As a network engineer, you face a constant barrage of security threats that could compromise your network's performance, availability, and confidentiality. How do you decide which ones to focus on first and which ones to ignore or defer? In this article, you will learn about some best practices and tools for prioritizing security threats for analysis.
The first step is to identify what assets you have on your network, such as data, devices, services, and users, and what risks they face from potential attackers. You can use a risk matrix to rank your assets based on their value and vulnerability, and assign them a score that reflects their criticality. This will help you determine which assets need the most protection and monitoring, and which ones can tolerate some level of compromise.
One way to prioritize security threats for analysis is identifying your assets and their associated risks. Cataloging all critical assets of your org such as data, hardware, sw, and network resources, and then assessing the potential risks to these assets. The risk assessment should consider the likelihood of a threat occurring and the potential impact on your business ops. In my experience, focusing on high-impact, high-probability threats first is effective. For instance, in a financial services company, prioritizing threats to sensitive customer data and transaction systems was crucial due to the high impact of a breach. This approach ensures that resources and efforts are directed toward mitigating the most significant threats.
Assess Risk: Evaluate threats based on potential impact and likelihood. High risk and likelihood threats are top priority. Asset Value: Prioritize threats to critical assets or sensitive data. Threat Intelligence: Use current intelligence to identify emerging threats. Vulnerability Analysis: Focus on threats exploiting severe vulnerabilities. Compliance Requirements: Consider legal and regulatory impacts. Resource Allocation: Prioritize based on available resources. Historical Data: Use past incidents to inform priorities. This strategy balances risk, asset value, and resources for effective prioritization.
There are several ways to prioritize security threats for analysis. One approach is to use evidence-based prioritization. This involves leveraging the vast amount of threat-related data that enterprises maintain in threat intelligence platforms (TIPs) and operational tools, such as security monitoring and incident workflow solutions, to convert such data into quantitative (metrics-driven) scores that reflect the priority of threats for individual enterprises or for the broader industry in which they reside.
The next step is to use a threat intelligence framework, such as MITRE ATT&CK, to collect, analyze, and share information about the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of various threat actors. A threat intelligence framework can help you understand the context, motivation, and capabilities of your adversaries, and how they might target your assets. You can use this information to prioritize the threats that pose the most danger to your network, and to develop effective countermeasures and response plans.
The third step is to apply a triage process, such as the Diamond Model, to filter and categorize the security events and alerts that you receive from your network sensors and tools. A triage process can help you reduce the noise and false positives, and focus on the most relevant and actionable indicators of compromise (IOCs). You can use criteria such as severity, impact, frequency, and source to rank the events and alerts, and assign them a priority level that determines how quickly and thoroughly you will investigate them.
The fourth step is to use a scoring system, such as CVSS or DREAD, to quantify and compare the risk level of different security threats. A scoring system can help you measure the likelihood and impact of a threat, based on factors such as exploitability, remediation, damage, and distribution. You can use this score to prioritize the threats that have the highest potential to harm your network, and to justify your decisions and actions to your stakeholders.
The fifth step is to automate and orchestrate your security threat analysis process, using tools such as SIEM, SOAR, or NTA. These tools can help you collect, correlate, and analyze data from multiple sources, and apply predefined rules and workflows to prioritize and respond to security threats. Automation and orchestration can help you save time and resources, improve accuracy and consistency, and enhance your network security posture.
The final step is to review and improve your security threat analysis process, based on the feedback and lessons learned from your previous incidents and investigations. You should evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of your methods and tools, and identify any gaps or weaknesses in your security strategy. You should also update your risk matrix, threat intelligence framework, triage process, scoring system, and automation and orchestration tools, to reflect the changing threat landscape and your network environment.