Description

This curriculum spans the full incident lifecycle of a phishing attack, equivalent in scope to an enterprise's multi-phase response protocol, integrating technical analysis, cross-functional coordination, and automated workflows seen in mature security operations programs.

Module 1: Phishing Incident Identification and Triage

Establish criteria for distinguishing targeted spear-phishing from bulk phishing attempts based on sender behavior, payload specificity, and recipient targeting patterns.
Configure email security gateways to forward suspected phishing messages to a centralized triage mailbox with full message headers and attachments preserved.
Implement automated parsing of email headers to extract originating IP, SPF/DKIM/DMARC validation results, and routing anomalies indicative of spoofing.
Define thresholds for escalating phishing alerts based on number of reported messages, presence of malicious payloads, or targeting of executive accounts.
Integrate user-reported phishing emails from client reporting buttons into the SIEM for correlation with other suspicious activity.
Develop and maintain a decision matrix for determining whether an incident requires immediate containment or can proceed through standard analysis workflows.

Module 2: Threat Intelligence Integration and Enrichment

Subscribe to and normalize threat feeds that provide IOCs from known phishing campaigns, ensuring compatibility with internal ingestion tools.
Map observed phishing URLs and domains to threat actor TTPs using MITRE ATT&CK framework identifiers for campaign tracking.
Validate third-party threat intelligence reliability by comparing reported phishing domains against internal telemetry for false positive rates.
Automate enrichment of phishing IOCs with geolocation, ASN, domain registration data, and historical abuse records.
Establish rules for automatically blocking newly observed phishing domains at the firewall or DNS resolver level based on confidence scoring.
Coordinate with industry ISACs to share anonymized phishing artifacts while complying with data sharing policies and legal constraints.

Module 3: Malware and Payload Analysis

Deploy isolated sandbox environments to execute phishing email attachments and capture behavioral indicators without risking network contamination.
Extract and analyze malicious macros from Office documents using static and dynamic analysis tools to identify C2 communication patterns.
Reverse engineer phishing payloads to determine obfuscation techniques, persistence mechanisms, and privilege escalation methods.
Classify malware families based on YARA rule matches and behavioral signatures to support attribution and response planning.
Configure endpoint detection systems to detect and alert on execution of known malicious document templates associated with phishing.
Document payload delivery chains, including initial droppers, downloaders, and secondary payloads, for use in threat modeling.

Module 4: Containment and Network Mitigation

Block malicious domains and IPs at the DNS and proxy layers using automated playbooks triggered by confirmed phishing incidents.
Quarantine compromised user accounts and enforce password resets based on evidence of credential harvesting or session hijacking.
Segment network access for users who clicked phishing links until endpoint scans confirm no malware execution.
Disable malicious SharePoint or OneDrive links used in phishing by integrating with Microsoft 365 security APIs.
Coordinate with ISP abuse desks to takedown phishing landing pages hosted externally, providing required evidence and timelines.
Adjust email filtering rules to block messages with matching subjects, senders, or attachment hashes across the enterprise.

Module 5: Forensic Investigation and Attribution

Preserve email artifacts in a forensically sound manner, including full headers, MIME structure, and embedded objects.
Correlate phishing incident timelines with authentication logs to detect post-compromise activity such as unusual logins or MFA bypass.
Extract and analyze browser history from affected endpoints to determine if phishing landing pages were accessed and forms submitted.
Map phishing infrastructure to known threat actors using SSL certificate fingerprints, hosting providers, and domain registration overlaps.
Document lateral movement indicators following credential theft, including use of PowerShell, WMI, or RDP from compromised accounts.
Produce a timeline of compromise that integrates email delivery, user interaction, and subsequent malicious activity for legal or audit purposes.

Module 6: User Notification and Post-Incident Response

Develop templated internal communications to inform affected users of phishing incidents without inducing panic or enabling social engineering.
Deliver targeted security awareness refreshers to users who interacted with phishing emails, based on click or submission behavior.
Log user interactions with phishing simulations and real incidents to identify repeat clickers for mandatory retraining.
Coordinate with HR and legal when notifying executives or high-risk individuals about targeted phishing attempts.
Update incident response playbooks based on lessons learned, including missed detection opportunities or response delays.
Measure mean time to report, analyze, contain, and recover from phishing incidents to benchmark program effectiveness.

Module 7: Governance, Compliance, and Reporting

Align phishing incident handling procedures with regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, or SOX for data breach disclosure.
Define data retention policies for phishing artifacts to support investigations while minimizing legal and privacy risks.
Classify phishing incidents by severity using a standardized framework that considers data exposure, system impact, and actor sophistication.
Generate executive-level dashboards showing phishing volume, user click rates, containment efficacy, and top attack vectors.
Conduct quarterly tabletop exercises to test phishing response coordination across IT, security, legal, and communications teams.
Review third-party vendor email security controls to ensure alignment with enterprise phishing defense standards.

Module 8: Automation and Scalable Response Orchestration

Develop SOAR playbooks that automatically enrich, triage, and initiate containment for confirmed phishing incidents.
Integrate phishing URL analysis tools with browser isolation platforms to prevent access to newly identified malicious sites.
Automate the creation of email security rules to block messages from domains or IPs associated with active campaigns.
Use machine learning models to prioritize phishing reports based on sender reputation, linguistic cues, and historical patterns.
Implement feedback loops from endpoint detection tools to update phishing response workflows when new evasion techniques are observed.
Scale incident response capacity during phishing surge events by automating repetitive tasks and escalating only high-risk cases to analysts.