Cyber Forensics Analyst

Leidos is seeking an experienced Cyber Forensics Analyst to join our team covering both forensics and malware analysis on a highly-visible cyber security single-award IDIQ vehicle that provides network operations security center support, including monitoring and analysis, cyber threat intelligence, email analysis, forensics, incident response, and malware analysis
 

Duties include dynamic malware analysis, and performing memory and dead-box forensics. The Analyst should have experience in monitoring and detection, and incident response to support detection, containment, and eradication of malicious activities targeting customer networks.  Acting as an escalation point for other CISA analysts, the Analyst will perform the following: 

• Support investigating computer and information security incidents to determine extent of compromise to information and automated information systems. 

• Conduct comprehensive analysis of all types of computer code, particularly malicious code to discover unknown, suspicious or exploitation activity. 

• Collaborate with analytical counterparts and across the U.S. Intelligence Community and apply knowledge of network fundamentals, open-source tools, and current implementation of those technologies in order to devise strategies to pursue access and exploitation of targets of interest

• Help cross train and mentor other CISA Support Staff.

• Participate in briefings to provide expert guidance on new threats. 

• Author reports and/or interface with customers for ad-hoc requests

• Participate in discussions to make recommendations on improving CISA visibility or process.

The Cyber Forensics Analysis Team provide support during core business hours (7am – 7pm), Monday thru Friday EST. Flexible start times are considered. Participates in rotating on-call schedule.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Perform long-term and time-sensitive in-depth technical analysis of malicious code (malware), analyze the inner workings, and develop defensive countermeasures.

• Conduct malware analysis using static and dynamic methodologies (e.g. debuggers [Ollydbg], disassembler [IDA Pro], sandbox execution, etc)

• Produce malware reports to disseminate to the watch floor and enterprise

• Perform technical analysis against target systems and networks, characterize target network capabilities and vulnerabilities, and support development of new techniques to exploit targets.

• Perform analyses of cyber activities to identify entities of interest; their methods, motives, and capabilities; determine malicious behavior; and recognize emergent patterns and linkages to visualize the larger picture of cyber-based operations.

• Discover unknown, suspicious or exploitation activity, and provide briefings of intrusion set activity to partner organizations/agencies.

• Write forensics and/or incident response reports, investigate computer attacks, and extract data from electronic systems.

• Perform technical analysis for exploitation of an identified activity that is of an unknown or suspicious origin.

• Train team members on analysis, tools and reporting.

• Work with the Splunk team to implement, enhance, or change existing use cases

• Pivot on the forensic data working with the Cyber Threat Intelligence team to determine if the malware is part of a larger campaign, how CISA is being targeted, and what further remediation is required

• Lead remote compromise assessments and produce final assessment report

• Provide input for CISA improvement and identify visibility gaps for enterprise monitoring

• Develop and maintain SOPs and ROE templates

• Basic Qualifications

• Requires a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or related field and 12-15 years of professional experience in incident detection and response, malware analysis, and/or cyber forensics.

• In lieu of BS Degree, 12+ or more years continuous cyber network and vulnerability/malware analysis experience will be considered on a case by case basis.

• Experience in supporting malware analysis and forensics in cyber operations, and/or federal law enforcement.

• Experience reverse engineering and analyzing malware and developing a malware analysis report

• Understand and utilize Threat Intel Frameworks (e.g. Cyber Kill Chain, MITRE ATT&CK, Diamond Model)

• Hands-on experience with EnCase, Axiom, FTK, CrowdStrike Falcon, Volatility, Security Onion, Suricata, Splunk

• Signature (e.g. Snort, Yara, Suricata) development/tuning

• Proficient working in Windows and Linux operating systems

• Experience with any of the following Malware tools: Wireshark, OllyDBg, IDA Pro, RegShot,  TCPDump, WinHex, Windbg, or PEid.

• Experience writing scripts/tools to develop an analysis capability to include applying basic analytic methods such as computer programming, (JAVA, Perl, C, etc.) and debugging programs.

• Experience related to the use of relevant CNO and SIGINT tools and databases used for the customer mission. Extensive knowledge about network ports and protocols (e.g. TCP/UDP, HTTP, ICMP, DNS, SMTP, etc)

• Experience with network topologies and network security devices (e.g. Firewall, IDS/IPS, Proxy, DNS, WAF, etc). CISA SOC employees are required to obtain an Entry on Duty (EOD) clearance to support this program. 

Must have at least one of the following certifications:

SANS GIAC: GCIH, GCFA, GCFE, GREM, GISF, GXPN, GCTI, GOSI

Offensive Security:  OSCP, OSCE, OSWP, OSEE

ISC2:  CCFP, CISSP

EC Council:  CHFI, LPT, CSA, CTIA

Defense Cyber Investigative Training Academy: WFE-FTK, CIRC, WFE-E-CI, FIWE

• Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience working in a DHS or other federal government agency SOC/NOC/NOSC environment

• Knowledge of Cyber Kill Chain and MITRE ATT&CK frameworks

Original Posting Date:

While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.