Security in the Age of Big Data – The Analyst’s Shack

3 Minute Read

F. Clark – SOC Analyst, Striim

2017 was marred by some of the most expansive and concerning data breaches to-date, resulting in the loss of substantial amounts of sensitive, personally identifiable data and the repercussions that go along with such a loss. Predictions suggest more of the same (if not worse) in 2018.

With the advent of big data, the loss of data is compounded by the loss of reputation and market value to the data holder, as well as its customer base. For these reasons, securing an enterprise network has become more of a daunting task than ever before. A security professional must balance the ever-moving target of vulnerabilities, the free market for exploits and, at the same time, be responsible for preparing an in-depth approach to known and unknown threats to the networks they protect.

Despite the sales of crystal balls and silver bullets, each promising absolute defense against the known and unknown, there remains a trail of targeted companies with their networks in shambles and their defenses scrambling to keep up. The challenge of information security continues to be met with a ‘do more with less’ attitude and often lacks discipline, which results in disaster.

Threats ranging from unproven code, obfuscated exfiltration methods, and cleverly exercised encryption allow many vulnerabilities to be exploited without notice. Traditional security efforts that base their protection on established rules, known vulnerabilities, and traditional thinking have proven themselves to be insufficient to meet modern attack methodologies.

Enter Striim

Striim brings to the table a modern, holistic approach that creates a security offering that allows end-to-end monitoring of critical network infrastructure. This monitoring is not only customizable to the unique needs of the enterprise network, but also provides proactive action against attacks in-progress that can mean the difference between a small scale incursion and a large scale breach.

By leveraging its ability to collect logs and information from a diverse list of security, server, and networking devices, Striim correlates a broad range of data points to create a baseline of expected activity, which makes for easy detection of anomalous behaviors. At the same time, by automating the collection and analysis process that is specific to your needs, your security analysts are provided with real-time and validated information, allowing them to make quick and accurate decisions towards the security of your enterprise network.

Striim allows you to detect activity against your network that can be an early indicator of an attack. While a potential attacker is performing reconnaissance on your network, Striim keeps an active watch in real time of this activity, and correlates it with statistical data to alert you of the potential hazards. This allows you to take proactive action against an attack before it happens.

At the same time, Striim keeps a vigilant watch on traditional security systems and utilizes the alerts they generate to assist in recognizing the depth of an attack, as well as to assist in the remediation of any damage done with increased efficiency. The information Striim collects is shared with your security operations center analysts by way of fully customizable dashboards. This puts current vital data in front of them in real time, allowing them to spend their time resolving issues instead of collecting, correlating, and analyzing data by hand.

This post is the first in a series on leveraging streaming integration and intelligence for security.

For more information, check out Striim’s Solutions for Enterprise Security.