What is Cyber Threat Detection and Response?

To compete in an era of dynamic, multimodal cyberattacks, cybersecurity programs must become multidimensional, capable of simultaneously contending with a wide range of cyber threats. In this post, we explain how your organization can develop such a multipronged approach with a branch of cybersecurity known as cybersecurity threat detection.

What is threat detection and response in cybersecurity

Threat detection in cybersecurity is the process of identifying and responding to threats targeting an organization’s digital assets. These assets, which make up an organization’s attack surface, could include:

• Web servers
• Data repositories
• Networks
• Applications
• Employee devices

Cyber threats targeting IT assets fall into two categories: active threats and dormant threats. Understanding this distinction is critical to developing a targeted cyber threat response strategy.

Active cyber threats

Active cyber threats unfold in real-time via an automated cyber attack or threat actors manually progressing through the cyber kill chain.

Some examples of active cyber threats include:

• Phishing campaigns: When employees interact with a malicious email link, facilitating a malware injection into the network
• Ransomware: A type of cyber threat that encrypts critical data and systems with the promise of reversing damages after a ransom is paid. Once injected, ransomware may move laterally in search of data that will inflict the greatest harm to a business if encrypted.
• DDoS attacks: Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks overwhelm systems and web servers with excessive traffic, forcing them offline.
• Insider threats: Insiders abusing their corporate credentials and privileged system access to steal sensitive data or facilitate a breach with outside threat actors in a coordinated attack
• Identity-based attacks: Cybercriminals exploiting legitimate employee details to gain unauthorized access to a private network

• Supply chain attacks: Threat actors exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party services to gain access to the primary organization
• Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs): Advanced cyber attacks, usually involving nation-states, where an adversary maintains unauthorized access and clandestinely steals internal information for extended periods of time

Dormant cyber threats

Dormant cyber threats are vulnerabilities cybercriminals could exploit to gain unauthorized access and facilitate data breaches if they discover them.

Some examples of common dormant cyber threats include:

• Email vulnerabilities: Weak email protocols that could facilitate a phishing attack.
• Third-party software vulnerabilities: Software misconfigurations and exposures with the potential of facilitating a supply chain attack or third-party breach.
• Code injection vulnerabilities: Flaws in application code that allow attackers to inject malicious scripts, leading to data theft or system compromise.
• Unpatched zero-day exploits: Unaddressed critical exposures with the potential of resulting in a significant security incident.
• Outdated security patches: Unsecured IT systems with outstanding security patches.

Cyber threat detection and response

Cyber threat detection and cyber threat response are two components of a holistic approach to detecting and remediating security risks. The challenge of security teams is to streamline the processes between these components to create one cohesive risk management program.

Here’s an overview of the specific areas of focus of each component:

• Cyber threat detection: Identifies all active threats and potential attack vectors that could result in a security incident through a range of threat intelligence and vulnerability detection security tools.
• Cyber threat response: Leverages the human element of a cybersecurity program to apply efficient incident response and risk mitigation processes to compress the threat exposure.

Key Stages of the Threat Detection and Response (TDR) lifecycle

Cyber threat detection and response is not a two-stage program. The lifecycle consists of several steps offering a structured approach to shutting down new cyber threats and preventing recurring impacts.

1. Detection: Discovering any anomalies or malicious activities within a protected network
2. Investigation: Assessing the scope and impact of identified threats to prioritize response actions
3. Containment: Disrupting the spread of damage caused by the cyber threat
4. Eradication: Removing the threat entirely from affected systems
5. Recovery: Restoring normal operations, ensuring minimal disruption to business continuity
6. Reporting: Documenting the entire incident response process, including findings and corrective actions
7. Prevention: Using insights from security tools to reduce the likelihood of being impacted by similar threats in the future​

This structured lifecycle underscores the critical interplay between detection and response, ensuring security teams not only address threats promptly, but also use each experience as a learning opportunity to enhance future resilience.

What does threat detection and response Involve?

Threat detection involves a combination of advanced technologies, behavior analytics, and human intuition to identify suspicious activities. All of these elements are applied against a cyber threat model, which helps organizations understand how active threats are likely to develop.

