How Does User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) Work?
A UEBA solution is deployed to devices throughout an organization’s network. For a period after its deployment, the UEBA solution monitors a device and builds up a profile of normal usage. This includes the activities by the various users of that device. After a while, the UEBA has a good model of what is considered normal and abnormal behavior. At this point, it can transition from learning mode to active mode.
While in active mode, the UEBA solution monitors various actions and evaluates them based on its model of normal behavior. If it observes an anomalous activity, it can alert an administrator and potentially trigger a response designed to block the potential threat.
For example, a user in the organization may typically spend the majority of their working day editing documents and browsing the Internet. If their account suddenly starts making requests to other systems and exploring the network, the UEBA solution may raise an alert. While this change in activity may be benign, it could also indicate that the user’s credentials are compromised by an attacker. If this is the chase, the warning provided by the UEBA solution gives the organization an opportunity to address the issue.
The Need for User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
If an attacker has access to a user’s account, they may not need to use malware and similar techniques to achieve their goals. This can present challenges for some security solutions designed to detect this type of malicious content.
However, an attacker is likely to take actions that deviate from the norm in the course of achieving their goals. For example, a data breach can’t be performed without accessing data, and ransomware involves large numbers of file operations. A UEBA solution can identify and report on these deviant activities, enabling organizations to detect attacks in the absence of malware or malicious content.
UEBA Benefits
UEBA provides numerous benefits to an organization’s security operations center (SOC), including the following:
- Broad Threat Detection: UEBA identifies threats by looking for deviations from normal behavior. This enables it to identify a wide range of threats, including ones that do not use malware or malicious content.
- Automated Analysis: UEBA automatically collects and analyzes large volumes of data to build its model and detect anomalous events. This provides valuable context without the need for security analysts to perform this analysis.
- Improved Security: UEBA has the ability to identify insider threats and other risks that are more difficult to detect with other security solutions. As a result, it reduces an organization’s risk of cyberattack.
UEBA vs. NTA
UEBA and network traffic analysis (NTA) — also referred to as network detection and response (NDR) — can both identify some of the same threats, and they both use similar techniques, such as machine learning and data analytics. However, they are not the same solution. For example, NTA can provide broader visibility into events on an organization’s network, not just those that are labeled as anomalous. On the other hand, UEBA solutions provide visibility into local events on monitored devices, while NTA only has visibility into network-level events.
UEBA vs. SIEM
UEBA and security information and event management (SIEM) solutions both use machine learning and data analytics to identify threats. However, they are different solutions designed to identify different types of threats.
In general, SIEM solutions are more capable of identifying less sophisticated, one-off threats and are focused on security management. However, they may lack visibility into more sophisticated and subtle attack campaigns.
UEBA solutions, on the other hand, focus more on building profiles of users and devices and looking for deviations from these profiles. This enables them to identify more subtle attacks and detect insider threats that a SIEM might miss.
UEBA with Infinity XDR
A UEBA solution provides valuable capabilities that complement other solutions in an organization’s security stack. By detecting and reporting on anomalous behaviors that might be linked to a potential attack, UEBA enables an organization’s security team to detect insider threats and other attacks that might be missed by other solutions focused on identifying and blocking malicious content.
UEBA capabilities should be a part of an enterprise integrated security platform. Check Point Infinity XDR (extended detection and response) offers UEBA alongside a range of other security capabilities. Find out about the full range of Infinity XDR’s features in this solution brief. Then, to learn more about how Infinity XDR can help to protect your organization against advanced security threats, sign up for a free demo today.
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