Threat Hunting in Cyber Security is an active IT security activity to detect and remove malicious attacks that have penetrated without raising any alarms. Cyber threat hunting can be quite similar to real-world hunting. It demands a particularly qualified specialist with much patience, critical thinking, creativity, and an excellent eye for finding prey, usually in the form of network behavior anomalies.
What is Threat Hunting in Cyber Security?
Threat hunting in cyber security is the most used active information security process and strategy by security analysts. It consists of searching iteratively through network, cloud, and endpoint system logs for indicators of compromise (IoCs), threat actor tactics, methods, and procedures (TTPs), and advanced persistent threats (APTs) that escape your existing security system. Threat intelligence organizations have identified a known attacker whose code pattern is on a list. A threat-hunting framework can be highly effective for protecting critical infrastructures against cyber threats and suspicious activity.
How Does Threat Hunting Work?
- A successful threat-hunting program depends on the large amount of data in a specific environment.
- Cyber threat hunters add a human element to enterprise security by complementing automated technologies.
- They are highly experienced IT security experts who locate, log, monitor, and eliminate threats before they can cause serious problems Ideally, they are security analysts from a company's IT department who know its operations well, but they can also be external analysts.
- Threat hunting is the skill of detecting unknowns in the environment. It goes beyond typical detection technologies like SIEM and EDR.
- Threat hunters search through security data. They search for hidden malware or attackers, as well as patterns of suspicious activity that a computer can have missed or judged.
Why Threat Hunting in Cyber Security is Important?
- Threat hunting is complementary to the normal process of threat detection, response, and remediation while security systems examine raw data to generate alarms, threat hunting works in parallel, using queries and automation to extract hunting leads from the same data.
- Hunting leads are then analyzed by human threat hunters, who are skilled in identifying the signals of adversary activity, which can be handled using the same pipeline.
- Threat hunting is important because sophisticated threats can bypass automated cybersecurity. Although automated security technologies and tier 1 and 2 security operations center (SOC) analysts should be able to handle approximately 80% of attacks, you should still be concerned about the remaining 20%.
- The remaining 20% of threats are more likely to be sophisticated and cause significant damage. Effective threat hunting reduces the time between intrusion and discovery, limiting attacker harm.
Types of Threat Hunting
- Structured hunting: It is typically based on an attacker's indicator of attack (IoA) and their tactics, methods, and procedures (TTP).
- Unstructured hunting: An unstructured hunt begins with a trigger, one of many signs of compromise.
- Situational or entity-driven: A situational hypothesis comes from an enterprise's internal risk assessment or trends and vulnerabilities study unique to its IT environment.
Hunting Models
- Advanced analytics and machine learning investigations: This approach uses advanced data analysis and machine learning to filter through enormous amounts of data to find irregularities that may indicate potential malicious activity. These anomalies become hunting leads, and expert analysts explore them to identify stealthy threats.
- Hypothesis-driven investigation: An attacker's current tactics, methods, and procedures (TTP) are revealed through hypothesis-driven investigations, which begin with the identification of a new threat from a vast collection of crowdsourced attack data.
- Investigation based on recognized indicators: This approach to threat hunting involves tactical threat information to catalog known IOCs and IOAs connected with new threats. These serve as triggers for threat hunters to uncover possible hidden attacks or ongoing malicious activities.
Threat Hunting Tools
- Security Information and Event Management: SIEM is the main nerve center for threat hunting, which centralizes various data sources to detect security threats.
- Managed detection and response systems: MDR applies threat intelligence and proactive threat hunting to detect and remediate advanced attacks. This type of security solution can help reduce attack dwell time and respond fast to network attacks.
- Analytical Tools: Statistical and intelligence analysis software generates visual reports using interactive charts and graphs, making it easier to correlate things and find patterns.
Threat Hunting Methodologies
- Conductual Examination: Concentrate on identifying abnormalities and comprehending typical behavioral patterns. Examine user and system behavior, look for irregularities, and look into questionable activity.
- Theory-Based Hunting: Predicated on vulnerabilities, newly discovered threats, and recognized threat actor behaviors. Create a hypothesis concerning possible risks, test it with data analysis, and then either confirm or deny the theory.
- Emulation of an Adversary: To test defenses, mimic known enemies' strategies and tactics, assess detection and reaction capabilities, and create and run simulations based on known adversary behaviors.
- Driven by threat intelligence: Use reports and feeds of threat intelligence to direct your hunting activities. Find signs of compromise (IOCs) and applicable strategies, methods, and procedures (TTPs) in your environment by searching for them about current threats.
Threat Hunting Steps
Step 1: Trigger
Threat hunting is usually a concentrated endeavor. The hunter-gathers data about the surroundings and formulates theories on possible dangers. The hunter then selects a trigger to look into further. This might be a specific system, a segment of the network, a theory inspired by a disclosed vulnerability or patch, details on a zero-day exploit, an irregularity in the security data collection, or a request originating from another part of the company.
Step 2: Investigation
After a trigger has been found, the hunt is concentrated on proactively looking for anomalies that support or contradict the theory. Threat hunters frequently make the premise that "We are compromised or vulnerable to this new exploit," then proceed to substantiate or refute the assertion.
Step 3: Resolution
During the investigation phase, threat hunters gather vital information and provide answers to crucial questions like "Who?" (if credentials are involved), "What?" (the sequence of activities), "When?, and "Where?" (the extent of the impacted systems, including listings of all the gadgets and organizations that need to be fixed), and, if it is feasible based on the data provided, "Why?
Where Does Threat Hunting Fit?
- Operations For Security: Threat hunting adds a proactive layer of defense to the overall security posture when integrated with Security Operations Centers (SOCs).
- Risk Management and Compliance: By lowering the probability of successful attacks, proactive threat hunting assists companies in managing risk and complying with regulatory obligations.
- Management of Vulnerabilities: Threat hunting increases and supports vulnerability management efforts by locating and addressing possible risks.
- Intelligence Regarding Threats: To keep ahead of new dangers, threat hunting uses threat intelligence to direct and concentrate efforts.
What's the Difference Between Threat Hunting and Threat Intelligence?
Threat hunting | Threat intelligence |
|---|
Threat hunting uses this intelligence to conduct a thorough, system-wide search for malicious actors. | Threat intelligence is a collection of data on attempted or successful intrusions. |
Threat hunting begins and ends with threat intelligence. | Threat intelligence is collected and evaluated by automated security systems using machine learning and AI. |
In threat hunting, An effective danger hunt can detect threats that have not yet been discovered in the wild. | In threat intelligence, An effective threat hunt cannot identify threats that have yet to be discovered in the wild. |
Threat hunting proactively investigates security incidents. | Threat intelligence is keeping up with evolving modes of attack |
Threat hunting can not reduce data loss. | Threat Intelligence is reducing data loss. |
Conclusion
In this article, we have learned about Threat hunting in cyber security. Threat hunting has become a favorite in many company's security programs because it ensures a level of situational awareness, that other methods can not reach so quickly.
