NEWS: Logpoint Acquires Muninn
Corporate and internal networks are the most popular (54%) attack vector for hackers and 83% of organizations had more than one data breach in 2022. Across industries businesses face increasingly sophisticated cyber threats that can compromise sensitive data, disrupt operations, and damage their reputation. Traditional security measures like firewalls and antivirus software are no longer sufficient to tackle these advanced threats. This is where Network Detection and Response (NDR) solutions come into play. For example, NDR is one of the three pillars of Gartner's SOC visibility triad, along with endpoint detection and response (EDR) and security information and event management (SIEM).
As cybercriminals continue to exploit vulnerabilities and launch sophisticated attacks, businesses must adopt proactive approaches to threat detection. Reactive security measures are no longer enough. NDR solutions provide a crucial layer of defense by actively monitoring network traffic and identifying potential threats in real-time. Unlike traditional security tools, NDR solutions go beyond simple rule-based detection and offer comprehensive visibility into the network, empowering businesses to stay one step ahead of attackers.
Real-Time Threat Visibility:
In the face of cyberthreats, timely response is of utmost importance. NDR solutions provide businesses with real-time visibility into their network traffic, allowing them to detect as well as respond to threats as they occur. By continuously monitoring network activity, NDR solutions enable security teams to identify suspicious behavior, potential breaches, or abnormal patterns that might go unnoticed by conventional security measures. This proactive approach ensures that threats are addressed swiftly and in the beginning of a kill chain, minimizing the impact of cyberattacks.
Behavioral Analytics:
NDR solutions utilize advanced behavioral analytics to establish baseline network behavior and detect anomalies. By learning what is normal for a specific network environment, these solutions can identify deviations that might indicate malicious activities. This makes it possible to detect a range of threats, including insider attacks, unauthorized access attempts, or the presence of advanced persistent threats (APTs).
NDR has the capability to generate threat behavior models by analyzing data from various sources such as threat intelligence feeds, the MITRE ATT&CK framework, and other relevant data on cybercriminals' tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). These models play a crucial role in enabling the NDR solution to effectively differentiate between potential cyberattacks and uncommon, yet harmless activities, thereby reducing false positives and focusing on real threats. By correlating and analyzing this information, NDR helps to separate the valuable signals from the noise, enhancing the overall accuracy and efficiency of threat detection.
The fast pace threat landscape demands sophisticated detection mechanisms. NDR solutions employ a combination of signature-based detection, anomaly detection, and machine learning algorithms to identify both known and unknown threats. Signature-based detection allows businesses to identify threats based on pre-defined patterns or indicators of compromise. Anomaly detection, on the other hand, focuses on identifying activities that deviate from the established network behavior. Machine learning algorithms play a crucial role in identifying emerging threats and adapting to new attack vectors. The advanced machine learning is looking for point anomalies, which are observations in a dataset that significantly deviate from the majority of the data, and dyadic anomalies, which refer to anomalous relationships or interactions between hosts in a dataset. Unlike point anomalies, which focus on individual data points, dyadic anomalies focus on the relationships between pairs of data points.
In the unfortunate event of a security incident, NDR solutions play a vital role in incident response and investigation. By providing detailed logs and forensic data, NDR solutions enable security teams to understand the nature of an attack, contain its impact, and gather evidence for further analysis. This information is crucial in determining the root cause of the incident, identifying affected systems, and preventing future attacks. NDR solutions streamline the incident response process, allowing businesses to minimize downtime and restore normal operations promptly. Many companies choose to subscribe to a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) to put less pressure on the internal organisation.
Compliance with industry-specific regulations and data protection laws is a top priority for businesses today. NDR solutions play a crucial role in meeting regulatory requirements, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). NDR solutions provide the necessary monitoring and reporting capabilities to demonstrate compliance adherence. By actively monitoring network traffic, businesses can identify and mitigate security risks that could lead to non-compliance, avoiding potential penalties and reputational damage as well as ensure proper reporting in case of an incident.
While external threats often dominate the headlines, insider threats can be equally damaging to businesses. NDR solutions help businesses detect and mitigate insider threats, whether they stem from malicious insiders or compromised accounts. By monitoring internal network traffic, businesses can identify suspicious activities, unauthorized access attempts, or data exfiltration by employees or contractors. NDR solutions enable businesses to distinguish between normal user behavior and potential insider threats, reducing the risk of data breaches and internal sabotage.
Since businesses are rapidly changing, scalability and flexibility are essential considerations for any cybersecurity solution. NDR solutions are designed to scale with growing network infrastructures, ensuring comprehensive coverage across expanding environments. Whether a business operates on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment, NDR solutions can adapt and monitor network traffic effectively. This flexibility enables businesses to protect their assets regardless of their infrastructure setup, making NDR solutions a valuable investment for organizations of all sizes.
Implementing an NDR solution offers more than just enhanced security; it also brings tangible cost savings and a significant return on investment. Early threat detection and incident response prevent financial losses, reputational damage, and costly downtime caused by cyber incidents. By minimizing the impact of attacks and reducing the time spent on incident resolution, businesses can save valuable resources and redirect them to other critical areas of their operations. The proactive nature of NDR solutions helps businesses avoid the costly consequences associated with data breaches, compliance violations, and legal liabilities.
The cybersecurity landscape is constantly changing, and businesses must be proactive in their approach to threat detection and response. NDR solutions such as Muninn provide a powerful defense against advanced and emerging threats by offering real-time visibility, behavioral analytics, advanced threat detection, and fast incident response capabilities. Moreover, these solutions aid in meeting regulatory compliance requirements, detecting insider threats, and ensuring scalability and flexibility across different network environments. The adoption of an NDR solution is not only a vital step towards fortifying a business's cybersecurity posture but also a strategic investment with a significant return on investment.
The need for network-level security solutions isn’t going away. As data show, a company’s network is the most convenient means for launching cyberattacks, and cyberthreat actors are constantly innovating to develop techniques that slip past standard enterprise network security solutions. Learn more about what NDR is here.
Additionally, as networks grow to be more complex, it needs a security solution that can grow with the number of digital assets and is able to cover all of the network, in its whole complexity. Explore some of the most common use cases for NDR here.
There are of course numerous Network Detection and Response (NDR) vendors and thus many alternatives to choose from when building a solid cyberdefence for your organisation. As mentioned earlier in this blog post, NDR is part of Gartner's SOC visibility triad, along with endpoint detection and response (EDR) and security information and event management (SIEM). But in your evaluation of different Network Detection and Response (NDR) vendors you will most likely come across both Vectra NDR, Extrahop NDR, Darktrace NDR and Arctic Wolf MDR - but we have made your research a bit easier by comparing these NDR vendor alternatives to Muninn.
