How can User Behavior Analytics Benefit your Business?

60% of small companies that face data breaches go out of business within 6 months of the attack. With hackers targeting the weak zones of business, a cyberattack can cost a company millions in damage control and restitution pay-offs. Most businesses fail to recover from such hefty financial penalties after major data breaches. 

Organizations commit a grave mistake by limiting the user behavior analytics only to outsiders. External attackers are not the only ones responsible for causing cyberattacks. Research suggests that 60% of all cyberattacks are due to insider threats. 

User Behavior Analytics is a tool that can quickly detect behavioral anomalies and respond to potential insider threats on time to prevent such attacks. 

Why are Insider Attacks Dangerous?

Detecting insider threats can be challenging, such that many threats go overlooked for months or years. In a 2019 report on advanced threats, it has been concluded that insider threats go unnoticed due to the lack of visibility into the normal user behavior baseline and the management of privileged user accounts, and thus become an even more attractive target for cyberattacks. An average insider data breach can cost as much as 3.86 million dollars, according to a report. 

Insiders already have legitimate security access to vital credentials, which is what makes them hard to detect. Insiders already know where the sensitive data is stored and often have high-security clearance. For an insider threat, your system needs to detect when an employee shows signs of suspicious or abnormal behavior. But what is considered abnormal in one case might not be the same for others, which makes the detection even harder. Fortunately, user behavior analytics makes detection much easier. 

How Does User Behavior Analytics Work?

User Behavior Analytics or UBA refers to a segment of data analytics that offers essential insights about customers’ and prospects’ behavior while interacting online. UBA provides an exhaustive profile of the end users’ actions on the system.

User Behavior Analytics can be effectively applied to cybersecurity to differentiate between a major data breach and ward off a potential attack for enhancing conversions and revenue. 

Leveraging aggregated behavioral data, it is possible to determine common user behaviors. This data is used as the foundation of the analysis which eventually creates a user behavior profile. The more information the software can collect, the better the scope to identify behavioral anomalies. 

The software is programmed to collect data about the programs accessed, websites visited, locations, and others. All this data is further used to create a unique employee profile or baseline, which is always being monitored. 

How can User Behavior Analytics be Beneficial in Cybersecurity? 

User Behavior Analytics can be constantly used to monitor the activities of employees all the time. The integrated software is designed exclusively to compare data collected in each unique employee profile. 

Smarter security monitoring:

User Behavior Analytics can be applied to other segments of cybersecurity as well. It can monitor the users, assets as well as network. Not only for understanding baseline user behaviors, but the tool can also derive fundamental data about the actions of prospects and customers. Simultaneously, it can alert the admins to statistical anomalies and help mitigate business risks. 

Generates essential insights:

A vast amount of data leads to a better scope of comparison. By asking the right questions, these anomalies can be spotted on time. Anything outside the ‘normal behavior’ spectrum can be spotted as abnormal behavior, indicating the possibility of an insider threat. 

Correlates data across systems:

Correlating data maximizes the utility of User Behavior Analytics in network security, deriving a broader picture of what is occurring within the organization, identifying the anomaly proficiently while allowing the security and risk management team to understand what credentials have been compromised. 

Opportunities for Advanced Analytical Models

Leveraging unsupervised analytics for security operations adds value as it automates the overall hunting process. The discovery of anomalies can be more efficient, which can be later turned into supervised behavior analytics. 

Therefore, simply applying one facet of the analytics is never enough. The application should be made to all the levels – network, user, and assets – to determine threats quickly before any malicious activity goes into action. 

ARCON presents state-of-the-art technology specially designed to mitigate risks related to IT infrastructure. ARCON | User Behavior Analytics (UBA) offers an efficient framework for better visibility and robust protection, simultaneously providing insights about anomalies. The ARCON | User Behavior Analytics solution offers essential tools needed to spot anomalies, presenting the ability to trigger real-time alerts.