Why is Threat Monitoring Important in Modern Cybersecurity?

How do businesses know when they have been the victim of a cyberattack? The answer is: threat monitoring.

Want to learn more? Read on to explore threat monitoring and why it has become a crucial part of modern cybersecurity for businesses.

What is Threat Monitoring?

Threat monitoring, sometimes called network security monitoring, is the process of having cybersecurity experts continuously monitor a business’ network (software, endpoints, etc.) for signs of threats. Monitoring a network gives businesses insights into user actions, data transfers, and other activity so that anomalies—a typical sign of malicious activity—can be more easily identified.

Threat monitoring is typically done by either internal IT or cybersecurity teams or a team of specialists at a managed security service provider (MSSP) like DOT Security. MSSPs typically have access to more resources than smaller internal teams specialized experts, top-shelf technology, and years of experience detecting threats.

Monitoring is done by carefully watching activity within a network to detect and react quickly to potential threats by identifying abnormal activity.

The Importance of Threat Monitoring

In cybersecurity, time is of the essence. The more time businesses have to react to cyberattacks, the more can be done to limit downtime, save money, and preserve business data.

Businesses lost an average of $8,500 an hour due to downtime

With threat monitoring, potential attacks are identified and responded to more quickly so that businesses have more time to prepare by shutting down certain systems, administering defenses, communicating risks to teams, and other parts of a response plan.

Without proper monitoring, an attack can go unnoticed for extended periods of time, giving hackers time to observe, steal, and prepare their attacks to do the most harm.

Benefits of Threat Monitoring in a Cybersecurity Strategy?

The main benefit of consistent threat monitoring is more easily and quickly identifying threats so you can increase your response time and mitigate the risks of a breach.

In addition, having strong network monitoring gives businesses:

• More visibility into what is happening on business networks like who is using them, what they’re doing, and who is accessing what
• See if cybersecurity policies are being followed
• Achieve and maintain compliance with necessary regulations
• Use collected data to find and fix vulnerabilities

Tools and Strategies Used to Monitor a Business Network

Cybersecurity experts use an assortment of innovative tools and strategies to ensure network safety. Here are a few of them:

AI and Machine Learning

AI is used in threat monitoring because it can more quickly analyze usage trends to detect something abnormal that signifies a potential attack.

Related: How is AI Used in Cybersecurity?

This process can also be automated to appropriately respond to attacks by automatically alerting the human team of specialists to unordinary behavior.

Anti-Virus Software

Anti-virus software, like a firewall, is often one of your first lines of defense that combs through everything that flows into your network, picking out things that may pose risks. AI can also learn from past attacks to predict attack vectors and identify new kinds of threats.

Related: What is Next-Gen Antivirus?

Awareness Training

Having a trained human workforce is another key element in avoiding cyberattacks. One of the most common ways hackers try to infiltrate a business’ network is through their people in the form of email attacks like phishing that trick people into giving up credentials or clicking on bad links.

Related: The Importance of Cybersecurity Awareness, Training, and Education

A cybersecurity awareness training strategy keeps people informed on what to look for so they can more effectively avoid scams that make it past initial defenses.

Dedicated Teams and Specialists

When working with an MSSP, every business gets a dedicated vCISO (virtual Chief Information Security Officer) that acts as a point of contact to keep you up-to-date on what is happening on your network.

How to Get Started with Threat Monitoring

To get started with threat monitoring, businesses need to get access to the latest tools and a team of experts that have the expertise needed to identify threats and implement effective security strategies and response plans.

Without large internal teams, this can be extremely difficult and expensive. Partnering with an MSSP like DOT Security gives businesses access to teams of specialists, a dedicated vCISO, and the latest security technology at our Security Operations Center.

Learn more about DOT Security’s services or explore our latest checklist to see how vulnerable your business might be to cyberattacks.