The Imperative of Threat Hunting for a Mature Security Posture  

Why Threat Hunting is Integral Component for Every Security Strategy

• Proactive Detection of Evolving Threats  
  With the sheer volume of threats continuously being thrown against the mainstream defenses, it’s no surprise that they often fall short of their promises. Modern security tools are excellent at detecting known threats but struggle with new or modified ones. Also, threat actors are well aware in the investment the market has made in security tools and have shifted their tactics to abuse legitimate system administration tools to carry out their operations. Detecting legitimate use and abuse of these tools is often challenging for security products alone. Threat Hunters leverage the advanced analytics derived from various tools, threat intelligence, and behavioral analysis to uncover anomalies and potential threats that security tools might miss.  
   
• Minimizing Dwell Time 
  Dwell time refers to the amount of time a threat actor remains undetected within a network. The longer a threat goes unnoticed, the more damage it can inflict. Threat hunting significantly reduces dwell time by continuously monitoring and analyzing telemetry sources. By identifying and responding to threats swiftly, organizations can minimize the impact of a breach and prevent data loss, financial loss, and reputational damage. Just because we have an incident doesn’t mean we need to have a crisis. Threat hunting assumes that threat actors will gain access to the network and can positively impact dwell time by the nature of being proactive and threat driven.
   
• Enhancing Threat Intelligence and Improving Security Operations  
  Security operations has been struggling with alert fatigue for decades and this is often the result of implementing “out of the box” detections and intelligence which aren’t properly curated or tuned for the organization. One of the major benefits of threat hunting is that since it is a well thought out human-driven practice, the results of the threat hunt often uncover new threat intelligence and techniques that can be leveraged to create well architected and tight detections, reducing false positives and arming SOC analysts with actionable alerts and relevant intelligence to better protect the organization. Integrating threat hunting with the development and curation of threat intelligence and detections creates a positive feedback loop that continuously enhances the organization’s defense posture.   
   
• Improving Overall Security Posture  
  Threat Hunting is not just about detecting and responding to threats; it also provides valuable insights into an organization’s overall security posture and attack surface. Throughout the process of threat hunting, hunters often identify blind spots, misconfiguration, unmanaged assets, and vulnerabilities within the environment. Often referred to as enablers of an attack, these are insights into an environment that do not pose an immediate threat but could be leveraged by an attacker for an attack. For example, hunters often come across credentials being stored or transmitted in clear text, exposed ports and services, or shadow IT. All of which could significantly increase the impact of an attack if discovered by a threat actor first. Identifying these weaknesses creates a continuous cycle of assessment and improvement is essential for maintaining a robust security posture in the face of evolving threats.

Threat Hunts Find What Tools Often Miss  

• Contextual Understanding and Reasoning
  Human threat hunters bring an essential layer of detection capability through their contextual understanding, adaptive reasoning, and detailed analysis, which security products alone cannot achieve. Their ability to grasp the broader context of a threat allows them to discern the potential business impact and adapt their strategies accordingly. Adaptive reasoning enables them to think creatively and form hypotheses about novel threats, iteratively testing and refining their approaches. Through detailed contextual analysis, they can perform deep dive investigations, correlating data from disparate sources to uncover hidden threats. This human-driven approach ensures a nuanced and comprehensive detection capability that automated systems, limited to predefined algorithms and signatures, cannot replicate.  
   
• Suspicious User Behavior 
  Insider threats and compromised user accounts often exhibit behavior that falls within the realm of legitimate activities but still raises red flags. Criminal threat actors have largely adopted to hijacking legitimate identities and administration tools to carry out their attacks so being able to identify these behaviors is a critical component to a modern security strategy. Threat hunters can identify suspicious behavior, such as an employee accessing sensitive information not related to their job or logging in from unusual locations. By analyzing these behaviors and forming hypotheses about their intent, threat hunters can uncover potential threats that automated systems might overlook.  
   
