User and entity behavior analysis (UEBA)

Cyberattacks are constantly evolving, and modern hackers can bypass conventional security systems with minimal effort. Attackers keep finding new ways to hack into firewalls, send malicious programs, and even bribe employees to carry out internal attacks. Conventional security systems are rapidly becoming outdated and vulnerable to new attack trends.

If you look at infamous past attacks, you'll find that no two attacks were carried out in the same way. Still, there are some defensive strategies and tactics often used because they've proved effective. One efficient way to stay protected is by equipping yourself with machine learning techniques that can identify every type of security anomaly across your organization.

What is UEBA?

User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) solutions establish normal behavior of users and machines within an organization and identify any abnormal behavior. They are designed to process large amounts of data from firewalls, routers, workstations, databases, file servers, and other devices in order to create a behavior model for each user and entity.

Any activity that deviates from this model gets flagged as abnormal and then assessed for potential risks. This assessment of risk is directly correlated with a risk score that decides the response to the threat. The more abnormal the behavior, the higher the risk score. Moreover, the IT administrator can look into the issue from a dashboard, and take action if needed.

What can UEBA do?

UEBA is fine-tuned to detect insider attacks, compromised accounts, privilege abuse, policy violations, and brute-force attacks among other potential threats. One slightly abnormal event on its own will not result in a security alert. The system requires multiple signs of abnormal behavior to create an alert. It has the ability to correlate multiple distinct activities that could be related to a single security incident, which is not perceivable by the untrained eye.

UEBA solutions can also integrate the information that they generate with existing security monitoring systems. Powered by machine learning and statistical algorithms, UEBA solutions grow more effective as they process more and more data.