Beyond Firewalls: Enhancing Security with Advanced Cyber Threat Monitoring

Data breaches and general data loss can result in both monetary and reputational damages to an organization. Beyond that, they can simply be a headache to resolve. When it comes to keeping your organization protected from the increasing number of cyber attacks on a yearly basis, offense is the best defense. By engaging in active cyber threat monitoring, your organization can begin to predict when and where an attack may come from so that your defenses are already in place. Learn everything you need to know about advanced cyber threat monitoring to keep your business secure.

What is Cyber Threat Monitoring?

When keeping your organization secure from cyber attacks, there are two potential strategies to use: a proactive or reactive approach. The latter involves quickly responding once a cyber attack begins and attempting to shut it down before damage occurs, whereas the former means taking preventative action to ensure the attack never begins in the first place. In our opinion, a proactive approach via cyber threat monitoring is the best defense.

Cyber threat monitoring is simply analyzing large amounts of real-time system data in order to notice the signs that a cyber attack is imminent. For example, monitoring network traffic and seeing a sudden, yet unexpected, hike in the traffic or noticing common threat activity patterns are examples of cyber threat monitoring. By continuously monitoring your IT network, you can spot the signs that a cybercriminal may be probing your organization for weaknesses.

How to Effectively Monitor for Cyber Attacks

There are many different options to use when engaging in advanced cyber threat monitoring, and no single solution is best. The following tips are the roadmap your organization will need in order to effectively spot when an attack may be on the horizon:

1. Identify Weaknesses in IT Infrastructure

The most important part of active threat monitoring is knowing where an attack may come from. In this sense, the old adage of “the weakest link” is true. Find vulnerability points in your IT network so that you know what to build your monitoring strategy around. For assistance identifying potential risk, consider working with a MSP for penetration testing and exploit detection.

2. Gather Cyber Threat Intelligence

To be able to predict what an attack may look like, you need to have data containing examples of attacks. Use sources such as industry feeds, trends, proprietary data collection platforms, and open-source tools in order to gather threat information.

3. Analyze the Data

After gathering all the data in one location, you’ll need to analyze that data to locate the patterns that indicate an attack is imminent. Work with effective IT and fraud teams who can help you make sense of the endless data.

4. Implement a Plan of Attack

Once the patterns have been recognized, it’s time to build a counter-attack, or incident response plan, that will stop the identified attacks in their tracks. Again, it’s best to work with IT experts who can recommend specific antivirus or anti-cyber attack policies to implement.

5. Continuously Monitor

Once your plan has been created and implemented, you need to continuously monitor the attack points, as well as new potential points, on an ongoing basis to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Implement Advanced Cyber Threat Monitoring

Building out an effective advanced cyber threat monitoring strategy can be a huge project, especially if you have no background in the IT or cybersecurity world. This is why partnering with experts who can take the stress off of your shoulders is so important. For organizations located in the Columbus, Akron, or Cleveland areas, contact Warwick right away for assistance. Our experienced cybersecurity team can help with your IT needs and advice on how to monitor your networks to spot potential cyber attacks.