<metaname="dct.abstract"content="This document provides advice on the naming of threat actors (also known as malicious actors). The objective is to provide practical advices for organisations such as security vendors or organisations attributing incidents to a group of threat actor. It also discusses the implication of naming a threat actor towards intelligence analysts and threat intelligence platforms such as MISP ]."/>
<metaname="description"content="This document provides advice on the naming of threat actors (also known as malicious actors). The objective is to provide practical advices for organisations such as security vendors or organisations attributing incidents to a group of threat actor. It also discusses the implication of naming a threat actor towards intelligence analysts and threat intelligence platforms such as MISP ]."/>
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<tdclass="left">Network Working Group</td>
<tdclass="right">A. Dulaunoy</td>
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<tdclass="left">Internet-Draft</td>
<tdclass="right">P. Bourmeau</td>
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<tdclass="left">Expires: December 11, 2020</td>
<tdclass="right">CIRCL</td>
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<tdclass="right">June 9, 2020</td>
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<pclass="title">Recommendations on naming threat actors<br/>
<p>This document provides advice on the naming of threat actors (also known as malicious actors). The objective is to provide practical advices for organisations such as security vendors or organisations attributing incidents to a group of threat actor. It also discusses the implication of naming a threat actor towards intelligence analysts and threat intelligence platforms such as MISP <ahref="#MISP-P"class="xref">[MISP-P]</a>].</p>
<h1id="rfc.status"><ahref="#rfc.status">Status of This Memo</a></h1>
<p>This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.</p>
<p>Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.</p>
<p>Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."</p>
<p>This Internet-Draft will expire on December 11, 2020.</p>
<p>Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.</p>
<p>This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.</p>
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<h1class="np"id="rfc.toc"><ahref="#rfc.toc">Table of Contents</a></h1>
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<li>1. <ahref="#rfc.section.1">Introduction</a>
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<ul><li>1.1. <ahref="#rfc.section.1.1">Conventions and Terminology</a>
<ahref="#rfc.section.1.1">1.1.</a><ahref="#conventions-and-terminology"id="conventions-and-terminology">Conventions and Terminology</a>
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<pid="rfc.section.1.1.p.1">The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 <ahref="#RFC2119"class="xref">[RFC2119]</a>.</p>
<ahref="#rfc.section.2.1">2.1.</a><ahref="#reusing-threat-actor-naming"id="reusing-threat-actor-naming">Reusing threat actor naming</a>
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<pid="rfc.section.2.1.p.1">Before creating a new threat actor name, you MUST consider a review of existing threat actor names from databases such as the threat actor MISP galaxy <ahref="#MISP-G"class="xref">[MISP-G]</a>. Proliferation of threat actor names is a significant challenge for the day-to-day analyst work. If your threat actor defined an existing threat actor, you MUST reuse an existing threat actor name. If there is no specific threat actor name, you SHALL create a new threat actor following the best practices defined in this document.</p>
<h1id="rfc.section.2.2">
<ahref="#rfc.section.2.2">2.2.</a><ahref="#don-t-confuse-actor-naming-with-malware-naming"id="don-t-confuse-actor-naming-with-malware-naming">Don't confuse actor naming with malware naming</a>
<pid="rfc.section.4.p.1">Naming a threat actor could include specific sensitive reference to a case or an incident. Before releasing the naming, the creator MUST review the name to ensure no sensitive information is included in the threat actor name.</p>
<a>Bradner, S.</a>, "<ahref="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119">Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels</a>", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997.</td>
<a>Community, M.</a>, "<ahref="https://github.com/MISP">MISP Project - Open Source Threat Intelligence Platform and Open Standards For Threat Information Sharing</a>"</td>
