which QRadar has associated offenses to specific MITRE ATT&CK techniques. The colors indicate:
• Number of Offenses Generated: The frequency of offenses observed that map to a particular MITRE ATT&CK technique. A higher number of offenses will result in a deeper shade within the color gradient (i.e., dark red vs. light red).

References

• IBM Security QRadar Use Case Manager Documentation:
• MITRE ATT&CK Website: Provides foundational information about the framework itself (https://attack.mitre.org/).

• Anomaly Detection Focus: Anomaly rules specialize in identifying deviations from established baselines or normal patterns.
• Outlier Identification: Outliers are often the result of unusual volume changes, which anomaly rules are suited to detect.
• Other Rule Types (less ideal):

In IBM Security QRadar SIEM V7.5, to search for all events containing a specific keyword such as "access", an analyst should navigate to the "Log Activity" tab. This section of the QRadar interface is dedicated to viewing and analyzing log data collected from various sources. By running a quick search with the "access" keyword in the Log Activity tab, the analyst can filter out events that contain this term in any part of the log data. This functionality is crucial for identifying specific activities or incidents within the vast amounts of log data QRadar processes, allowing analysts to quickly hone in on relevant information for further investigation or action.

Event rules in QRadar test against incoming log source data processed in real time by the QRadar Event Processor. This real-time processing enables QRadar to analyze and respond to security events as they occur, enhancing the system's ability to detect and mitigate threats promptly​​.

• Dashboard Data Refresh: Most widgets on QRadar dashboards typically refresh the displayed data every minute by default.
• Customization: In some cases, you might be able to configure this refresh interval depending on the widget type.

• Indexing: QRadar indexes certain fields to create a structured way to quickly locate matching data.
• Search Optimization: Including indexed fields in queries allows QRadar to leverage pre-built indexes rather than scanning all data.
• Filtering: A well-constructed search with indexed fields significantly narrows the dataset, speeding up operations.