A widely used approach to threat modeling is based on the mitre att&ck framework. The mitre att&ck framework is a comprehensive database of common adversarial tactics based on real-world cyber attack observations. The framework breaks down the cyber attack lifecycle into nine stages, listing the common attack methods used within each stage to form a matrix.

You can access the mitre att&ck framework here.

The MITRE ATT&CK® framework is continuously updated when new adversarial tactics become known.

Clicking on a technique in the mitre att&ck framework opens a page with more information about that cyber threat, which includes attack examples, as well as mitigation and detection recommendations.

The level of cyber threat details offered for free in the mitre att&ck matrix makes the framework an invaluable tool for any cyber risk management strategy.

By referencing this framework, organizations can establish the basis of an effective cyber threat detection and response strategy for most types of cyberattacks.

7 components of an effective cyber threat detection strategy

Detection is the most critical stage of the TDR life cycle. If any cyber threats slip through your detection net, all subsequent response processes are useless.

Consider implementing the following components to improve the sophistication of your TDR lifecycle's detection and investigation phases.

1. Threat intelligence feed

A cyber threat intelligence feed aggregates the latest threat landscape insights to help organizations tighten their defenses against emerging risks.

Threat intelligence feeds derive insights from various sources, including:

News and incidents feeds

Platforms like UpGuard provide users with news and incident feeds based on publically disclosed security events. The benefit of such a feed is that it tailors insights to the specific third-party risk exposure of your VRM program. 

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Dark web disclosures

Dark web disclosures include threat actor announcements posted on the dark web, which could offer advanced awareness of ransomware attacks impacting your third-party vendors.

Watch this video to learn how UpGuard supports threat monitoring across the dark web.

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Cyber threat reports

Online repositories, like The DFIR Report, share detailed analyses of recent cyberattacks. These resources are invaluable for understanding how to adjust cyber defenses to new threats not accounted for in a cybersecurity program.

2. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

SIEM is very beneficial to Threat Detection and Response (TDR). By consolidating and analyzing data from various network components, SIEM solutions can flag potentially suspicious network and user activities that could indicate active cyber threats.

Security Information and Event Management benefit the entire TDR lifecycle, not just the detection phase, in four primary ways:

• Centralized data aggregation: SIEM consolidates log data from disparate systems, including firewalls, servers, endpoints, and applications, providing a comprehensive view of anomalies that could signal a security incident.
• Real-time monitoring and analysis: SIEM tools can flag suspicious user behavior patterns in real-time, such as repeated failed login attempts or unexpected data transfers. The continuous monitoring capabilities of SIEM tools make them also potentially helpful for the reporting and prevention stages of the TDR lifecycle
• Support for Advanced Persistent Threats: By combining advanced analytics with machine learning algorithms, SIEM solutions could compare historical and current data to uncover complex dormant threats that would otherwise go unnoticed.
• Improved incident response: By providing security teams with detailed event logs and alerts, SIEM enhances the investigation and response phases of the TDR lifecycle.

Benefits of SIEM for threat detection and response

• Comprehensive visibility: By combining multiple data sources across the network, SIEM simplifies threat analysis with a single source of potential threat data.
• Efficient cyber threat management: Automated alerting and detailed insights reduce the time required to detect and respond to threats.
• Simplified reporting: Many SIEM solutions include features that could support the reporting phase of the TDR lifecycle. As a bonus, these reporting features could also help demonstrate compliance with industry regulations

3. Continuously monitor for asset vulnerabilities

Continuous monitoring encourages a proactive approach to cyber threat detection, ensuring attack vectors are acknowledged and addressed before cybercriminals exploit them.

Automated attack surface scanning is an efficient and scalable method of tracking asset vulnerabilities that impact the company’s security posture. When used in the context of Attack Surface Management, this security measure can also streamline digital footprint mapping, helping you maintain complete awareness of all critical IT assets in your expanding external attack surface.

Watch this video to learn how UpGuard’s scanning feature can detect even the most obscure components in your attack surface.

