4 Threat Hunting Techniques to Prevent Bad Actors in 2024

Current cybersecurity threats are very sophisticated; Bad actors are using technology like no-code malware and AI-generated phishing campaigns to breach enterprise networks with alarming frequency. Because traditional detection methods fail to adequately protect networks, data, and users, security teams must take a more proactive approach to identifying threats.

Threat hunting involves proactively searching for indicators of potential threats and vulnerabilities on the network that other tools missed. This guide discusses threat hunting techniques and solutions to mitigate the biggest cybersecurity risks of 2024.

Why is threat hunting valuable?

Most organizations have already invested heavily in automated threat detection solutions, such as endpoint protection and firewalls, but still struggle to identify and eliminate cyber threats, especially when they are already on the network.

Proactive cyber threat hunting is valuable for:

• Advanced threat detection.
• Closing detection gaps.
• Minimize the duration of the attack.
• Obtain information about the vulnerability.
• Meeting compliance and risk management.

Detecting advanced threats

Advanced threats are difficult to detect because they tailor their methods specifically to avoid automated detection tools. They may use new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to generate better, more human-sounding phishing emails. Other advanced threats target Internet of Things (IoT) devices, operational technology (OT) systems, smart city deployments, and other automated or remote devices that are more difficult to protect.

Threat hunting proactively looks for the causes of advanced threats, such as unpatched vulnerabilities or poor security hygiene, and signs that it is already occurring (such as unusual network account behavior), helping with prevention and advanced threat mitigation.

Closing detection gaps

Many automated threat detection tools are signature-based, meaning they identify potential threats by comparing them to a database of known patterns, such as specific changes to the registry or the way certain types of malware run. The obvious limitation of signature-based detection is that it cannot identify novel or never-before-seen attack methods.

Threat hunting uses advanced techniques and technologies to detect suspicious activity that could indicate an attempted attack or an ongoing breach, even if none of that activity matches known threat patterns.

Minimize attack duration

Another limitation of many automated security tools is that they focus almost entirely on prevention, but have difficulty detecting attackers who are already on the network. Threat hunting proactively analyzes monitoring data from tools such as security information and event management (SIEM) to detect anomalous behavior, such as unusually large data transfers or an increase in failed authentication attempts. This approach allows teams to reduce the duration of successful cyberattacks and the damage they cause.

Obtain information about the vulnerability

Modern enterprise networks contain hundreds of applications and devices that must receive regular updates to address any security vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit. Unpatched vulnerabilities cause approximately 60% of all data breaches, but many organizations lack a strategy to identify and mitigate them. Threat hunting involves proactively finding and patching vulnerabilities in enterprise software, device firmware, cloud applications, and third-party integrations to prevent breaches and perform post-breach forensics.

Meeting compliance and risk management

Data privacy regulations and cybersecurity insurance policies require companies to implement certain security tools and procedures. These requirements vary across industries and use cases, but often include things like proactive patch management, strict data access controls, and comprehensive security monitoring.

Threat hunting helps identify vulnerabilities and other potential compliance issues so teams can remediate them before they are exposed in a breach or audit. The tools and strategies used by threat hunters also improve overall data privacy and security, simplifying compliance and risk management.

4 threat hunting techniques and how to use them

Threat hunters use many different strategies to identify cyber threats. Four of the most popular threat hunting techniques include:

1. Human search

Life security analysts manually query monitoring data to look for potential threats. With human search, threat hunters use tools like SIEM to aggregate monitoring data and then run queries to obtain specific information. It can be difficult to formulate the right queries that are neither too broad nor too narrow, and sifting through all the results to find relevant information is tedious and time-consuming.

2. Grouping

Automated tools classify monitoring data into groups based on specific characteristics to aid in analysis. Data that shares particular characteristics is grouped so that human and machine searchers can easily identify outliers that could indicate a vulnerability or compromise.

3. Grouping

Threat hunters define a search parameter (such as a specific type of security event occurring at a certain time) and automated tools find monitoring data that meets that criteria and group it together. Clustering helps threat hunters track an attacker's movement across the network, determine what tools and techniques they are using, and ensure eradication attempts have been successful.

4. Stack/Count

Analysts look for statistical outliers among a set of aggregated data. These outliers sometimes indicate an attempted or successful breach. Manually stacking very large data sets is tedious and prone to human error, so analysts often use automated programs to process, sort, and analyze data for outliers.

Threat hunting solutions

To help with security, teams use a variety of threat hunting tools and solutions to collect and analyze data, identify vulnerabilities and anomalous activity, and remove threats from the network.

• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): SIEM tools aggregate and analyze security data to help threat hunters detect, investigate, and respond to events. Example: Splunk
• Extended Detection and Response (XDR): XDR tools combine endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities with advanced threat detection tools such as identity and access management (IAM), security data analysis, and automated security response. Example: CrowdStrike Falcon
• Managed Detection and Response (MDR): MDR is a managed service that provides automated threat detection software as well as human-led proactive threat hunting. Example: Dell
• Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR): SOAR platforms integrate and automate the tools used in security monitoring, threat detection, and response so that threat hunters can orchestrate all of these workflows from a single location. Example: google chronicle

Threat hunting encompasses a wide range of techniques, methodologies and tools used to proactively identify vulnerabilities and malicious actors on the network. Implementing threat hunting techniques and solutions can help you prevent breaches, limit the duration of (and damage caused by) successful attacks, and simplify compliance and risk management.