3.13.5e

Changing processing and storage locations (also referred to as moving target defense) addresses the APT by using techniques such as virtualization, distributed processing, and replication. This enables organizations to relocate system components that support critical missions and business functions. Changing the locations of processing activities or storage sites introduces a degree of uncertainty into the targeting activities of adversaries. Targeting uncertainty increases the work factor of adversaries making compromises or breaches to organizational systems more difficult and time-consuming. It also increases the chances that adversaries may inadvertently disclose aspects of their tradecraft while attempting to locate organizational resources. Other options for employing moving target defense include changing IP addresses, Domain Name System (DNS) names, or network topologies. Moving target defense can also increase the work factor for defenders who have a constantly changing system to defend. Accordingly, organizations update their management and security tools and train personnel to adapt to the additional work factor. Another way of addressing this requirement is by fragmentation. This involves taking information and fragmenting/partitioning it across multiple components (e.g., across a distributed database). Such actions mean that the compromise (unauthorized exfiltration) of any single component of the information data set will not result in the compromise of the entire data. To fully compromise the entire data set, the adversary would have to work harder to try to locate all of the data sets.