Data is one of the most important assets modern organizations possess. It drives customer service initiatives, informs policy decisions, helps evaluate performance, and more. Data is so valuable that cybercriminals worldwide go to great lengths to steal, sell, and even hold it for ransom. The days of swashbuckling bank robbers in balaclavas and black turtlenecks are long gone; today’s master thieves wear hoodies and slippers, stealing the equivalent of millions of dollars from the comfort of their own homes.
Fortunately, new techniques have emerged to keep this new breed of criminal at bay. Forget pressure-sensitive floor tiles and laser beam hallways; modern security systems use advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology.
Since Gartner coined the term in 2015, user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) solutions have become the gold standard of AI and ML-based security solutions. UEBA solutions use behavioral analytics, machine learning algorithms, and automation to identify abnormal behavior and potential cyber threats.
This article will outline some of the tactical and strategic use cases of UEBA solutions.
Insider Threat Detection
The most common UEBA use case is insider threat detection. Organizations can use UEBA solutions to identify suspicious behavior and bolster data loss prevention (DLP) efforts. By monitoring the behavior of employees, contractors, or any other personnel with access to organizational resources, UEBA solutions detect any abnormalities and report potential cyber threats to security teams.
Malware and Advanced Threat Detection
UEBA solutions analyze the behavior of an organization’s entities to detect malware or advanced persistent threats (APTs). This analysis includes monitoring for unusual network traffic, command-and-control communications, and suspicious file activity. For example, if an organization’s server receives thousands more requests than usual, a UEBA solution would flag this as a potential Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
Account Sharing Policy Breach Detection
Most organizations have account-sharing policies preventing staff from sharing accounts or credentials. Account or credential sharing is a cybersecurity threat because it increases the organization’s attack surface, potentially allows unauthorized access, and can lead to weak password practices. UEBA solutions can spot evidence that staff are sharing accounts and flag this to security teams, who can respond accordingly.
Risk and Compliance Management
Many of the world’s most stringent security standards, such as NIST, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, require organizations to implement UEBA solutions. UEBA solutions provide security teams with valuable risk and compliance management insights, analyzing user behavior and access patterns to empower organizations to identify policy violations, enforce compliance controls, and mitigate the associated risks of data breaches and regulatory non-compliance.
Account Sharing Policy Breach Detection
Most organizations have account-sharing policies preventing staff from sharing accounts or credentials. Account or credential sharing is a cybersecurity threat because it increases the organization’s attack surface, potentially allows unauthorized access, and can lead to weak password practices. UEBA solutions can spot evidence that staff is sharing accounts and flag this to security teams, who can respond accordingly.
Security Incident Response
UEBA solutions enable security teams to quickly and efficiently respond to security threats by providing them with incident context. UEBA solutions correlate user and entity behavior with security events to empower organizations to prioritize and investigate incidents more effectively, reducing response times and minimizing the impact of data breaches.
Moreover, UEBA solutions can even alert security teams before an incident occurs. For example, suppose a staff member accesses resources outside their remit, work hours, or usual location. In that case, UEBA will flag this to security teams and allow them to prevent an insider threat in the earliest stages.
Trojan Account Detection
UEBA solutions can detect abnormal bursts of account creation, deletion, or modification activity, which might indicate cybercriminals are setting up local accounts from which to carry out espionage activity. Examples include a suspicious increase in system admin accounts, or existing system admin accounts losing specific access privileges.
Security Intelligence and Analytics
UEBA solutions can improve an organization’s overall security posture by generating valuable data for security analytics and intelligence. The aggregation analysis of user and entity behavior data allows organizations to identify trends, patterns, and emerging threats.
Compromised Account Detection
UEBA solutions analyze system and network logs to provide evidence of unusual and unauthorized activities individuals or accounts perform. Such activities may suggest that cybercriminals have compromised the account’s login information has been compromised and are leveraging the account to assess or exploit vulnerabilities or extract sensitive data.
Amidst the most treacherous cybersecurity landscape in history, data loss prevention is of utmost importance to any internet-connected organization (which is all of them). UEBA solutions are essential to these organizations’ security stacks, leveraging AI and ML technology to detect and flag a range of cyber threats, inform security decisions, and ensure regulatory compliance.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Josh is a Content writer at Bora. He graduated with a degree in Journalism in 2021 and has a background in cybersecurity PR. He’s written on a wide range of topics, from AI to Zero Trust, and is particularly interested in the impacts of cybersecurity on the wider economy.
