What Are Malware Analysis and Network Traffic Analysis?

Malware analysis and network traffic analysis are advanced cyber security services that examine in detail how malicious software that has reached your systems behaves, what it communicates with, and what risk it creates.

The service analyses suspicious files, executables, scripts, macros, memory images and network captures (PCAP) to establish exactly how the malware operates, how it spreads, how it communicates with command and control (C2) infrastructure, whether it attempted to exfiltrate data, and what impact it had on the system.

The analysis does not stop at detecting the malware. The source of the attack, the techniques used, the systems affected and the persistence mechanisms in place are all assessed, so the organisation's exposure is reported in full.

SecureSys malware and network traffic analysis services follow MITRE ATT&CK, NIST SP 800-61, YARA, Sigma Rules, STIX/TAXII, OpenIOC and international digital incident response methodology.

Why Is Malware Analysis Necessary?

Modern malware does more than infect a file: it establishes persistence, steals sensitive data, accepts remote commands and spreads to other systems on the network.

Malware that is analysed poorly — or not at all — can lead to:

Data leakage
Ransomware attacks
Credential theft
Financial loss
Loss of business continuity
Impact on critical systems
Regulatory breaches
Repeat attacks

Malware analysis should therefore never be limited to an antivirus verdict; it must be supported by behavioural analysis, reverse engineering and network traffic analysis.

Scope of the Service

Malware Analysis

Static analysis
Dynamic analysis
Malware reverse engineering
Sandbox analysis
Behaviour analysis
Persistence analysis
Process injection analysis
DLL hijacking analysis
Memory analysis
IOC extraction

Threat Hunting

IOC hunting
IOC identification
C2 traffic
Beaconing analysis
Lateral movement
Persistence detection
Credential access
Privilege escalation
Defence evasion

Incident Response Analysis

Incident handling
Initial point of infection
Affected systems
Timeline analysis
Root cause analysis
IOC sharing
Clean-up recommendations

Malware Families Analysed

Different malware families are examined in the secure analysis environments of the SecureSys laboratory.

Ransomware

LockBit
BlackCat (ALPHV)
Akira
Conti
Clop
Royal
Medusa
Phobos

Trojans

Remote Access Trojan (RAT)
Banking trojan
Loader
Dropper
Downloader

Spyware

Information stealer
Keylogger
Credential stealer
Browser stealer

Botnet Malware

Mirai
Emotet
TrickBot
QakBot

Cryptominers

CoinMiner
XMRig
Cryptojacking malware

Analysis Techniques Used

The SecureSys analysis laboratory combines several techniques.

Static malware analysis
Dynamic malware analysis
Reverse engineering
Memory forensics
Network forensics
Threat intelligence correlation
IOC extraction
YARA rule matching
Sigma rule analysis
Sandbox analysis
MITRE ATT&CK mapping
Threat hunting

Tools and Platforms

The principal technologies used during analysis:

Wireshark
Zeek (Bro)
Suricata
Snort
YARA
Volatility
Cuckoo Sandbox
CAPE Sandbox
Ghidra
IDA Pro
x64dbg
Procmon
ProcExp
Sysmon
Velociraptor
Elastic SIEM
Splunk
Microsoft Defender XDR
CrowdStrike Falcon
SentinelOne
Wazuh

What Is Malware Analysis?

Malware analysis is an advanced form of security analysis in which suspicious files, applications, scripts or executable code are examined to determine their effect on systems.

Its purpose is not simply to decide whether a file is malicious. It also establishes how the malware works, which systems it targets, which security mechanisms it evades, what data it collects and how it communicates with external systems.

Malware analysis is particularly critical in the following situations.

Analysis of suspicious files
Ransomware incidents
Data breaches
Cyber incident response
Threat hunting
Digital forensics work
APT attacks
IOC production

Static Analysis vs Dynamic Analysis

Malware is analysed using two distinct approaches.

Static malware analysis

In static analysis the malware is never executed.

The file is examined for:

Binary structure
String analysis
Import / export analysis
Header information
PE analysis
Hash values
Packers
Signatures
YARA matches

Advantages:

Safe
Fast
Makes IOC extraction straightforward

Dynamic Malware Analysis

In dynamic analysis the malware is executed inside an isolated sandbox environment.

The behaviours analysed include:

Process creation
Registry changes
File operations
Network traffic
C2 communication
Persistence
DLL injection
Process injection

This method matters because it reveals what the malware actually does rather than what its code suggests.

Malware Reverse Engineering

Reverse engineering is an advanced technique for analysing how malware works without access to its source code.

SecureSys specialists perform:

Assembly analysis
Binary analysis
Function analysis
API call analysis
Deobfuscation
Anti-debugging techniques
Anti-VM techniques
Packer analysis

to expose the full behaviour of the sample.

