Continuous Monitoring
Continuous monitoring in cybersecurity is the ongoing and automated process of observing and assessing an organization's security posture in real time or near real time. Instead of periodic checks or one-time assessments, continuous monitoring provides a constant stream of information about the effectiveness of security controls, the presence of vulnerabilities, and potential security incidents.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Key Aspects of Continuous Monitoring:
Automation: Continuous monitoring relies heavily on automated tools and systems to collect, analyze, and report on security-related data. This automation is crucial for handling the volume and velocity of data in modern IT environments.
Real-time or Near Real-time Visibility: The goal is to have up-to-date information about the security state of systems, networks, and applications. This enables security teams to detect and respond to threats more quickly.
Proactive Approach: Continuous monitoring allows organizations to shift from a reactive security posture (responding to incidents after they occur) to a proactive one (identifying and mitigating risks before they can be exploited).
Comprehensive Coverage: Effective continuous monitoring spans various aspects of an organization's IT infrastructure, including:
Network activity: Monitoring traffic for suspicious patterns, anomalies, and unauthorized access.
System logs: Analyzing logs from servers, workstations, and other devices to detect security events.
Application behavior: This refers to observing how applications are used and identifying any deviations from normal behavior.
Vulnerability scanning: Regularly scanning systems for known vulnerabilities.
File integrity monitoring: Detecting unauthorized changes to critical files.
User activity monitoring: Tracking user logins, access patterns, and actions.
Analysis and Correlation: Continuous monitoring systems often include analysis and correlation capabilities to make sense of the collected data. This involves identifying patterns, trends, and anomalies that might indicate a security issue.
Alerting and Reporting: When a potential security issue is detected, the continuous monitoring system generates alerts to notify security personnel. It also provides reports on security metrics, trends, and compliance status.
Benefits of Continuous Monitoring:
Early Threat Detection: Quickly identify and respond to attacks, reducing the potential damage.
Improved Security Posture: Proactively identify and address vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
Enhanced Incident Response: Provide security teams with the context and information to respond effectively to incidents.
Compliance: Helps organizations meet regulatory compliance requirements by providing evidence of ongoing security monitoring.
Reduced Costs: Automate security tasks and improve efficiency, potentially reducing security costs in the long run.
Continuous monitoring is a fundamental component of a strong cybersecurity strategy. It enables organizations to maintain vigilance and adapt to the evolving threat landscape.
ThreatNG and Continuous Monitoring
ThreatNG emphasizes continuous monitoring as a core function, providing ongoing oversight of an organization's external security posture.
ThreatNG's external discovery capability is the foundation for its continuous monitoring.
It constantly scans and maps an organization's external attack surface without needing internal access.
This ensures that any changes, additions, or removals to the attack surface are detected and incorporated into the monitoring process.
ThreatNG performs a range of continuous assessments, with the following being key:
Security Ratings: ThreatNG calculates various security ratings (e.g., "Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility," "Web Application Hijack Susceptibility," and "Cyber Risk Exposure") that are continuously updated to reflect changes in the organization's security posture.
For example, if a new subdomain is detected, ThreatNG automatically assesses its "Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility" and incorporates it into the overall security rating.
If new vulnerabilities are discovered in a web application, the "Web Application Hijack Susceptibility" rating is adjusted accordingly.
Vulnerability Scanning: ThreatNG continuously scans for known vulnerabilities in web applications, servers, and other external-facing assets.
For instance, if a new critical vulnerability is announced for a web server software, ThreatNG will automatically check if any of the organization's servers are affected.
Code Secret Exposure: ThreatNG monitors for exposed code repositories containing sensitive data like API keys and credentials.
If a developer accidentally commits code with an AWS API key to a public repository, ThreatNG will detect this exposure through continuous monitoring.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: ThreatNG continuously evaluates the organization's use of cloud services and SaaS solutions, identifying any security risks or misconfigurations.
For example, if a cloud storage bucket is inadvertently made publicly accessible, ThreatNG will detect this and trigger an alert.
Dark Web Monitoring: ThreatNG monitors the dark web for compromised credentials, ransomware activity, and other threats targeting the organization.
If an employee's credentials appear on a dark web marketplace, ThreatNG will alert the organization to the increased risk of account takeover.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG provides continuous reporting through its dashboards and alerts.
Security teams can set up customized alerts to be notified of specific changes or security issues detected by the continuous monitoring system.
Reports provide a historical view of security trends, allowing organizations to track their progress and identify areas for improvement.
For example, reports can show how the organization's "Cyber Risk Exposure" rating has changed over time and what factors contributed to those changes.
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide tools to delve deeper into security issues identified through continuous monitoring:
Domain Intelligence: This module allows security teams to investigate domain-related risks, such as changes in DNS records, new subdomains, or SSL certificate issues.
For example, if continuous monitoring detects a new and unusual subdomain, security teams can use the "Domain Intelligence" module to gather more information about its purpose and configuration.
IP Intelligence: This module provides information about IP addresses associated with the organization, including their reputation, location, and any known vulnerabilities.
If continuous monitoring detects suspicious traffic from a particular IP address, security teams can use the "IP Intelligence" module to investigate its origin and history.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This module helps security teams investigate instances of exposed secrets in code repositories.
For example, if continuous monitoring detects an exposed API key, security teams can use this module to identify the affected code repository and the developers involved.
Search Engine Exploitation: This module helps security teams investigate how their organization's information is exposed through search engines.
For example, if continuous monitoring detects sensitive files being indexed by search engines, this module can help identify and remove them.
ThreatNG's intelligence repositories feed into the continuous monitoring, providing up-to-date information on threats and vulnerabilities.
For example, the dark web intelligence repository provides continuous information on compromised credentials and ransomware activity, which ThreatNG uses to assess the organization's risk.
6. Working with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's continuous monitoring capabilities can be enhanced by integrating it with other security solutions.
For example, integrating ThreatNG with a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) system allows security teams to correlate ThreatNG's findings with other security events and logs, providing a more comprehensive view of the organization's security posture.
ThreatNG's continuous monitoring detects a vulnerable subdomain and sends an alert to the SIEM.
The SIEM correlates this alert with intrusion detection system (IDS) logs showing suspicious traffic to that subdomain, indicating a potential attack.
The security team uses this correlated information to respond more effectively.
Integrating with a SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) platform enables automated responses to security events detected by ThreatNG's continuous monitoring.
ThreatNG detects exposed credentials in a public code repository and triggers a SOAR playbook.
The SOAR playbook automatically notifies the development team, revokes the exposed credentials, and initiates a code review.
ThreatNG's continuous monitoring capabilities provide organizations with the ongoing visibility and actionable intelligence they need to proactively manage their external attack surface, detect threats, and improve their overall security posture.