• Complex Attack Chains  
  Attacks often involve multiple stages and techniques designed to evade defenses and detection. Threat Hunters natural curiosity provides an additional layer of defense by piecing together seemingly unrelated security events that, when viewed together, reveal the attack. This ability to connect the dots and understand the broader context of an attack is a key advantage of human-led hypothesis-based threat hunting.    
    
• Adaptability to New Threats 
  Threat hunters can quickly adapt to new and emerging threats, leveraging their expertise and threat intelligence to respond faster than automated systems can be updated. For example, threat Hunters can identify unknown malware variants by analyzing suspicious or unusual system behavior, like unexpected file changes, or anomalies in process execution. This approach allows them to form a hypothesis about potential threats and investigate further, often leading to the discovery of new attack methods or sometimes, simply rogue or shadow IT in your environment.

Maximizing Value of Security Investments

Threat hunting acts as a value-based pressure test, exposing the most and least valuable of your existing tools and data based on their ability to uncover evidence of a specified threat. By analyzing which data sets and tools consistently yield successful hunts that uncover malicious activity, security leaders gain valuable insight into their security stack’s true worth. One potential approach is assigning a “data value score” based on the number of successful hunts initiated through a particular data source or product. This score highlights which resources are most effective in unearthing threats. Conversely, failed hunts due to a lack of specific data can be even more informative. These dead ends serve as a red flag for security leadership, indicating areas where investment in additional data collection or security tools is crucial to plug the gaps and empower threat hunters to proactively discover hidden threats. Furthermore, by identifying low-scoring data sources, security leaders can optimize their data aggregation costs by eliminating them from their tools, freeing up resources for potentially more valuable data collection efforts.

Implementing Threat Hunting in Your Organization  

Integrating threat hunting into your organization’s security strategy requires a combination of skilled personnel, advanced tools, and a proactive mindset. Here are some key steps to get started:  

1. Invest in Skilled Threat Hunters 
   Threat Hunting requires specialized skills and expertise. Invest in hiring and training security professionals who are adept at threat hunting techniques and methodologies. Binary Defense Threat Hunting can significantly reduce costs by providing seasoned threat hunters to manage tasks effectively and act as an extension of your team. 
    
2. Leverage Advanced Tools and Technologies 
   Equip your threat hunters with advanced tools and technologies that enhance their capabilities. This includes threat intelligence platforms, behavioral analytics, and machine learning algorithms. These tools can help identify anomalies, correlate data, and provide actionable insights. Partnering with Binary Defense enables your organization to leverage our Threat Hunters by using your existing security tool investments. This collaboration helps refine and focus your threat detection strategies by optimizing the use of current technologies like behavioral analytics and machine learning. Binary Defense Threat Hunters brings expertise in leveraging these tools to test hypotheses about potential security threats, enhancing your ability to proactively identify and mitigate risks. This approach not only utilizes your current investments more efficiently but also enables a more strategic allocation of resources and improved scaling. 
    
3. Foster a Proactive Security Culture 
   Cultivate a proactive security culture within your organization. Encourage collaboration and information sharing among different teams, such as IT, security, and incident response. Promote awareness and education about the latest threats and best practices for threat hunting. Binary Defense Threat Hunters can augment this culture by offering expert insights and continuous learning opportunities, reducing the need for extensive internal training programs. 
    
4. Establish a Continuous Improvement Process 
   Threat hunting is an ongoing process that requires continuous assessment and improvement. Regularly review and update your threat hunting strategies, methodologies, and tools to stay ahead of evolving threats. Learn from past incidents and incorporate lessons learned into your security practices. With Binary Defense, your organization can benefit from industry-leading practices and benchmarking against a broader spectrum of threats and responses, in doing so, optimizing your security investments. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, threat hunting is a core part of maturing any security program. It provides proactive detection of threats, reduces dwell time, enhances incident response, and improves overall security. By understanding the importance of threat hunting and investing in the necessary resources, security leaders can significantly strengthen their organization’s defenses against cyber threats.  

For more information about how Binary Defense can stand up Threat Hunting in your environment, click that contact us button or give a watch to our latest webinar.