What Is Memory Forensics?

Memory forensics is the digital forensic discipline of analysing system memory (RAM).

A great deal of malware continues to run in memory while leaving no trace on disk.

Memory analysis identifies:

Running processes
DLL injection
Hidden processes
Hidden drivers
Credential dumping
LSASS activity
Network connections
Malware injection

What Is Network Traffic Analysis (PCAP)?

Network traffic analysis is an advanced security method that examines all data traffic on the corporate network.

By reviewing PCAP files we analyse:

Malicious traffic
C2 communication
DNS queries
HTTP requests
TLS connections
SMB traffic
RDP connections
VPN usage

The MITRE ATT&CK Framework

MITRE ATT&CK is the world's most widely used knowledge base classifying the techniques real adversaries use.

Findings from SecureSys analysis are mapped to MITRE ATT&CK techniques.

The principal categories:

Initial access
Execution
Persistence
Privilege escalation
Defence evasion
Credential access
Discovery
Lateral movement
Collection
Exfiltration
Command and control
Impact

What Is an IOC (Indicator of Compromise)?

An Indicator of Compromise is a technical marker showing that a system has been attacked.

Examples include:

Malicious IP addresses
Domain names
URLs
SHA256 hashes
MD5 hashes
Registry keys
File names
Mutexes
Scheduled tasks
Process names

IOC lists produced during SecureSys analysis are delivered to the client.

What Are YARA Rules?

YARA is an open-source analysis language used to identify malware by signature and behaviour.

SecureSys specialists can write client-specific YARA rules for the samples analysed.

Similar threats can then be detected automatically in future.

What Are Sigma Rules?

Sigma rules are an open standard for detecting security events on SIEM platforms.

The Sigma rules we prepare can be adapted readily to:

Microsoft Sentinel
Splunk
QRadar
Elastic SIEM
Wazuh
Graylog

What Is Command and Control (C2) Traffic?

Once installed, most malware begins communicating with its operator.

That communication may run over:

HTTP
HTTPS
DNS
ICMP
TOR
VPN
WebSocket

SecureSys C2 analysis identifies:

Beaconing
Periodic traffic
Malicious domains
Suspicious certificates
Encrypted communication

What Is DNS Tunnelling?

DNS tunnelling is an advanced technique in which attackers move data inside DNS queries.

It is used for:

Data exfiltration
Firewall evasion
C2 communication
Delivering malicious commands

Analysis examines:

TXT records
Unusually long domains
Entropy analysis
DNS query frequency

How Is Data Exfiltration Detected?

In an exfiltration attack the goal is to move sensitive information out of the organisation.

The methods analysed:

HTTPS upload
Cloud storage
FTP
SMB
DNS tunnelling
Email
TOR
VPN

Traffic behaviour is examined to identify abnormal data movement.

What Is Threat Hunting?

Threat hunting is the proactive search for threats that existing security systems have not detected.

SecureSys specialists use:

IOC hunting
Behaviour hunting
MITRE-based hunting
Memory hunting
Network hunting
Endpoint hunting

to uncover threats hiding inside the estate.

The Incident Response Process

Responding to a cyber incident means more than deleting a malicious file.

The SecureSys incident response process consists of the following stages.

Preparation

Incident plans
Response teams
Backups

Identification

IOC analysis
Alert review
SIEM correlation

Containment

Isolation
Network segmentation
Blocking user accounts

Eradication

Malware removal
Removal of persistence
IOC blocking

Recovery

Bringing systems back online
Verification testing
Monitoring

Lessons Learned

Incident report
Improvement plan
Security recommendations

Why SecureSys?

Malware analysis is not a matter of checking whether antivirus flagged a file. Real analysis means uncovering the malware's behaviour, its network communication, its persistence mechanisms, its exfiltration methods and the techniques the attacker used.

At SecureSys we bring static analysis, dynamic analysis, reverse engineering, memory forensics, network traffic analysis, threat hunting and incident response together under a single methodology. We map results to the MITRE ATT&CK matrix and produce IOC, YARA and Sigma rules so that similar threats can be detected far faster in future.

The SecureSys Difference

Expert cyber security services under TSE TS 13638
Malware reverse engineering expertise
Static and dynamic malware analysis
Memory forensics and digital forensics capability
Network traffic analysis (PCAP and network forensics)
Analysis referenced against the MITRE ATT&CK framework
IOC, YARA and Sigma rule production
Threat hunting and incident response support
Detailed reporting at both technical and executive level
Risk-driven remediation guidance and retest support

Have our specialists analyse the malware, suspicious network traffic and advanced threats present in your systems. Get in touch for details of our malware and network traffic analysis service and a proposal tailored to your organisation.

Malware and Network Traffic Analysis Service