T1560
Archive Collected Data
Linux · macOS · Windows2 pieces on this siteT1560 on attack.mitre.org
An adversary may compress and/or encrypt data that is collected prior to exfiltration. Compressing the data can help to obfuscate the collected data and minimize the amount of data sent over the network. Encryption can be used to hide information that is being exfiltrated from detection or make exfiltration less conspicuous upon inspection by a defender.
If this is happening now
Checklists and playbooks to open while the alert is still live.
Data theft extortion response plan: verify the claim, find the way out, own the notification
An extortion demand with nothing encrypted, or your name on a leak site. Three questions run in parallel with three owners: is the claim real, what left and how, and what you are obliged to say and to whom. A plan for answering each one on evidence rather than on the attacker's framing.
Practise it
Labs, timelines, evidence packs and tabletop scenarios to work before you need to.
Seventeen hours at Calderbrook: from a password spray to data leaving
A constructed intrusion laid out against the clock and the ATT&CK tactics, following the same four stages as the guided labs. Eleven events, one of them inferred, and one tactic conspicuously missing.
how MITRE says to see it
Detect Archiving and Encryption of Collected Data (T1560)
- Detects adversarial archiving of files prior to exfiltration by correlating execution of compression/encryption utilities (e.g., makecab.exe, rar.exe, 7z.exe, powershell Compress-Archive) with subsequent creation of large compressed or encrypted files.
- Detects adversarial archiving activity through invocation of utilities like tar, gzip, bzip2, or openssl used in non-administrative or unusual contexts. Correlates command execution patterns with file creation of compressed/encrypted outputs in staging directories (e.g., /tmp, /var/tmp).
- Detects use of macOS-native archiving or encryption tools (zip, ditto, hdiutil) for staging collected data. Identifies unexpected invocation of archive utilities by Office apps, browsers, or background daemons. Correlates file creation of.zip/.dmg containers with process lineage anomalies.
what reduces it
- M1047 Audit. System scans can be performed to identify unauthorized archival utilities.