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Benefits of Continuous monitoring for threat detection and response

• Maintain an accurate asset inventory: Identify all external-facing systems that your organization may not be actively managing, including shadow IT and legacy systems.
• Identify asset security risks: Evaluate the security postures of each asset and identify risks with the greatest security impacts.
• Prioritize dangerous threats: Prioritize the vulnerabilities with the greatest potential negative impacts on each asset’s security posture.

4. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) focuses on detecting and responding to threats targeting an organization’s endpoints, such as computers, servers, and mobile devices. With hackers increasingly targeting mobile devices in phishing attacks, EDR is an essential security measure in the detection phase of the TDR lifecycle.

Benefits of EDR for threat detection and response

• Enhanced threat detection: Identify known and unknown threats by analyzing patterns and behaviors rather than relying solely on signature-based detection. This is especially valuable for sophisticated threats like zero-day attacks.
• Rapid response: Contain threats quickly by isolating compromised endpoints, preventing lateral movement across the network. Automated response capabilities improve the speed and efficiency of threat mitigation and containment processes.
• Detailed incident analysis: Access comprehensive logs and forensic data to understand the scope and root cause of security incidents.
• Integration with broader TDR strategies: Seamlessly integrate with tools like SIEM and network monitoring solutions as part of a multilayer defense approach.

5. ​​Network Detection and Response (NDR)

Network Detection and Response (NDR) enhances TDR strategies by identifying indicators of compromise indicative of an imminent attack, such as:

• Unusual traffic patterns: Sudden spikes in outbound traffic or unexpected data transfers to unknown IP addresses
• Unauthorized access attempts: Repeated login failures or access attempts to restricted network areas, potentially signaling brute force attacks or credential stuffing
• Anomalous east-west traffic: Increased communication between devices or systems within the network (lateral movement), often a sign of malware propagation or attackers scoping for privileged credentials
• Encrypted traffic without prior communication: Sudden instances of encrypted traffic suggesting probable command-and-control (C2) communications or data being exfiltrated under encryption
• Unrecognized devices or connections: Detection of new devices or unauthorized network connections
• Protocol anomalies: Misuse of standard protocols, such as DNS tunneling or HTTP traffic anomalies, to mask malicious activities
• Beaconing behavior: Repeated, periodic outbound communications to the same external IP, a common characteristic of malware communicating with a C2 server
• Unauthorized application use: Detection of non-standard applications or tools running on the network, which could signify the use of hacker tools like port scanners or keyloggers
• Data access anomalies: Unusual access to sensitive data or large-scale file transfers outside regular business hours, potentially indicating insider threats or compromised accounts

Benefits of NDR for threat detection and response

• Comprehensive network visibility: Provide a complete view of network activity, helping organizations spot deviations from normal traffic patterns.
• Early threat detection: By monitoring both north-south (in and out of the network) and east-west (within the network) traffic, NDR solutions can detect threats at various stages of the mitre att&ck, enabling earlier intervention.
• Improved incident response: When combined with SIEM solutions, NDR tools can create a coordinated response to cyber threats.
• Enhanced threat hunting capabilities: With detailed insights into IOCs, NDR enables proactive threat hunting.

6. Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) is an advanced cybersecurity solution that integrates multiple security products into a unified platform. XDR builds upon traditional threat detection methods, like SIEM and EDR, unifying telemetry data across security domains, enabling faster threat detection and more efficient threat mitigation.

Unlike standalone solutions, XDR offers a holistic perspective of an organization's cyber threat activities.

Benefits of NDR for threat detection and response

• Integrated visibility across environments: Eliminates data silos by aggregating security information from multiple sources
• Improved threat correlation: Appeals to multiple threat data domains to identify patterns likely associated with advanced persistent threats (APTs) or multi-vector attacks with greater accuracy
• Enhanced efficiency through automation: XDR solutions leverage automation to prioritize alerts, reduce false positives, and guide security teams toward the most critical incidents, reducing incident response time
• Streamlined response: Orchestrates responses across multiple security tool insights to minimize incident impact and improve recovery time

7. Insider threat mitigation

Insider threats are the most complicated threat category to address in a TDR program. Because insider threat actors understand internal processes and protocols, their malicious activities are difficult to separate from legitimate tasks. Detecting this type of threat requires combining insights from three risk categories collectively representing each employee’s cyber risk exposure.

