Advanced Threat Protection

Protect Sensitive Data Against Advanced Cyberattacks

What is an Advanced Threat?

Advanced persistent threat (APT) or simply put an advanced threat, is a cyberattack designed to gain unauthorized and most important, undetected access to sensitive information or systems over an extended period. That too by using sophisticated techniques and tools. Most of the time, advanced threats come from skilled and well-funded attackers, such as state-sponsored actors, organized crime groups, or hacktivists.

APT is distinguishable from traditional cyberattacks because they focus on a specific target or organization and evade classic security measures. The goal of an advanced threat is usually to steal sensitive information, such as intellectual property, trade secrets, or financial data, or to disrupt the operations of a targeted organization. Because advanced threats can often go undetected for long periods, they can pose a significant risk to businesses and governments.

How to Spot an Advanced Threat?

Advanced threats often happen over an extended period, with attackers taking a patient and systematic approach. They may use multiple stages, such as reconnoitering, infiltration, and exfiltration, to achieve their objectives.

Cyberattackers use advanced techniques and tools to evade detection and gain access to sensitive information, such as zero-day exploits, custom malware, or other advanced methods. Let’s explore this in more detail in the next section.

What Are the Most Common Advanced Attack Methods?

Advanced attacks leverage many different forms of techniques to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information or systems. Here are some of the most common advanced attack methods:

1. Social Engineering: To manipulate individuals into revealing sensitive information or taking action that could compromise security. Common social engineering tactics include phishing emails, pretexting, and baiting.
2. Malware: Software designed to harm or compromise a computer system. Advanced attackers often use custom malware to evade traditional security measures. Common types of malwares include viruses, trojans, and ransomware.
3. Zero-day exploits: Zero-day exploits are vulnerabilities in software or hardware that are not yet known to the vendor or security community. Advanced attackers may use zero-day exploits to gain unauthorized access to systems or steal sensitive information.
4. Advanced Persistent Threats: They are long-term attacks by highly skilled attackers. And are often sponsored by nation-states or criminal organizations to steal sensitive information or disrupt the operations of a targeted organization.
5. Credential stuffing: This technique tests large numbers of stolen login credentials against a targeted website or application to gain unauthorized access. Attackers obtain login credentials from previous data breaches or other sources.
6. Supply chain attacks: Target third-party vendors or suppliers that provide services or software to a specific organization to gain access to many additional organizations through a single point of entry.
7. Fileless attacks: Do not rely on traditional executable files. Instead, they operate entirely in memory, making them difficult to detect with antivirus software.

What Is Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)?

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is a set of security technologies and practices that help protect organizations against sophisticated cyber threats. ATP solutions use machine learning, behavioral analysis, and other advanced techniques to detect and prevent attacks that may bypass standard security measures. It can include a range of technologies, such as antivirus, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and endpoint protection.

ATP solutions help organizations stay ahead of the rapidly evolving threat landscape with a proactive approach to security. By analyzing data from multiple sources and using advanced analytics and machine learning, these security solutions help detect and prevent attacks or compromise sensitive information.

Organizations at high risk of targeted attacks, such as those in the financial, healthcare, or government sectors, need a comprehensive solution like ATP. However, any organization can benefit from ATP solutions as cyber threats have become more advanced and intelligent.

How Does an Advanced Threat Protection Work?

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) uses advanced analytics and machine learning technologies to detect and prevent advanced cyber threats. Listed below are just some of them:

1. Data Collection: An ATP solution collects data from various sources, such as network traffic, endpoints, email, and cloud services. This data is analyzed to identify potential threats.
2. Threat Detection: The collected data is analyzed using advanced analytics, machine learning, and other techniques to identify potential threats. This analysis may look for patterns indicative of malicious activity, such as suspicious network traffic or unusual user behavior.
3. Threat Prevention: When a potential threat is discovered, the ATP solution prevents it from causing further harm by blocking network traffic, quarantining files or email messages, or alerting security personnel to take further action.
4. Continuous Monitoring: An organization's systems and networks are under observation to detect and prevent ongoing threats, meaning real-time analysis of network traffic, endpoint behavior, and other data sources.
5. Threat Intelligence: Provides up-to-date information on the latest cyber threats and attack techniques. This intelligence can help organizations stay ahead of emerging threats and better protect themselves against potential attacks.

Benefits of Advanced Threat Protection Software and Services

• Improved Security: Advanced analytics and machine learning detect and prevent advanced cyber threats. They provide a proactive approach to security that continuously monitors systems and networks, detects and prevents unauthorized access to sensitive information, and reduces the risk of data breaches.
• Simplified Security Management: They integrate with existing security infrastructure and provide a centralized dashboard for managing real-time security alerts and incidents, simplifying security management and reducing the workload on security personnel. Organizations can easily manage their security infrastructure, analyze data, and respond quickly to security incidents on a single interface.
• Cost-Effective Solution: By detecting and preventing attacks before they can cause damage, organizations can avoid the costs associated with recovering from a breach, such as lost productivity, legal fees, and damage to their reputation. ATP solutions also offer access to up-to-date threat intelligence to help them stay revamped with advanced cybersecurity solutions.

Key Features of Advanced Threat Protection

Behavioral analytics is one of the core features of ATP solutions. It uses machine learning algorithms to detect anomalies and unusual behavior in an organization's systems and networks, allowing quick and accurate identification of potential threats before they can cause damage. By analyzing deviations from the norm, behavioral analytics can help detect sophisticated attacks that may escape traditional security measures.

Another key feature of ATP solutions is threat intelligence which involves accessing up-to-date information on emerging threats and vulnerabilities. Threat intelligence allows organizations to stay ahead of the curve and skilfully protect themselves against potential attacks. By providing real-time information on new and evolving threats, threat intelligence helps organizations adjust their security measures and proactively respond to potential risks.

ATP solutions also offer multi-layered protection, which includes endpoint protection, network security, email security, and web security, adding a layer of defense against cyber-attacks.

Automated remediation is yet another key element of ATP solutions. When an attack is detected, ATP solutions can automatically quarantine infected files, isolate compromised endpoints, and block malicious traffic, preventing the spread of advanced threats and reducing the time to resolution.

Finally, ATP solutions provide a centralized management console that enables security teams to manage security policies, view security events, and respond to incidents in real-time, facilitating security management and helping organizations react quickly to potential threats.