What is Security Analytics?

As an example of security analytics, monitored network traffic could be used to identify indicators of compromise before an actual threat occurs. 

No business can predict the future, especially where security threats are concerned, but by deploying security analytics tools that are able to analyze security events it is possible to detect a threat before it has a chance to impact your infrastructure and bottom line.

The field of security analytics is growing, is full of potential and offers a robust solution for organizations looking to stay on top of vulnerabilities and one step ahead of cybercriminals.

There are a number of drivers key to the growth of security analytics, including:

Transitioning from protection to detection: Hackers use a wide range of attack mechanisms that exploit multiple vulnerabilities. Some threats can go undetected for months. Security analytics tools can keep track of common threat patterns and send alerts the moment an anomaly is discovered.

A unified view of the enterprise: Security analytics structures data in such a way that it offers both a real-time and historical view of events. This provides a unified view of threats and security breaches from a central console and allows for smarter planning, faster resolution and better decision making.

Seeing results and a return on investment: There is mounting pressure on IT teams to communicate results to senior management and stakeholders. Security analytics provides time-to-resolution metrics and fewer false positives that allow analysts to quickly identify threats and respond to security breaches.

One of the biggest benefits of security analytics is the sheer volume and diversity of information that can be analyzed at any one time. This data can include, but is not limited to:

• Endpoint and user behavior data
• Network traffic
• Business applications
• Cloud traffic
• Non-IT contextual data
• External threat intelligence sources
• Access and identity management data
• Proof of compliance during an audit

By analyzing such a wide range of data, organizations are able to easily connect the dots between various alerts and events. The result is proactive security incident detection and faster response times that help the business to protect the integrity of systems and data.

Security analytics tools also assist compliance with industry and government regulations. Regulations such as PCI-DSS and HIPAA require organizations to monitor data activity and log data collection for forensics and auditing purposes.

Security analytics can be implemented for a wide variety of use cases, from user behavior monitoring to network traffic analysis. Some of the most common use cases include:

• Analyzing network traffic to detect patterns that indicate a potential attack
• Monitoring user behavior, especially potentially suspicious behavior
• Detecting insider threats
• Detecting data exfiltration
• Identifying accounts that may have been compromised