Watch this video for an overview of how UpGuard draws upon these insights to track human cyber risks.

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4 Best practices for effective threat detection and response

The following best practices will help you generate the most value from your TDR investment.

1. Reference reliable cyber threat reports

Reliable and authoritative threat reports will provide accurate insights into the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of cyber attacks likely to impact your organization.

Trustworthy cyber threat report insights equip your security teams to design Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) rules tailored to your organization’s specific cyber threat exposure.

The DFIR report is a free threat intelligence report you can use to inform your response solutions and optimize your TDR workflows by following the steps below. Other threat intelligence resource options can be found in this GitHub repository.

Follow these steps to leverage the most valuable TDR insights from cyber threat reports:

• Step 1: Analyze the attack chain - Break down each stage of the attack chain to identify key actions, such as persistence mechanisms or lateral movement techniques. This analysis will reveal gaps in your current advanced threat detection capabilities.
• Step 2: Evaluate detection effectiveness - Determine whether your current detection and response tools, such as SIEM and EDR, would have alerted you to the threat. If the answer is no, and the threat is relevant to your business, create a new detection rule for the threat.
• Step 3: Go beyond IOCs: Avoid relying on transient IOCs, like IP addresses or file hashes, which can quickly become outdated. Instead, prioritize the detection of behavioral patterns that are consistent across multiple cyber attack scenarios. This focus shift will make your TDR strategy more capable of detecting insider threats.
• Step 4: Translate insights into actionable rules: If a report highlights persistence via scheduled tasks, analyze how such tasks are created in your environment. Identify relevant logs and create rules to detect abnormal task creation without triggering false positives by flagging legitimate actions.

2. Implement pen testing to uncover SIEM and EDR defense gaps

Pen testing and red teaming offer the most significant guarantee of discovering weaknesses in your organization’s SIEM and EDR solutions. These activities simulate real-world attacks, and by approaching your defenses from the mindset of hackers, pen testing providers are less likely to have a bias towards a false sense of cybersecurity.

Follow this three-stage process when implementing pen testing to improve your cyber threat detection and response strategy:

• Step 1: Evaluate missed threats - If recent red teaming exercises reveal that specific malicious activities were not detected by SIEM or EDR systems, these gaps must be addressed promptly. This process involves either creating new detection rules or refining existing ones to ensure similar threats are aknowledged in a real-life attack.
• Step 2: Optimize existing rules - For example, if lateral movement or privilege escalation attempts to bypass detection, enhance rule specificity, ensuring your adjustments don’t generate excessive false positives.
• Step 3: Continuously improve: Regularly conducting pen tests and red team exercises fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

3. Create your own cyber threat reports

Nobody understands your organization’s adversaries better than your security team. Ideally, your security teams should create an internal threat intelligence feed customized to your organization’s unique cyber threat profile. This proactive approach goes beyond simply uploading Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and should provide deep insights into specific threat actors.

Follow these steps to create high-value internal threat reports:

• Step 1: Identify all potential adversaries - Including high-profile Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). Don’t assume you’re beyond the reach of nation-state hackers. If you store enough sensitive information, your organization is a likely target.
• Step 2: Research their tactics and tools: Gather intelligence on the adversaries’ common tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), as well as their preferred tools and methods. This information forms the foundation for understanding how these groups operate​.
• Step 3: Make these reports readily available: Establish reliable workflows for continuously updating these reports in line with evolving tactics, and make sure your security teams have ongoing access to the most updated versions of these reports.

4. Integrate AI technology into Vendor Risk Management

Third-party risks are one of the leading attack vectors leading to data breaches. A threat detection and response program must broaden its scope to address cyber threats across the vendor ecosystem.

With the strategic application of AI technology, a VRM program can proactively identify and address third-party risks at scale, reducing an organization’s overall data breach potential.

For the greatest impact, your organization should integrate AI technology into the two areas of vendor risk management that are most susceptible to process bottlenecks impeding workflow efficiency - vendor security questionnaires and risk assessments.

Watch this video to learn how UpGuard’s Trust Exchange tool uses AI to improve vendor questionnaire efficiency.