Understanding Threat Detection and Response

What is Threat Detection and Response (TDR)?

Threat detection describes an organization’s capacity to keep an eye on environmental events and spot questionable activities. To be more specific, finding any malicious behaviour that can compromise the network and then creating a suitable reaction to lessen the threat before it can take advantage of any existing vulnerabilities.

The maturity of your security operations centre (SOC) and the available tools determine how well you can detect threats.

Threat Response is a collection of measures put in place to lessen, contain, and fix security threats that have been detected. Threat hunting, incident response, detection engineering, and other diverse detection and response skills make up the diverse threat response landscape.

The Complete Guide to Data Protection From CISOs to SecOps teams, find out how data protection is evolving and what you need to do to keep up. Download Ebook

Components of Threat Detection and Response (TDR)

To provide thorough security coverage, Threat Detection and Response is made up of several components. The essential elements are:

1. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): EDR systems enable security teams to identify, investigate, and stop any threats by providing real-time endpoint data gathering and monitoring. EDR systems keep an eye on endpoints all the time to identify and address sophisticated attacks. They provide insight into endpoint activity and facilitate quick investigation and containment of harmful activity on mobile devices, desktops, and laptops.
2. Extended Detected and Response (XDR): It describes an integrated strategy that gathers and correlates information from various security tiers. Through the integration of several security products into a platform for security incident detection and response, they expand these capabilities. By using automated analysis and uniform visibility, it improves detection accuracy and expedites the reaction process.
3. Threat Intelligence: An additional method for detecting and responding to threats. To provide actionable insight about present and potential risks, threat intelligence professionals gather, compile, and analyse data from a range of sources. Threat intelligence helps organizations keep ahead of any assaults by providing up-to-date information about emerging and existing risks. Numerous websites and resources pertaining to security offer varying degrees of information, and case-by-case use will be employed.
4. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): To find security incidents, they gather and examine event and log data from several sources. To identify dangers, they offer historical analysis and real-time monitoring. Additionally, SIEM systems can correlate relevant events, which aids security professionals in comprehending the entire extent of an assault. Furthermore, security workers can concentrate on more complicated problems by using SIEM solutions to automate responses to certain threat categories.
5. Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS): A strong threat detection and response strategy must include it as one of its essential elements. They keep an eye out for questionable activity and policy infractions in network traffic. To identify possible threats and notify security teams, intrusion detection systems (IDS) analyse network traffic. In contrast, intrusion prevention systems (IPS) take things a step further by informing firewalls and proxies to automatically block or lessen known dangers.

Key Benefits of Threat Detection and Response (TDR)

It is crucial to have robust threat detection and response capabilities in the current cybersecurity environment. Numerous repercussions, including ransomware attacks, data breaches, and reputational harm, can result from a delayed response. Below are the following main advantages of threat detection and response:

1. Early Detection of Threats: One of threat detection and response’s primary benefits is the ability to stop threats before they do damage. Early detection of unusual behavior in the threat detection process allows the team to take action before the attackers compromise systems or steal sensitive information. The primary benefit is the ability to actively look for threats rather than passively waiting to learn about an ongoing attack.
2. Improved Compliance: Strict data security and privacy regulations, including the duty to notify authorities and impacted parties of breaches, are already enforced by numerous businesses and jurisdictions. Complying with laws like the CCPA, GDPR, and HIPAA requires the ability to promptly identify, look into, and record security incidents. Threat Detection Response solutions can help fulfill reporting requirements by offering forensic evidence and thorough timelines.
3. Proactive Security Posture: The instruments to recognize new threats and strengthen defenses are provided by threat detection and response. By employing these technologies, you may improve the environment, reduce future threats, and gain insight into how attackers function. Effective threat identification and response lowers the organization’s total cybersecurity risks.
4. Enhanced Visibility: Strong network threat detection monitoring across applications and endpoints can reveal vulnerabilities. A thorough understanding of an organization’s security environment is offered by threat detection and response systems. Faster detection of security events through improved visibility and centralized monitoring facilitates better resource allocation and decision-making.
5. Cost-Effective: The costs of cyber threats are high, ranging from lost production to ransom payments. Identifying and addressing threats every minute that a cyberattack goes unnoticed increases the risk to your company. As the assault goes on, more systems are exposed to infection. The risk of theft or encryption is higher for critical data, and financial assets are more vulnerable to theft. Through early attack prevention and uninterrupted operations, Threat Detection and Response lowers costs.

How does Threat Detection and Response (TDR) work?

To identify attacks in real time, threat detection and response systems keep an eye on the environment, including networks, apps, user activity, and endpoints. To evaluate data and find irregularities, advanced technologies like AI and machine learning are employed. Once a threat has been identified, both automated and manual reactions are initiated to limit and lessen its effects. A forensic study is then conducted to comprehend the threat and enhance defenses in the future.

