Shanto Roy

I Explore Research, Tech, Travel, and Business. PhD Student @UHCS.

4 minute read

Information is the most valuable asset throughout the world. I heard the value of information surpassed the value of gold, which is not surprising.

The countries we call developed ones is not because they have great army or technology, or money. It is because they have a vast amount of information obtained by research, which can drastically change or improve society.

Data analytics is tremendously useful for different cyber security applications. In this blog post I will discuss some use cases of data analytics in cyber security.

Data Analytics

Information is the outcome of data analysis, and different data analytics play a vital role in decision-making.

For example, just think about Google. Their entire revenue model is standing on top of search and advertisement. Search gathers data and performed data analysis leads to decision-making for generating ad revenue.

Usually, the process of data analytics is as follows:

  1. Data collection: Collecting data from various sources, such as databases, spreadsheets, scrapped web content, or online platforms.
  2. Data cleaning: Cleaning and preparing data for analysis by removing irrelevant or inconsistent data, fixing formatting errors, and handling missing values.
  3. Data analysis: Analyzing data using various statistical and analytical techniques to identify patterns, trends, and relationships.
  4. Data visualization: Presenting data in a visual format, such as charts and graphs, to communicate insights and trends to stakeholders.
  5. Predictive modeling: Using statistical and machine learning techniques to build models that can predict future outcomes based on historical data.

There are numerous general benefits of utilizing data analytics. It can be used to improve business operations and decision-making, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.

Data analytics can also be used to identify new market opportunities, optimize marketing strategies, and improve customer experience.

Use Cases in Cyber Security

  1. Threat Detection: Data analytics can be used to detect potential security threats by analyzing network traffic, system logs, and other sources of data. By using machine learning algorithms, data analytics can identify patterns and anomalies that could indicate a cyber attack. SIEMs and EDRs work based on these anomalies.

  2. Vulnerability Management: Data analytics can be used to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities within a system. By analyzing data from vulnerability scans, data analytics can help organizations identify the most critical vulnerabilities and prioritize prevention mechanisms.

  3. User Behavior Analytics: Data analytics can be used to monitor user activity and detect anomalous behavior that could indicate a security breach. By analyzing user behavior data, data analytics can help identify potential insider threats or compromised accounts.

  4. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): Data analytics can be used in a SIEM system to collect and analyze security-related data from multiple sources. By correlating data from different sources, data analytics can help identify security incidents that might otherwise go unnoticed.

  5. Fraud Detection: Data analytics can be used to detect fraudulent activity, such as credit card fraud, by analyzing transaction data and identifying patterns that could indicate fraudulent behavior.

  6. Threat Intelligence: Data analytics can be used to collect and analyze data from external sources, such as threat feeds and social media, to identify emerging threats and security trends. Usually, most organizations analyze MITRE ATT&CK for threat intelligence.

  7. Incident Response: Data analytics can be used to investigate and respond to security incidents by analyzing forensic data and identifying the root cause of the incident.

  8. Malware Analytics: Data analytics can be used to perform deeper analysis and inspection on malware, to identify and mitigate security threats.

  9. Risk Management: Data analytics can be used to assess and manage cyber risks by analyzing data on assets, threats, and vulnerabilities. By analyzing this data, organizations can identify potential highest-risk areas and prioritize risk mitigation efforts.

  10. Compliance Monitoring: Data analytics can be used to monitor compliance with security standards and regulations, such as HIPAA and PCI DSS, by analyzing audit logs and other compliance-related data.

  11. Insider Threat Detection: Insider threat is a serious threat for organizations as it gives attacker the physical access to organization’s network. Data analytics can be used to monitor employee activity and detect insider threats by analyzing user behavior and identifying patterns that could indicate malicious intent.

  12. Network Traffic Analysis: Data analytics can be used to analyze network traffic data to identify unusual activity, such as data exfiltration or lateral movement by an attacker. I have previously analyzed PCAP files. If you want learn details, check my following posts: How to Convert PCAP files to CSV for Network Traffic Analysis, Passive Operating System Fingerprinting by Analyzing PCAP files

  13. Identity and Access Management: Data analytics can be used to manage and monitor user access to systems and applications by analyzing user behavior and identifying anomalies that could indicate unauthorized access.

These are just a few examples of how data analytics can be utilized in cybersecurity. As data analytics continues to evolve, it will likely play an increasingly important role in helping organizations defend against sophisticated cyber attacks.

So, that’s all for today! Cheers!!!

You can also read related posts on my blog or Medium:

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