Imagine a store security guard who understands shoppers’ usual behavior of browsing, trying on clothes, and buying products. If someone starts acting strangely – entering and exiting the store without buying anything, or lingering in certain areas – the guard becomes suspicious.
This is similar to how behavioral analytics in cybersecurity monitors user behavior and flags unusual activities.
This guide explains what behavioral analytics in cybersecurity is, how it helps prevent cyber threats, and how you can harness behavioral analytics to protect your company.
A Brief Introduction to Behavioral Analytics in Cybersecurity
Behavioral analytics in cybersecurity is the practice of monitoring and analyzing users’ digital activities in order to detect abnormal patterns that may indicate a security threat. It is a proactive approach to cybersecurity used to identify threats before they can escalate.
By establishing a baseline of normal behavior, these systems can identify deviations such as logging in at odd hours or accessing sensitive files without prior need. Then the actions can be investigated to see if they are the result of malicious activity, compromised accounts, or insider threats.
Behavioral analytics in cybersecurity is especially valuable because many of today’s cyberattacks can bypass traditional security measures like firewalls and antivirus software. By focusing on user behavior analytics (UBA), organizations can catch threats that antivirus programs using signature-based detection methods might miss.
What Does Behavioral Analytics in Cybersecurity Examine?
You may be familiar with how credit card companies track your spending habits. If you suddenly make a purchase in a foreign country, or a very large purchase, the company might suspect fraud and block your card.
Behavioral analytics in cybersecurity works in much the same way by tracking and studying the following types of user actions within a network:
Login habits: Time, location, and device used for access.
File interactions: Uploads, downloads, deletions, and modifications.
System access patterns: Frequency and duration of system or application usage.
Network activity: Data transfers, connection points, and communication patterns.
User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) tools collect this data to create a behavioral baseline and then analyze patterns and respond to potential threats. Enterprise solutions such as Splunk, Cynet, and Microsoft Sentinel can be used to integrate behavioral analytics into your cybersecurity protocol.
How Does Analyzing Behavior Help Prevent Cyber Threats?
Instead of reacting to a breach, behavioral analytics enables organizations to take a proactive approach to cybersecurity by predicting and preventing potential threats. Here’s how:
Early Threat Detection: By identifying unusual behavior patterns, security teams can detect cyber threats before they turn into breaches. For example, if an employee who usually logs in from New York suddenly logs in from another country, it could be an indication of a compromised account.
Insider Threat Identification: Behavioral analytics helps detect malicious actions from insiders, such as employees or contractors misusing their access privileges.
Reduced False Positives: Traditional security systems often generate false alerts. By analyzing user behavior in context, security teams can better differentiate between legitimate activities and suspicious ones.
When Focusing Specifically on Employees
One of the most effective and useful applications of behavioral analytics is monitoring employee actions to detect insider threats. This is important because insider attacks are often hard to spot and can cause significant damage.
Common scenarios that indicate insider threats include:
Privileged Account Misuse: Employees with administrative access abusing their privileges for unauthorized actions.
Data Exfiltration: Large or unusual data transfers, especially to unauthorized devices or external networks. This type of data theft can be done manually, or automated using malware.
Policy Violations: Accessing sensitive information not related to job roles or outside of business hours.
By continuously monitoring and analyzing employee behavior, user and entity behavior analytics tools can quickly identify these red flags and reduce security risks.
Using Behavior Insights to Improve Threat Identification
Behavioral analytics can do much more than just detect anomalies. When used strategically, it also enhances threat identification and incident response through:
Pattern Recognition: By correlating behavior patterns over time, organizations can identify complex attack strategies, such as slow-moving advanced persistent threats (APTs).
Predictive Analytics: Machine learning models can be trained on historical data to predict potential threats based on behavior trends.
Automated Responses: Advanced behavioral analytics systems can automatically trigger security protocols such as account lockouts or multi-factor authentication when suspicious behavior is detected.
For example, if an employee's account is suddenly used to access large volumes of sensitive files, the system can automatically limit access and alert security teams for further investigation.
The Importance of Training
Behavioral analytics tools are powerful, but they are only as effective as the people who use them. This means employees and security teams must be trained on:
Recognizing Suspicious Behavior: Employees should be educated about common phishing tactics, social engineering schemes, and other threats that can be used to compromise credentials.
Responding to Security Alerts: Security teams need proper training on how to interpret alerts and take quick, effective action.
Ethical and Legal Considerations: When implementing behavioral analytics, security has to be balanced with employee privacy. Transparent policies and ethical guidelines help maintain trust and compliance with regulations like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Cybersecurity breaches cost businesses billions of dollars every year. Identifying threats before they arise can save your company from a lot of financial and reputational damage. Use behavioral analytics in your cybersecurity plan to proactively protect against threats and stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.