Cybersecurity — The need for Behavioral Analytics solutions

Behavioral Analytics (BA) solutions have been in use for years outside of cybersecurity by companies like Netflix and Amazon to recommend new purchases based on past online behaviors. But in late 2013, Target’s infamous data breach made it apparent that BA systems had a place in cybersecurity.

The States’ investigation of the breach determined that cyberattackers gained access to Target’s computer gateway served through credentials stolen from a third-party vendor. Using the credentials to exploit weaknesses in Target’s system, the attackers gained access to a customer service database and stole 41 million customers’ credit card data as well as more than 60 million customers’ contact information.

The reality is that Target was in fact logging network activity data that contained records of hacking but the attack went unnoticed. Why? Because the data wasn’t being analysed by a BA solution. In other words, Target’s Security teams weren’t able to spot the abnormal behavior in the midst of overwhelming logging data.

So what does a cybersecurity BA solution do? It monitors users’ behavioral patterns to identify anomalous network activity or pattern-breaking behaviors that indicate a possible security threat. For example, if a user normally only accesses a limited amount of credit card information each day and then suddenly has a peak access to large amounts of this same data, a BA solution would flag that action as a potential threat.

A good cybersecurity BA solution should build a baseline of user behavior over time, display this information in an easy to comprehend and visual manner and generate alerts for abnormal patterns.

Such solutions are becoming increasingly necessary for Organizations because today’s attackers are waging advanced social engineering campaigns that can bypass signature based network defenses. BA solutions are rising as security mechanisms because they do not depend on traditional signature-based detection schemes to stop advanced malware. Instead, BA solutions make it so that a hacker has to enter the network and also mimic a stolen account’s normal behavior to evade detection.

A well-designed cybersecurity BA solution has to respect three major components:

• User-Centric: it must be custom-built to answer complex, user-centric queries
• Real-time: Ingested data should be available to query almost instantly
• Scalable: it needs to effortlessly scale to meet customers’ needs

Cybersecurity is quickly becoming a priority across industries from automotive, to finance, to healthcare, and beyond. Enterprises are seeking technologies and tactics to safeguard their interests from advanced and persistent threats. As the number of accidents and malicious attacks rise, the need for better cybersecurity only becomes more apparent.

However, despite the advent of novel security technologies and bigger cybersecurity budgets, enterprises with critical digital assets are still at great risk. Understanding the trends and technologies driving the future of cybersecurity is more important than ever and Behavioral Analytics solutions will be playing an ever-increasing role in each Organization’s Security landscape.