During threat hunting, irregular or suspicious activity or behavior is identified and investigated repeatedly in a hypothesis-based data collection and analytics system or in a real-time operational environment such as a network, a system, a device, and an endpoint to identify any ongoing threats that may have evaded detection with standard cybersecurity tools in the past.
It is common practice to review recent acquisitions into infrastructure, investigate suspicious activities, use threat hunting professional skills, and engage in penetration testing when it comes to threat hunting. The primary purpose of threat hunting is to discover and detect threats as quickly as possible to respond as promptly as possible. Threat hunting can assist in identifying suspicious activities that may indicate a breach in the future, as well as hidden risks that may already be present in enterprise networks, devices, and datasets.
When a company’s threat hunting has disadvantages, it will be helpful to outsource the hunters’ team with managed security services.
The disadvantages include:
- Proper security manpower is missing: If there is a storage of real professionals, it will prevent the organization from holding up a threat hunting team.
- Headcount trials: If there is a radical climate in the organization, it will make it difficult to get support for the exceptional people it needs for constructing a resourceful environment.
- Difficulty in beating cultured threats: The updated malware is sophisticated and is problematic to spot. According to Verizon’s latest Data Breach Investigations Report, companies, on average, do not realize they were penetrated until 200 days go by. The more attackers are getting smart, the more difficult it has become to target them.
Cyber threat hunting is used by security analysts and is a fast and reliable information security approach. It is used by searching the networks to find out indicators of compromise (IoCs), hacker tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), as well as threats such as Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) that cause the existing security systems to elude.
The process of threat hunting managing includes:
- Getting to know threats from inside and outside attackers: Cyberthreat hunters can look for the threats that an employer can posture from inside or from a criminal company outside.
- Enthusiastically putting down identified opponents: An attacker known for its harmful intelligence services or whose acts are famous for spiteful motives is hunted down.
- Forward-thinking to avoid future hidden threats: Cyberthreat hunters look for a computing environment through regular monitoring. Any anomaly that indicates a threat is aggressively worked upon.
- Accomplishing the procedure to cater to the problem: As soon as a problem is detected, all possible information is gathered before carrying out an action plan to solve it. In the future, similar attacks can be attacked.
A proactive threat hunting procedure occurs in three stages. Firstly, there is an initial trigger followed by thorough research and investigation, and in the end, a resolution is presented.
Step 1: Trigger
The procedure of threat hunting is intensive. The main aim of the hunter is to gather all relevant and beneficial knowledge about the situation, followed by a hypothesis relating to all thinkable coercions. It is then surveyed by a trigger chosen by the hunter to allow more study. It can comprise a system, spread network area, or proposition.
Step 2: Investigation
After choosing a trigger, all the hunting exertions are put on finding any irregularities to help verify or invalidate the hypothesis. For this process, a large scale of technologies is used to help them solve the variances which may or may not be triggering.
Step 3: Resolution
After the skim and scanning processes, all the relevant data from previously held assessments are forwarded to the resolution phase. In this phase, the information is passed on to other teams and more specific tools that can analyze the data more precisely for future use.
Whether the data is healthy or not so healthy, the collected data can be used for future predictions and inquiries. It helps forecast inclinations and looks for loopholes to susceptibilities, thus refining the safety procedures.
Ways to Improve Threat Hunting
When data breaks and cyberattacks are made, it causes damage to the companies worth millions each year. By implementing the following guidelines, threats can be managed in a better way:
Organize the company’s functioning activities
First of all, a company needs to straight-line its normal day-to-day functions. This can be done by collaborating with major IT personnel from inside and outside and working on the principal information. It can significantly help them categorize what is expected and what activity seems unusual. For this purpose, technology like UEBA is used that helps in identifying normal working conditions for employees and the system.
OODA Strategy
OODA is an Observe, orient, decide, and act strategy; threat hunters use this in the war against cybercrimes. It’s implemented mainly by the military.
- Observe involves regularly gathering information from IT and security systems.
- Orient is Double-checking the data with the current data. Examine and search for pointers of an attack, which are notions of command & control.
- Decide involves recognizing the correct sequence of the act which applies to the event.
- Act is that if there is an attack, carry out the incident response plan. Also, similar attacks should be avoided in the future.
Be ready with adequate resources
Threat hunting group must have enough suited resources of the 1) personnel with at least one hunter to be of an expert level. 2) Enough Systems should be available to carry out the procedure correctly. 3) Tools are an essential part of the hunting procedure in recognizing the irregularities and chasing down invaders.
Final Takeaway
Using threat hunting techniques to actively analyze systems can frequently distinguish between a potential attack or breach and an actual attack or breach. However, it is vital to realize that threat hunting is more complicated than simply using data from a SIEM or employing the most up-to-date analytics tool. Threat hunting is most effective when handled within the context and requirements of the business—that is, by identifying the types of threats that are most likely to target the industry or sector in which the organization operates. Additionally, successful threat hunting requires avoiding biases and bad analytical habits, employing the appropriate approach, and understanding which tools and techniques are most suitable for the threat environment, timescale, and budget. In short, threat hunting necessitates a high degree of specialized knowledge and experience, which makes collaborating with a threat hunting service provides an excellent option for meeting your business’ security needs.