At its core, threat detection is the practice of identifying and responding to potential cybersecurity threats before they can cause harm. These threats can take various forms, including malware, phishing attempts, ransomware, and other malicious activities designed to compromise a company’s systems or data.
What is threat detection and response
Cybersecurity is a race against the clock. Timely threat detection and response is key to stopping any kind of cyberattack, whether it’s targeting your software supply chain or your people. Threat detection is necessary to keep every organization and their people secure.
There are three main benefits threat detection provides:
- Proactive defense: So much of cybersecurity is reacting to threat actors; threat detection is one method for proactive defense. If organizations can identify and neutralize potential threats before they escalate, or better yet, prevent them from making contact entirely, companies will save time, money, and their reputation.
- Minimized impact: By detecting threats early, you minimize the impact of cybersecurity incidents. Early threat detection coupled with threat response and mitigation efforts can prevent unauthorized access, data breaches, phishing or ransomware attacks, and disruption of your services.
- Compliance checkmarks: Threat detection measures are a key part of cybersecurity compliance standards, effectively killing two birds with one stone by ensuring compliance and good cybersecurity health.
Forms of threat detection
Common threat detection tools can include:
Endpoint detection and response (EDR)
EDR solutions monitor and respond to security threats detected at the endpoint level, such as individual computers, servers, or devices. These are helpful for quarantining threats, but can only detect threats after they are in an organization.
Network detection and response (NDR)
NDR tools monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic for signs of malicious activity. This can include unusual traffic patterns or known attack signatures. NDR solutions do have limitations and potential flaws to consider such as outputting false positives or false negatives with threats it may not have encountered before.
Vulnerability scanner
Vulnerability scanners find and assess weaknesses or vulnerabilities within a computer system, network, or application. While a vulnerability scanner doesn’t actively detect ongoing threats or attacks, it can identify and address vulnerabilities currently present in the organization.
Threat intelligence
Threat intelligence involves leveraging information about current and emerging threats to aid detection capabilities. Threat intelligence can come in different forms whether it's a forum, a feed, a tool, or Twitter. For most, this is a more manual process, meaning it takes a lot of time, and often lacks context for whether or not a threat is relevant to them.
Pre vulnerability scanner
Pre vulnerability scanners are early threat detection tools, a cutting-edge development in cybersecurity. With the help of AI and machine learning, you can proactively identify threats likely to target you based on your data such as your perimeter, tech, industry, or location. As your first line of defense, pre-vulnerability scanners allows you to get ahead of your threats and know what threats are relevant to you.
As cyber threats evolve quicker and become increasingly sophisticated, early threat detection can make the difference between staying secure and a costly breach.
Takeaway
Threat detection is a key element to the cybersecurity process. However, most of today’s threat detection software has flaws that must be considered to stay secure. Integrating different strategies, including pre-vulnerability scanners, provides a much more comprehensive defense. This allows for companies to stay informed and truly proactive against ever-changing threats.
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