A Complete Guide to User and Entity Behavior Analytics
Tags: Entity Behavior, User Behavior Analytics, Information Security, User Behavior, Cybersecurity

Get Deeper to User and Entity Behavior Analytics

User and entity behavior analysis or UEBA, is a cybersecurity type process that records the normal behavior of users. UEBA could also detects anomalous behavior or events in which a deviation from “normal” pattern occurred. UEBA has three main components which are essential for its functioning broken down into Data Analytics, Data Integration, and Data Presentation.

Firstly, data analytics uses and entity data on “normal” behavior to build a profile of how they typically act. For example, certain users regularly download 25 MB of files every day. Otherwise, if the user suddenly downloads a gigabyte-sized file, the system will detect the anomaly and warn of a potential security threat. Secondly, data integration is a component used to compare data from various sources such as logs, packet capture data, and other datasets. Thirdly, data presentation is the process by which the UEBA system communicates its findings by issuing request for security analyst to investigate unusual behavior.

Why User and Entity Behavior Analytics is Important?

UEBA becomes an important component of IT security. UEBA could help organization detect and respond against cyberattacks and spotting threats quickly. This is done by combining visibility and context from both cloud and on-prem infrastructure. In addition, there are also several other benefits of UEBA which makes it as an important component of IT security.

First, UEBA could be used to detect insider threats. As mentioned above, UEBA could help organizations detects threats such as data breaches, sabotage, privilege abuse, and policy violations done by insider or employees, as well as helps organizations get rid of spoofed and compromised users before they do any real harm. Then, UEBA also enables organizations to detect brute-force attacks by allowing organizations to block access to these entities. Some attacks might involve the use of super users. However, by using UEBA, organizations could detect the creation of super users or detect unnecessary access grant to an account.

Learn the Best practices in Using UEBA

UEBA does not replace other systems or solutions, however, it offers unique capabilities that can be used in conjunction with other solutions to offer comprehensive cybersecurity. For a successful UEBA implementation in organizations, there are four points that shall be noted.

First, consider internal and external threats when creating new policies, rules, and baselines. Then, make sure that only the appropriate members of the security team receive the UEBA alert. After that, keep in mind that non-privileged user accounts can be consider as a threat since hackers can use standard accounts to enhance their privileges to increase access. Finally, remember that the UEBA process shall complement traditional monitoring infrastructure and tools. They are not a substitute for basic monitoring systems such as Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS).

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Conclusion

User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) is a type of cybersecurity process that gives organization a more comprehensive way to help organizations detect users and entities that might compromise to the entire system and therefore helps organizations in creating a top-notch IT security.

References

Exabeam. (n.d.). User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA). Retrieved June 30, 2021, from https://www.exabeam.com/siem-guide/ueba/

Petters, J. (2020, June 18). What is UEBA? Complete Guide to User and Entity Behavior Analytics | Varonis. Inside Out Security. https://www.varonis.com/blog/user-entity-behavior-analytics-ueba/

What is UEBA? Definition and use. (n.d.). FireEye. Retrieved June 30, 2021, from https://www.fireeye.com/products/helix/what-is-ueba.html