Attack Sensing & Warning Analyst (T2 AS&W Analyst)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Security Operations Center (SOC) is a U.S. Government program responsible to prevent, identify, contain and eradicate cyber threats to CBP networks through monitoring, intrusion detection and protective security services to CBP information systems including local area networks/wide area networks (LAN/WAN), commercial Internet connection, public facing websites, wireless, mobile/cellular, cloud, security devices, servers and workstations.  The CBP SOC is responsible for the overall security of CBP Enterprise-wide information systems, and collects, investigates, and reports any suspected and confirmed security violations. 

Leidos is seeking an experienced Tier 2 Attack Sensing & Warning Analyst to join our team. As a member of the AS&W team supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), you will be responsible for leveraging advanced security technologies including EDR, SIEM, and network security tools to monitor, triage, and investigate endpoint and network activity, escalating alerts in accordance with established playbooks and procedures, analyzing logs and attacker behaviors to identify APT tactics, aggregating IOCs, and developing security content, scripts, and tools that enhance detection and incident response capabilities in support of the protection of the customers’ systems, networks, and assets.   

Primary Responsibilities: 

Shift schedule: 7am-7pm, Sun-Tues, every other Wednesday. 

• Utilize state of the art technologies such as Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) tools, log analysis (Splunk) and occasionally network forensics (full packet capture solution) to investigative activity to examine endpoint and network-based data. 

• Monitor alerting channels for multiple endpoint and network tools for alerts of various criticalities and escalate according to defined processes, procedures, and playbooks.  

• Triage alerts to determine nature of activity occurring on customer networks, systems, servers, and mobile devices.  

• Conduct log analysis from multiple avenues and tools to triage activity in support of incident response. 

• Recognize attacker and APT activity, tactics, and procedures and aggregate indicators of compromise (IOCs) that can be used to improve monitoring, analysis and incident response. 

• Develop and build security content, scripts, tools, or methods to enhance the incident investigation processes. 

• Lead Incident Response activities and mentor junior SOC staff. 

• Create daily, weekly, and monthly reports for dissemination to customer leadership with emphasis on attention to detail and accurate capturing of relevant, timely data for briefings.  

• Succinctly and accurately capture technical details and summarize findings for less technical audiences. 

• Work with key stakeholders to implement remediation plans in response to incidents. 

• Effectively investigative and identify root cause findings then communicate findings to stakeholders including technical staff, and leadership. 

• Strong problem-solving abilities with an analytic and qualitative mindset. 

• Effectively communicate with customer leadership and disseminate timely updates of critical incidents with emphasis on attention to detail and accurate reporting.  

Basic Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, Information Technology (IT), Cyber Security, or related field and 4 years of professional experience. Additional years of experience are accepted in lieu of degree.

• 5 years of professional experience (or a Bachelors’ Degree and 3 years of professional experience) in incident detection, response and remediation. 

• Minimum of three (3) but (5) preferred years of specialized experience in one or more of the following areas: 

• Email security 

• Digital media forensic 

• Monitoring and detection 

• Incident Response 

• Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing  

• Cyber intelligence analysis  

• Extensive experience analyzing and synthesizing information with other relevant data sources, providing guidance and mentorship to others in cyber threat analysis and operations.  

• Ability to collaborate with technical staff and customers to identify, assess, and resolve complex security problems/issues/risks and facilitate resolution and risk mitigation. 

• Ability to stay up to date with the latest threat intelligence, security trends, tools, and capabilities. 

• Possess strong problem-solving abilities with an analytic and qualitative eye for reasoning.  

• Ability to independently prioritize and complete multiple tasks with little to no supervision. 

Preferred Qualifications:  

• Ability to coordinate and communicate well with team leads and government personnel. 

• Experience with detection engineering efforts to tune alerts, signatures, and tools to reduce false positives.  

• Experience in cyber government, and/or federal law enforcement 

• Experience with the Cyber Kill Chain and MITRE ATT&CK framework  

• Ability to formulate and create new processes, metrics, and procedures to improve security operations.   

Required certifications: 

The candidate should have at minimum ONE of the following certifications: 

• CompTIA Cyber Security Analyst (CySA+) 

• CEH – Certified Ethical Hacker 

• CompTIA Linux Network Professional (CLNP) 

• CompTIA Pentest+ 

• CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) 

• GPEN – Penetration Tester 

• GWAPT – Web Application Penetration Tester 

• GSNA – System and Network Auditor 

• GISF – Security Fundamentals 

• GXPN – Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester 

• GWEB – Web Application Defender 

• GNFA – Network Forensic Analyst 

• GMON – Continuous Monitoring Certification 

• GCTI – Cyber Threat Intelligence 

• GOSI – Open Source Intelligence 

• OSCP (Certified Professional) 

• OSCE (Certified Expert) 

• OSWP (Wireless Professional) 

• OSEE (Exploitation Expert) 

• CCFP – Certified Cyber Forensics Professional 

• CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security 

• CHFI – Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator 

• LPT – Licensed Penetration Tester 

• CSA – EC Council Certified SOC Analyst (Previously ECSA – EC-Council Certified Security Analyst) 

• ENSA – EC-Council Network Security Administrator 

• ECIH – EC-Council Certified Incident Handler 

• ECSS – EC-Council Certified Security Specialist 

• ECES – EC-Council Certified Encryption Specialist 

Clearance:  

All Department of Homeland Security CBP SOC employees are required to favorably pass a 5-year (BI) Background Investigation