Back to the Basics

As someone who has spent over 25 years in the IT and information security field, I have seen a lot of changes and trends come and go. But one thing that has remained consistent throughout the years is the importance of doing the basics when it comes to improving security. While it may not be as exciting as chasing after the latest, greatest technology solution, focusing on the fundamentals can solve 90% of your security risk.

Unfortunately, too many technology professionals fall prey to the hype surrounding new, shiny tools and overlook the importance of the basics. They lose sight of the fact that doing the simple things, like patching your systems regularly, managing your firewalls, logging and threat hunting, knowing what data you have, encrypting your data at rest and in transmission, and implementing strong authentication capabilities, can go a long way in securing your environment.

One of the critical components of improving security is logging, monitoring, and threat hunting. Detecting and mitigating security events as early as possible is a major component of a security program that effectively reduces the risk of a major security breach. Without proper logging, it can be challenging to detect and investigate those security incidents, making it difficult to identify and respond to threats in a timely manner. By implementing a comprehensive logging and threat hunting strategy, organizations can detect anomalies and suspicious activity that may indicate a security breach or other security threat.

At ThreatHunter.ai, we specialize in helping organizations improve their threat hunting capabilities through our advanced platform that leverages the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect and respond to threats in real-time. Our platform provides comprehensive logging and telemetry capabilities, enabling you to capture all the data you need to effectively investigate security incidents and identify potential threats. By analyzing logs and telemetry data, our platform can detect anomalies and suspicious activity that may indicate a security breach or other security threat. Our platform can also correlate data from multiple sources to provide a holistic view of your environment, enabling you to detect and respond to threats more quickly and efficiently. And, best of all, we partner our automated AI/ML systems with smart, capable human threat hunters to give you a truly comprehensive approach to logging, monitoring, and threat detection.

In addition to logging and threat hunting, there are other basics that organizations should be implementing to improve their security posture. Patching your systems regularly, for example, is critical to keeping your environment up-to-date with the latest security fixes and protecting against known vulnerabilities. Managing your firewalls to ensure they are properly configured and blocking unauthorized traffic can also help prevent attacks like DoS or DDoS. Knowing what data you have and where it resides is also a critical step in improving security. By properly securing and encrypting your data both at rest and in transmission, you can greatly enhance its security and protect against unauthorized access or theft.

Finally, implementing strong authentication capabilities is essential for ensuring only authorized users can access your systems and data. This means using multifactor authentication (MFA) and other advanced authentication methods to verify the identity of users before granting them access. This can help prevent unauthorized access and protect against attacks such as phishing, which often rely on stolen or compromised credentials to gain access to sensitive systems and data.

In conclusion, while it may not be as exciting as chasing after the latest and greatest technology solution, focusing on the basics can go a long way in improving your organization’s security posture. By patching your systems, managing your firewalls, logging and threat hunting, knowing what data you have, encrypting your data, and implementing strong authentication capabilities, you can greatly reduce your risk of a security breach and protect your business and your customers from harm. At ThreatHunter.ai, we are committed to helping organizations improve their threat hunting capabilities and stay ahead of the latest security threats.

ERIC COWPERTHWAITE

Eric Cowperthwaite is a long time security practitioner with over 25 years experience in IT and Information Security. He served in the US Army for 11 years, including Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Eric has been a healthcare CISO, global security leader, a software technology leader, and now is responsible for Operations at ThreatHunter.ai.