Given that roughly three out of four cyberattacks take place at endpoints, IT departments have every reason to carefully scrutinize every attack. Many IT security solutions use whitelists and blacklists to grant or block access, with the aim of providing end-to-end system security. And while these two approaches are often mentioned in the same breath, they follow opposite strategies and are used in different areas. In the case of whitelisting, access is blocked to all entities not explicitly mentioned in the list. Conversely, blacklisting takes the opposite approach. The software draws on the accompanying list to decide whether or not to grant access. Here, only software and data that are explicitly blacklisted are prohibited.
White- and blacklisting mean more work whilst UEBA is the better option
While both methods are efficient in principle, there are upsides in using UEBA. And downsides in using whitelists and blacklists. Firstly, they create a great deal of administrative work. Secondly, it is difficult to achieve the balance between having a secure system and one that runs smoothly. Administrators are taking risk if access is available broadly. Even if high-quality IT security solutions are deployed, there is still the chance that data could be lost, or systems infected with malware. On the flip side, if IT managers take an overly restrictive approach, this will affect the user experience. As a result, they find themselves constantly walking a fine line. If they opt for a less restrictive approach, there will be too many cyberattacks. And data will not be fully secure as a result of this. If one chooses the opposite strategy, they risk that IT operations will grind to a halt.
In addition, if the list is not correctly configured, this means limits to the employees’ ability to work properly. Likewise, they might attempt to bypass security safeguards, which would substantially increase IT-related risks. One of the major causes of data loss is negligence. Employees are frequently the source of the problem. In most cases as a result of a mistake or error on their part. One reason for this is that VIP users do not have to observe a number of internal IT security rules.
User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
User entity and behavior analytics is a new IT security strategy. It allows IT departments to detect security events or incidents based on user behavior. The system automatically analyzes behavior patterns and checks for potential anomalies at once. UEBA aggregates the user behavior data with other variables such as IP addresses, locations, devices, and data transfers. In this way, it is possible to draw conclusions regarding potential security incidents faster and with greater specificity – without users even noticing. Their workspaces have protection, and they are still able to continue working as they normally would.
UEBA can help answer questions about standard and usual processes. Without having to create a complex set of predefined rules during configuration. For that reason, it is a useful strategy to implement IT security at your company. And one that does not entail a great deal of administrative work. Administrators can extract maximum value by fully and automatically integrating UEBA with IT security processes and applications.
To assess the user’s activity pattern, it is important to use logging and data monitoring tools. In addition to this, administrators should employ anomaly detection solutions that apply statistics and analyses to identify and report deviations from normal behavior. The entire process runs in the background. Where possible, the solutions should automatically carry out additional actions in the case of a security event. Or, at the very least, they should notify other applications about the presence of a non-compliant status to allow the event to be handled quickly manually by the administrator.
Summary
UEBA delivers smart IT security without any of the issues that aggravate users. By avoiding those issues, IT security is no longer seen as a necessary evil. Running in the background, the smart IT security solution provides a level of protection that users need without any restrictions that could diminish the overall user experience. In this way, they can truly enjoy the benefits of the digital workplace.