Course of action

A course of action details a set of clear, specific recommendations and measures to mitigate an incident, address affected exploit targets, and effectively respond to a cyber threat.

The goal of a course of action can be preventing the potential occurrence of an incident, correcting a vulnerability so that it cannot be exploited, mitigating the consequences of an attack, or defeating an adversary.

Regardless of the goal, a course of action suggests the recommended actions to take in order to achieve the intended effect.

Create a course of action by selecting:

• In the side navigation bar + Create > Course of action.

Or:

• (Requires Beta: Intelligence creation on the graph)

  In the top navigation bar of a graph, select + and then Course of action to create a draft entity.

• Double-click to open the newly created draft entity to edit it.

Then, Configure this entity.

Configure

The following sections the fields and options available.

Note

Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).

General

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Title*	data.title	Descriptive title for this entity. See Titles and aliases.
Analysis	data.description	Long description of course of action.

Characteristics

Characteristics are properties on an entity that provide context for the intelligence indicated by this object.

The following are characteristics available for courses of action:

• Characteristics: Type

• Characteristics: Stage

• Characteristics: Objective

• Characteristics: Impact

• Characteristics: Cost

• Characteristics: Efficacy

Characteristics: Type

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Type	data.coa_type	Type of course of action. Analogous to CourseOfActionTypeVocab-1.0 Available options: Perimeter Blocking Internal Blocking Redirection Redirection (Honey Pot) Hardening Patching Eradication Rebuilding Training Monitoring Physical Access Restrictions Logical Access Restrictions Public Disclosure Diplomatic Actions Policy Actions Other

Characteristics: Stage

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Stage	data.stage	Stage of course of action. Analogous to COAStageVocab-1.0 Available options: Remedy Response

Characteristics: Objective

Describes the objective of this course of action. Analogous to ObjectiveType

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Description	data.objective.description	Describes objective.
Applicability confidence	data.objective.applicability_confidence	A confidence value. Possible values from Enumerated values: High Medium low.

Characteristics: Impact

Describes the impact of this course of action.

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Impact value*	data.impact.value	Possible values from Enumerated values: High Medium low.
Confidence	data.impact.confidence.value	A confidence value. Possible values from Enumerated values: High Medium low.
Description	data.impact.description	Description of impact.

Characteristics: Cost

Describes the cost of this course of action.

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Cost value*	data.cost.value	Possible values from Enumerated values: High Medium low.
Confidence	data.cost.confidence.value	A confidence value. Possible values from Enumerated values: High Medium low.
Description	data.cost.description	Description of cost.

Characteristics: Efficacy

Describes the efficacy of this course of action.

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Efficacy value*	data.efficacy.value	Possible values from Enumerated values: High Medium low.
Confidence	data.efficacy.confidence.value	A confidence value. Possible values from Enumerated values: High Medium low.
Description	data.efficacy.description	Description of efficacy.

Observables

You can create one or more new observables and link it to the currently open entity by selecting + Observable under the Observables section.

Note

If an observable you create here matches an observable rule with an ignore action, it does not appear when the you publish the entity.

In the Add observable view that appears, fill out these fields:

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Type*	extracts[].kind	See Observable types
Link name*	See Observable link names	See Observable link names
Values(s)*	extracts[].value	Enter one or more values. One observable is created per value. Values must be comma-separated, or newline-separated, but not both.
Maliciousness*	See Observable maliciousness	See Observable maliciousness

Relations

Add relationships to this entity by selecting + Relationship.

1. From the drop-down menu select the option corresponding to the relationship you want to create:

   • Related exploit targets

   • Related incidents

   • Related courses of action

   • Exploit target Potential courses of action

   • Indicator Suggested courses of action

   • Incident Courses of action requested

   • Incident Courses of action taken

   • Report Courses of action

   • Sighting Course of action

2. After selecting an option, the Search an entity dialog appears. Select one or more entities to relate to the current entity.

   Note

   You can narrow down the displayed entities by entering a search query, or by using the filter .

3. Select Select to add the selected entities as relations.

Once a relationship is added to this entity, you can:

• Assign MITRE ATT&CK IDs by selecting + under the MITRE ATT&CK IDs column.

• Set a Relationship type

  • Enter a custom relationship type by typing in the empty field and pressing ENTER to save.

  • Select one of these options:

    • Indicates malware

    • Is associated campaign to

    • I don’t know

    • Could be anything

Meta

The Meta section contains configuration options that allow you to attach descriptive data to the entity.

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Estimated threat start time	meta.estimated_threat_start_time	Estimated start of threat. See Time values.
Estimated threat end time	meta.estimated_threat_end_time	Estimated end of threat. See Time values.
Estimated observed time	meta.estimated_observed_time	Estimated time threat was observed. See Time values.
Half-life	meta.half_life	See Half-life. Select one of these options: Use default value: When selected, half-life for this entity is set to 720 days. Override value: Set a custom value for half-life, in number of days.
Tags	meta.tags[] and meta.taxonomy_paths[]	See tags and taxonomies.
Source*	sources[]	Select one source.
Source reliability	meta.source_reliability	See source reliability. Options: Inherit from source: This entity inherits source reliability from Source. Custom override: Set a source reliability value for just this entity.

Information source

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
Description	data.information_source.description	Description of information source.
Identity	data.information_source.identity	Name of this information source
Roles	data.information_source.roles[]	One or more information source roles. Possible values: Initial Author Content Enhancer/Refiner Aggregator Transformer/Translator
References	data.information_source.references[]	One or more URLs.

Data marking

Descriptive metadata for entity.

Field	EIQ JSON field	Description
TLP	meta.tlp_color	Set a TLP color for this entity.
Terms of use	data.handling[].marking_structures[]	Free text field allowing you to attach terms of use to an entity. Analogous to TermsOfUseMarkingStructureType.
Simple	data.handling[].marking_structures[]	Free text field for attaching any text to an entity. Analogous to SimpleMarkingStructureType.

Workflow

Use options here to apply workflow options to this entity.

Field	Description
Add to dataset	Select this option to add this entity to one or more datasets on Publish.
Manually enrich	Run one or more enrichers on this entity on Publish.

Save and publish

Tip

For more information, see Draft and published entities.

Select Publish to create this entity, and make it available under + Create > Production > Published.

For more publishing options, select More and then one of these options:

• Publish and new: Publish this entity, and start creating a new entity.

• Publish and duplicate: Publish this entity, and start creating a new entity using all the values set for this entity.

Select Save draft to save this entity as a draft, and make it available under + Create > Production > Drafts. You must publish an entity to use it elsewhere on EclecticIQ Intelligence Center.

For more options while saving as a draft, select More and then one of these options:

• Publish and new: Save this entity as a draft, and start creating a new entity.

• Publish and duplicate: Save this entity as a draft, and start creating a new entity using all the values set for this draft entity.