The bad news is it only takes minutes for a cyber threat to become a data breach. The really bad news is it can take months to identify a threat and respond. The yawning gap between when an attack happens and when something’s done about it leaves organizations vulnerable to serious business damage.
Today’s IT leaders are painfully aware of the need for faster threat detection and response. According to a study RSA recently commissioned, one of their top three concerns is about their ability to detect an attack in progress, while there’s still time to do something about it.
There are clear reasons security teams have been slow to identify and respond to threats. We’ll be taking a closer look at them on the following pages. The good news is there are good ways to improve visibility into threats, and you can learn more about them in The 7 Building Blocks of Better Threat Visibility. Once you do detect a threat, there’s also a clear path to a faster response, when you have these three key capabilities:
The 3 keys to faster threat response
Deeper insights through machine learning and analytics
Broader understanding of the full scope of threats
More context to set priorities for action
IT’S ABOUT TIME: THE 3 KEYS TO FASTER THREAT RESPONSE
Security teams can respond to threats faster when their visibility is accompanied by three things: deeper insights and analytics, a more complete view of threats, and more context with which to judge threat criticality. These capabilities are key to being able to recognize the nature of a threat, confidently decide how to respond and act quickly on that decision.
DEEPER INSIGHTS = MORE COMPLETE INFORMATION FOR FAST DETECTION AND ACTION
Forrester cites security analytics as essential in responding to threats quickly enough to reduce the impact of a cyberattack.3 Analytics delivers deeper insights into user behavior, device type and other variables, so security teams can make better decisions faster. To maximize depth and quality of insight, apply a variety of techniques such as behavioral analytics, data science modeling and machine learning.
BROADER UNDERSTANDING = MORE COMPLETE VIEW OF POTENTIAL IMPACT
Multiple perspectives bring threats into sharper focus. We recommend combining crowdsourced threat intelligence, information from experts and other findings, and applying them across the IT infrastructure for a better understanding of the full scope of an attack. This makes it possible to connect what might otherwise look like isolated incidents and respond with a robust defense—before major damage is done.
MORE CONTEXT = INVALUABLE INFORMATION FOR QUICKLY SETTING PRIORITIES
An awareness of context, particularly business context, is essential to responding in the most timely, appropriate and effective way. When security detects a threat, knowing whether it’s targeting a critical system will guide the level of response. And when security detects multiple threats, the context reveals which poses the greatest business risk, so that it gets top priority.
Get the insight and context your security team needs to respond to cyber threats fast, with RSA NetWitness Suite. Rely on it to:
Enable a deeper understanding of threats through machine learning and analytics
Quickly bring attacks into full view with threat intelligence from a variety of sources
Provide the business context to make faster, better decisions about threat responses
RSA NetWitness Suite interweaves business context and risk with the most advanced cybersecurity capabilities to help the entire organization—from the CEO and CISO to the security operations center—make stronger decisions to protect themselves from known and unknown threats, minimize attacker dwell time and mitigate negative business consequences.
