What is Security Analytics and Why it is so Important to us?

To protect a network against malware, we simply update antivirus technology with the latest signature database and install a firewall. But to protect against an unknown attacker or advanced targeted threats, it’s a whole new different story.

It’s a kind of things which you don’t know where exactly your enemy will strike next. Despite years on investments and efforts in building security defenses such as firewall and antivirus, companies are still vulnerable to attack. High-profile targeted attacks on corporate networks are becoming increasingly widespread and common these days, Hundreds of well-established companies have already been hacked and had their sensitive information stolen- resulting in billion dollars of damage.

For many companies, responding to such breach feels like a losing fight. They struggle with detecting and pinpointing exact locations. They do not properly contain and repair the damage done. And the worst things, after a lengthy effort to remediate the breach, they find themselves infected again.

This proved only one thing; they do not understand the threat and have no idea how to respond to it. This lack of knowledge could lead to poor containment plans and disaster. In an environment of constant unrelenting attacks, advanced knowledge is needed to discover the attack in progress and provide the time needed to minimize the damage done.

It’s now time for companies and organizations to take a new security approach and practice a whole new art of war, an intelligence-driven security model.

Enter Security Analytics, a new insight in winning a war against hackers and other types of advanced threats.  It’s capable of detecting incoming attacks and even countering APT (Advanced Persistent Threat).

What is Security Analytics?
Security Analytics is the application of security intelligence or big data science to full packet capture. It's one of the fastest growing product categories in IT security. It provides a comprehensive view of all network traffic and enables various capabilities, from full packet capture to network forensics and even analysis of long-term historical trends.

The primary goal of Security Analytics is to obtain actionable intelligence in real-time, which can be used in doing more advanced threat detection and countering all kind of threats including APTs. 

Full Visibility Drives Better Detection and Quick Response
Given the speed and increased sophistication of today’s targeted attacks, it’s no longer suitable to rely on conventional tools. Conventional tools such as antivirus and firewall simply won’t work.  It only detects limited-scope of threats that have been encountered in the past. There are so many things happening at the network layer, so the ability to do stream processing across a network and detect malicious behavior is critically important. And that’s where Security Analytics comes in.

Once established, Security Analytics can span the network with eyes and ears on everything, looking for malicious activity. By combining big data collection and analytics capabilities with full network visibility, IT can now detect, investigate and analyze threats that could often not easily seen before. This improved visibility provides the IT the time and intelligence they need to thwart the attack and prepare for the follow-up or future attacks. 

Security Analytics could be the most effective and powerful tools available today, it holds big promises and a big advantage in an ongoing war against hackers and APTs.