Can You Use Behavioral Analytics to Improve Business Cyber Security?

Worrying statistics have found that 43% of all cyber-attacks target small businesses. These figures point to other precarious facts, for instance: about half of all small businesses don’t survive the first cyber attacks. Can you use behavioral analytics to improve business cyber security?

Behavioral Analytics and Business Cyber Security

Yes, you can use behavioral analytics to boost business cybersecurity. Behavioral analytics is a powerful approach to enhancing security because it focuses on monitoring and analyzing the behavior of users and systems within a network or organization. By understanding normal and abnormal behavior patterns, businesses can detect and respond to business cyber security threats more effectively.

Data protection is an integral part of a well-run business, and it is becoming harder to secure business operations and transactions in the online age. However, not all is lost, as you try to continuously improve your business, you ought to consider installing the latest technology in cybersecurity: behavioral analytics.

What is Behavioral Analytics?

Behavioral analytics is a pretty new player to the field of cyber-security yet has grown from the different ideas found in different cybersecurity strategies. It is essentially an analytics strategy in business that studies data in order to understand why people act the way they do so as to predict their future actions.

When applied to cyber security, it analyzes the traffic flow on your website to predict how people act in order to more quickly identify potential threats. While behavioral analytics is sometimes used as a cybersecurity measure in isolation, it can be combined with technologies such as virtual private networks (VPN), as this will offer added protection to your business. The question now is how to use behavior analytics to protect your data.

Identify Human Error

Although often overlooked, one of the greatest dangers to your data is the predisposition of people to making mistakes. The traditional solution to this is to contact security teams to comb through employee records and try to identify any policy violations.

However, because these security teams are still simply composed of human beings, they are also prey to overlooking errors or even covering up their own. Using behavioral analytics as a third-party guarantees automated checks that are designed to identify errors and miscalculations quickly and efficiently.

Increased User Authentication Tools

Another way in which behavioral analytics can help keep your business data safe is through its authentication capabilities. These basically map how much authentication a user needs to gain access to sensitive data based on their patterns of behavior.

What this means is that a user who has been flagged by the software for penning suspicious emails or sending company data through their private email accounts will have limited access to highly classified data or even be subjected to disciplinary action.

Leverage Behavioral Analytics to Improve Business Cyber security

Information Security Policy and Procedures Manual

Here’s how you can leverage behavioral analytics to improve your business cyber security:

User Behavior Monitoring

Behavioral analytics can monitor user activity on your network or systems. It looks for deviations from normal behavior, such as unusual login times, access to sensitive data, or irregular access patterns. If a user’s behavior deviates from their established baseline, it can trigger an alert for further investigation.

Anomaly Detection

Behavioral analytics tools use machine learning and statistical models to identify anomalies in network traffic, user behavior, and system activities. These anomalies can indicate potential security threats, such as malware infections, insider threats, or unauthorized access.

Insider Threat Detection

One of the significant benefits of behavioral analytics is its ability to identify insider threats. It can detect when employees or trusted insiders behave in ways that could pose a risk to the organization, such as attempting to access unauthorized data or performing unusual actions.

Real-time Threat Detection

Behavioral analytics can provide real-time threat detection capabilities, allowing businesses to respond quickly to emerging cybersecurity threats. This can prevent or mitigate potential data breaches or other security incidents.

Reducing False Positives

By basing security alerts on behavioral patterns rather than just static rules, businesses can reduce false positives. This means security teams can focus their efforts on investigating genuine threats instead of wasting time on non-critical alerts.

Threat Hunting

Behavioral analytics can also be used proactively for threat hunting. Security analysts can use these tools to search for unusual patterns or activities that may indicate a breach or security weakness.

Machine Learning and AI

Advanced machine learning and AI algorithms can be applied to behavioral analytics, allowing for continuous improvement and adaptation to evolving threats. These systems can become more accurate over time as they learn from new data.

User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)

UEBA solutions specialize in monitoring user and entity behavior. They can be especially valuable for identifying complex threats involving multiple users or systems.

Compliance and Reporting

Behavioral analytics can help organizations meet compliance requirements by providing detailed logs and reports on user and system activities. This can simplify auditing processes.

Integration with Existing Security Measures

Behavioral analytics can complement other security measures, such as firewalls, antivirus, and intrusion detection systems, by adding an additional layer of defense.

Behavioral Analytics to Improve Business Cyber Security

Data security is the question of the modern age, and behavioral analytics is slowly showing itself as a good answer. It may be time for your business to incorporate it into your cyber security strategy. 

To effectively implement behavioral analytics for cybersecurity, it’s essential to have the right tools and expertise in place. This typically involves investing in specialized software and training for security personnel. Additionally, privacy considerations should be addressed to ensure that user data is handled in a compliant and ethical manner.