Many organizations establish a security operations center (SOC), a centralized function or team tasked with enhancing an organization’s cybersecurity posture and preventing, detecting, and responding to threats, to handle cyberthreats and other security challenges. The SOC looks for attempted, successful, or ongoing breaches using technology and threat intelligence. Threat detection and response tools are used by the security team to eradicate or lessen a cyberthreat once it has been recognized.

Threat Detection and Response’s few stages are listed below:

1. Monitoring: Monitoring is the initial step in the Threat Detection and Response process. Systems are continuously collecting and evaluating data for this purpose from a range of sources, including network traffic, endpoint activity, and user behavior.
2. Detection: Security technologies that keep an eye on networks, apps, endpoints, identities, and clouds can assist identify possible threats and security lapses. Security experts also employ cyberthreat hunting strategies to find advanced cyberthreats that avoid detection.
3. Investigation: The security teams or automated systems investigate detected threats to determine the scope, potential impact. Once a risk is identified, the SOC uses AI and other tools to confirm the cyber threat is real, determine how it happened, and assess what company assets are affected.
4. Response: To eradicate the attacker from the environment entirely, teams try to eradicate the underlying cause of a security issue. They also counteract weaknesses that could expose the company to a similar cyberattack. Teams restore any systems that have been isolated to the internet after they are reasonably certain that a cyberthreat or vulnerability has been eliminated. Appropriate steps are made to reduce the threat based on the analysis, such as halting malicious activity, isolating compromised systems, or starting incident response protocols.
5. Refinement: The next phase, known as refining, involves applying the knowledge gained from every occurrence to enhance detection capabilities and response tactics. Depending on how serious the issue was, security professionals will record it and inform the board, executives, and/or leaders about what transpired and how it was fixed. Teams investigate the incident and determine what adjustments should be made to the environment and procedures to guarantee that a similar breach does not occur again and to enhance response in the future.

Threat Detection and Response(TDR) Best Practices

Let’s discuss the best practices for threat detection and response in detail:

1. Incident Response Plan: It is a set of guidelines designed to help organizations react quickly and efficiently to security incidents. This strategy should specify the duties and responsibilities of each team member, as well as the steps involved in troubleshooting and ingesting before responding to various incident categories. It should outline how to communicate with stakeholders both during and after an incident, covering topics such as process improvement, lessons learned, and possible tooling augmentation. A thorough incident response strategy can minimize the harm and disruption that a security incident can create by drastically cutting down on the time it takes to respond. It also offers advice to senior leaders, lawyers, corporate communications, public relations, and human resources departments that must ensure that stakeholders, including employees, are informed of developments and that the company is adhering to applicable laws.
2. Conduct Regular Training: Employee education and awareness-raising for efficient threat identification and response is one of the finest practices. Data breaches may occur as a result of employee’s ignorance. An employee utilizing an unauthorized device or falling for a phishing scam is the initial cause of most security issues. Frequent training enables employees to remain aware of potential dangers and alert the security personnel. Keeping security workers up to date on the newest tools, policies, and threat response techniques is another benefit of a quality training program.
3. Continuous Monitoring: This procedure is thought to be successful in identifying and responding to threats. To identify suspicious activity, the company should use tools like SIEM and EDR to monitor its networks and systems around-the-clock. Organizations should consider the changing threat landscape while reviewing and updating their security measures. Additionally, they ought to conduct routine audits of their security posture, pinpointing areas that require enhancement and putting the required adjustments into place.
4. Clear Communication: Effective threat response requires the establishment of a clear escalation channel. The appropriate team or persons should be promptly notified of any possible threats so that they can conduct more analysis and take appropriate action. The escalation path may change based on the threat’s seriousness, possible consequences, and the expertise needed to address it. An escalation and communication chain that is well-defined and documented helps expedite the response process and guarantee that the right people are handling threats.
5. Regular VAPT: Before a threat actor may take advantage of the organization’s security posture deficiencies, vulnerability assessments can assist in identifying them. The organization’s systems, apps, and networks should all be covered in these evaluations. The best method for detecting and responding to threats is thought to be penetration testing in conjunction with vulnerability assessment. Through the simulation of real-world attacks, penetration tests evaluate an organization’s defenses and reveal how well they hold up against a real attack. An organization must invest a lot of resources in managing those crucial and high finds in both software and hardware. It also has security personnel on duty, keeping an eye on places that the organization is still unable to patch quickly and efficiently.

The Lepide Data Security Platform enables swift and automated threat detection and response through proactive and continuous monitoring of your IT environment. Lepide will learn what normal behavior looks like with its AI-backed machine learning, and will trigger alerts for anomalous behavior or threats. With pre-defined threat models and workflows, Lepide can enable you to take immediate, automated action when security threats are detected. This will help you to identify and contain security threats in real time, reducing your financial risk.

If you’d like to learn more about the threat detection and response capabilities in the Lepide Data Security Platform, schedule a demo with one of our experts today.