Dwell Time and its Importance

What is dwell time?

The term "dwell time" describes how long a malicious actor has access to a compromised system before it is discovered.?Longer dwell times provide an attacker more time?to disrupt a network, steal confidential data, and propagate malicious software and viruses to other areas of the system.

The attacks with dwell time are different than the DDoS types of attacks since the threat actor's motive is to reach crown jewels or sensitive information of the organizations. These attacks are often well planned, and a vector of compromise is identified beforehand, the most popular one is phishing. The threat attackers after the initial compromise don't always attack right away, they need dwell time to coordinate their strategy, conduct reconnaissance for strong credentials, move laterally via the network, and launch a ransomware or financially crippling attack. The longer the dwell period, the greater the likelihood that the organization has already suffered or will shortly suffer serious harm. The dwell time will depend on the number of other security controls the threat actor needs to bypass before reaching for the sensitive information. This tactic will involve a series of significant security incidents which are often overlooked due to lack of security analytics or advanced correlation.

Why it matters?

The stay time of the threat actor might be in days and even months if they remain undetected. They may develop ways to exploit various security controls in a network. This directly impacts the blast surface or the number of assets/networks/devices/users that get exposed to the threat. The threat actor tends to spread malware or compromise across all the endpoint devices that are connected, or they get access to. Moreover, threat actors utilize this time to locate additional network resources, such as system backups, databases which they sell to online or dark web channels.

Other than the potential for the threat actors to cause irreversible harm, the problem with attacks conducted throughout extended dwell time is the effort that will be required to uproot them. The amount of scanning, searching at length that will be needed later which has potential to cause more damage due to disruption of services. Once the threat is identified it is always presumed that the threat actor is present in the system and finding all its trails and reach within the interconnected network can be resource and cost intensive. Threat actors, if gain access to an organization's network, keep lurking and compromising as many assets as they can to increase the impact of the breach.

How to reduce dwell time?

Organizations can gauge the efficiency of their security teams and processes by measuring dwell time. The Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) are two key performance indicators (KPIs) for dwell time. While MTTR measures how long it takes to control and eliminate the threat, MTTD measures the interval between initial compromise and detection. A high MTTD shows that an organization's security procedures are not initiative-taking enough to identify threats. The organization does not respond to threats quickly if the MTTR is high. Organizations can uncover areas where their security posture needs to be improved by monitoring these two KPIs.

Regular vulnerability assessments, patch management, security awareness training for staff members, and multifactor authentication are just a few of these safeguards. For vulnerabilities to be found and fixed quickly, regular vulnerability assessments and patch management are crucial. Employee security awareness training can help stop phishing scams and other social engineering techniques that hackers use to access networks. User accounts are made more secure with the addition of multifactor authentication, which makes it harder for hackers to access them. A detailed incident response plan must be in place for organizations to promptly deal with any risks. This strategy should specify the actions to be taken in the event of a security breach, including responsibility and accountability matrix for tasks and communication during incident response.

Increasing an organizations detection capability also aids in cutting down dwell time. This involves setting up a security operations center and installing an intrusion detection system to detect and research potential threats. Intrusion detection system (IDS) scans network data for indications of hostile activity. The security operations center (SOC) can analyze an alert that the IDS generates when it notices unusual behavior. Investigating risks and responding to security incidents falls under the purview of the SOC.

By forming a centralized incident response team, defining communication guidelines, and implementing automation, businesses can speed up the incident response procedure. The time it takes to identify and address threats can be sped up with the aid of automatic alerts, incident ticketing, and other automation tools. Organizations may make sure that the appropriate individuals participate in the response process by establishing a centralized incident response team. Protocols for communication make sure that everyone is following the same plan and that information is communicated effectively and fast. Organizations can lessen the harm caused by cyberattacks by using automation systems to speed up the detection and response of threats.

In conclusion, firms who want to safeguard their systems and data against cyberattacks must reduce dwell time. By measuring KPIs, implementing initiative-taking security measures, enhancing threat detection capabilities, and streamlining incident response processes, organizations can reduce their dwell time and improve their overall security posture.