Cyber Threat Hunting
Preempt the Next Attack
What is cyber threat hunting?
Cyber threat hunting is a forward-looking approach to internet security in which threat hunters proactively search for security risks concealed within an organization’s network. Unlike more passive cyber security hunting strategies like automated threat detection systems, cyber hunting actively seeks out previously undetected, unknown, or non-remediated threats that could have evaded your network’s automated defense systems.
Why is cyber threat hunting needed?
Today’s cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated than ever, which means cyber threat hunting is an essential component of robust network, endpoint, and dataset security strategies. If an advanced external attacker or insider threat can elude initial network defense systems, they could remain undetected for months. During this time, they could gather sensitive data, compromise confidential information, or secure login credentials that enable them to sneak laterally across your networking environment.
Security personnel can no longer afford to sit back and wait for automated cyber threat detection systems to notify them of an impending attack. To remain steadfast, cyber threat
hunting enables your IT security teams to proactively identify potential vulnerabilities or threats before an attack can cause damage.
How does cyber threat hunting work?
Cyber threat hunting works by combining the human element with a software solution’s big data processing power. Human threat hunters–whose purpose is to use solutions and intelligence/data to find adversaries who may evade typical defenses by using techniques such as living off the land–lean on data from complex security monitoring and analytics tools to help them proactively identify and neutralize threats.
Human intuition, strategic and ethical thinking, and creative problem solving play an integral role in the cyber hunting process. These human characteristics enable organizations to implement threat resolutions faster and more accurately than solely relying on automated threat detection tools.
What's required to start threat hunting?
For cyber threat hunting to work, threat hunters must first establish a baseline of anticipated or authorized events to better identify anomalies. Using this baseline and the latest threat intelligence, threat hunters can then comb through security data and information collected by threat detection technologies. These technologies can include security information and event management solutions (SIEM), managed detection and response (MDR), or other security analytics tools.
Once equipped with data from varied sources such as endpoint, network and cloud data, threat hunters can scour your systems for potential risks, suspicious activities, or triggers that deviate from the normal. If a threat is identified or known threat intelligence indicates new potential threats, threat hunters can develop hypotheses and in-depth network investigations. During these investigations, threat hunters attempt to discover whether a threat is malicious or benign, or whether the network is safeguarded adequately from new types of cyber threats.