When Should You Carry Out a Proactive Threat Hunt?

Implementing sound security measures is one of the most important things you can do for your business. It is designed to protect your files and keep your customer and employee information safe. One underlying threat you may not have considered is that hackers have evolved to infiltrate your systems without acting immediately. These clandestine cybercriminals can lurk on your networks for weeks, months, or even years completely undetected.

Traditional security strategies rely on blocking and passive reactivity, only responding to threats when alerted to them. As cybercriminals become more complex and better equipped to enter your networks undetected, they begin to pose an even more significant risk to your business. You need to do more than rely on watching and waiting for cyberattacks, it’s time to begin thinking proactively about threats you may not even know about. This is where threat hunting comes into play.

What is threat hunting?

Threat hunting is applying strategies, tools, tactics, and procedures to identify cybercriminals that may have made their way past existing defenses. It’s the practice of scanning your networks to seek out emerging threats lurking in your systems.

Threat hunting takes a proactive approach to your cybersecurity, where you must think like the enemy and engage with them if your traditional security measures aren’t enough protection. The tenets of this approach rest on the assumption that you have already been breached, and security professionals seek out evidence to support that theory.

Why you need proactive measures for security protection

Taking an active role in your security practices allows you to uncover hidden threats to your business and eliminate them before they grow into more significant issues for your business. A full-blown incident can halt business operations and cripple your company.

Don’t just sit back and allow this to happen – employ practices that will ensure complete protection across all your networks.

When you need to implement threat hunting

It may be difficult for you to implement full-time threat hunting, so we want to recommend specific situations that may require active threat hunting. Here are three significant situations when a proactive threat hunt is necessary for your business.

• • You’ve experienced a security breach.

If you discover that you’ve suffered a breach, it’s critical that you comb your networks to identify the culprit and the details of the attack. After the threat is taken care of, it’s a good idea to start a threat hunt to ensure that the threat is indeed eliminated. You don’t want someone noodling around in your systems just waiting to strike again.

• • A company you work with has experienced a breach.

If a supplier or other third-party partner that your business works with suffers a security breach, you will want to check your systems to ensure that criminals haven’t made their way into your networks. A threat hunt can identify if your business has been compromised as well.

• • You are participating in a merger or acquisition.

A threat hunt is a vital part of the due diligence you need to do before you merge or acquire another company. You want to make sure that their networks are safe and they have the right security protocols in place so hackers can’t get to your systems when you connect the two business networks.

Key takeaway: threat hunting offers more protection for your business

If you want to go above and beyond the passive security defenses you’ve been using to protect your business, it’s time to implement routine threat hunting to find hidden issues that could affect you in the future. The security professionals at Level4 IT can help you identify the right practices for your business.