Cyber Guardian Exercise: A Case Study in Brazil to Address Challenges in Cybersecurity and Protect Critical Infrastructure
Discussions of cybersecurity, in particular those associated with critical infrastructure (CI), often seem alarmist, but crippling attacks against critical infrastructure have already taken place in Estonia and Ukraine demonstrate this concern and need to be addressed. Specialists use catastrophic scenarios in which cyberattacks can lead to massive blackouts and substantial economic losses as a way to draw attention to cybersecurity issues. Cyberattacks may generate kinetic and non-kinetic effects on CI of interest to National Defense, with the risk of causing strategic paralysis in the functioning of countries.
To address these challenges, Brazil needs to create the necessary conditions to establish important principles of cyber protection for national sectors and strategic infrastructure, aiming to form a solid cybersecurity community based on the exchange of experiences and a strong partnership. One of the approaches consists in carrying out the Brazil Cyber Guardian Exercise (CGE) that establishes cyber protection principles for important national and critical infrastructure sectors in Brazil.
SANS-cyber-guardian-exercise-case-study-brazil-address-challenges-cybersecurity-protect-critical-infrastructure (PDF, 3.34MB)
22 Feb 2022Related Content
OT Network Visibility and Detective Controls in a NERC CIP World
Research PaperAs cyber threats grow and regulations evolve, critical infrastructure must balance compliance and innovation.
- 20 Aug 2025
- Tim Conway
A New Era in Vulnerability Management: A SANS Review of the Seemplicity Platform
Research PaperIn this paper, Dave Shackleford offers an inside look at Seemplicity, a vendor-agnostic remediation orchestration platform designed to unify vulnerability management across code, cloud, and infrastructure.
- 18 Aug 2025
- Dave Shackleford
Adopting an Offensive Security Posture: Strategies and Best Practices
Research PaperThis paper delves into essential concepts, and offers practical guidance for adopting an offensive security posture.
- 18 Aug 2025
- Jorge Orchilles
NERC CIP-015: Monitoring Deep Inside Critical Networks to Keep Adversaries Outside
Research PaperThe North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Standards (hereinafter referred to as the Standards) require preventive controls to establish Electronic Security Perimeters (ESPs) containing Bulk Electric System (BES) Cyber Systems and to control communications in and out of those ESPs.
- 14 Aug 2025
- Tim Conway, Robert M. Lee
Enhanced Decisions with WatsonX: A Look at IBM QRadar Investigation Assistant
Research PaperThis paper examines IBM QRadar Investigation Assistant, an AI-powered tool that enhances SOC performance by streamlining incident triage, automating threat enrichment, and enabling natural language query capabilities.
- 6 Aug 2025
- Matt Bromiley
Balancing On-Prem and Cloud Security Strategic Considerations for Modern Organizations
Research PaperThis paper examines the strategic trade-offs between cloud and on-prem deployments, and the growing trend of consolidating tools into integrated security platforms.
- 30 Jul 2025
- Matt Bromiley
Evaluating Zero Trust Network Access: A Framework for Comparative Security Testing
Research PaperWhile most evaluations rely on vendor checklists and surface-level comparisons, this white paper takes a different approach: building and applying a hands-on testing framework grounded in NIST SP 800-207 and the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model.
- 11 Jul 2025
Defense in Depth: Multiple Layers of Protection Fortifying Your Cyber Defenses
Research PaperDownload this paper and learn how to implement and evolve a Defense-in-Depth (DiD) strategy tailored to your organization’s risk profile, infrastructure, and cloud environment.
- 10 Jul 2025
- Ted Demopoulos
Dropzone AI Can Make Internal SOC Teams More Effective
Research PaperIn this paper, SANS Certified Instructor Mark Jeanmougin examines how Dropzone AI can integrate into existing security stacks and help SOC teams stay focused on high-impact decisions.
- 17 Jun 2025
- Mark Jeanmougin
Prioritized Industrial Cyber Defense in Oil and Gas
Research PaperSANS Institute developed a white paper exclusively for ONE-ISAC members to address the urgent cybersecurity challenges facing the oil and gas sector.
- 13 Jun 2025
- Dean Parsons
AI-Driven Insecurity: Assessing Security Gaps in AI Generated IT Guidance
Research PaperThe increasing reliance on AI-generated technical guidance for IT system configuration introduces significant security risks. This study assesses these risks through a case study: setting up an Apache web server on a Rocky Linux system using instructions from seven AI models.
- 13 May 2025
Webs of Deception: Using the SANS ICS Kill Chain to Flip the Advantage to the Defender
Research PaperUsing the SANS ICS Cyber Kill Chain, the research implemented a representative ICS network to evaluate the effectiveness of security controls for use by small ICS defenders.
- 14 Apr 2025
Validating the Effectiveness of MITRE Engage and Active Defense
Research PaperThis research examines the impact of Active Defense compared to a traditional security posture when an adversary employs common tactics and techniques to identify high-value targets or exfiltrate sensitive data.
- 29 Mar 2025
Shift Left the Awareness and Detection of Developers Using Vulnerable Open-Source Software Components
Research PaperThe research presented in this paper demonstrates that companies can shift the detection and awareness of developers using vulnerable components left in the early development stages.
- 26 Mar 2025
Strolling Through the STIG
Research PaperThis research demonstrates how a new tool, Stroll, avoids the additional hardware requirements by living off the land.
- 7 Mar 2025
2025 ICS/OT Cybersecurity Budget: Spending Trends, Challenges, and the Future
Research PaperThis white paper explores the findings of the 2025 SANS Survey on ICS/OT Security Budgets.
- 3 Mar 2025
- Dean Parsons
Building Resilient IoT Devices: Binary Hardening with Yocto and Clang
Research PaperThis paper addresses the critical need for enhanced security in Internet of Things (IoT) devices by evaluating the implementation of binary hardening techniques using Clang security features within the Yocto build environment.
- 3 Mar 2025
Harnessing Entra ID Snapshots for Effective Post-Security Incident Detection and Containment
Research PaperThis research focuses on implementing identity snapshots within Microsoft's Azure Entra ID, demonstrating their potential to significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of post-incident detection and containment.
- 3 Mar 2025
Identifying Advanced Persistent Threat Activity Through Threat-Informed Detection Engineering: Enhancing Alert Visibility in Enterprises
Research PaperAdvanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are among the most challenging to detect in enterprise environments, often mimicking authorized privileged access prior to their actions on objectives. Moving within the environment slowly and quietly, APTs can often persist within the environment for months before detection.
- 20 Feb 2025
Evaluating Modern Network Protocol Fingerprinting: Defending Bastion Hosts in Hostile Networks
Research PaperAdversaries continue to attack the network perimeter and trusted user workstations to gain access to sensitive networks. Modern networks are designed and often mandated to use encrypted communication paths everywhere.
- 6 Feb 2025
