What Does Indicators of Compromise Mean? The Best Tools to Help Monitor Them

Indicators of Compromise provide clues and evidence regarding data breaches. Learn the importance of monitoring them and four tools that can help.

In the world of data forensics, understanding the mechanics behind a cyber attack is no less than solving a crime mystery. Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) are those clues, pieces of evidence that can help uncover the complex data breaches of today.

IoCs are the biggest asset for cybersecurity experts when trying to solve and de-mystify network attacks, malicious activities, or malware breaches. By searching through IoCs, data breaches can be identified early on to help mitigate attacks.

Why Is It Important to Monitor the Indicators of Compromise?

IoCs play an integral role in cybersecurity analysis. Not only do they reveal and confirm that a security attack has occurred but they also disclose the tools that were used to carry out the attack.

They are also helpful in determining the extent of the damage that a compromise has caused and assist in setting up benchmarks to prevent future compromises.

The IoCs are generally gathered through normal security solutions like anti-malware and anti-virus software but certain AI-based tools can also be used to collect these indicators during incident response efforts.

Read More: The Best Free Internet Security Software for Windows

Examples of Indicators of Compromise

By detecting irregular patterns and activities, IoCs can help gauge if an attack is about to happen, has already happened, and the factors behind the attack.

Here are some examples of IOCs that every individual and organization should keep a tab on:

Odd Patterns of Inbound and Outbound Traffic

The ultimate goal of most cyber attacks is to get hold of sensitive data and transfer it to a different location. Therefore, it is imperative to monitor for unusual traffic patterns especially the ones leaving your network.

At the same time, changes in inbound traffic should also be observed as they are good indicators of an attack in progress. The most effective approach is to consistently monitor both inbound and outbound traffic for anomalies.

Geographical Discrepancies

If you run a business or work for a company restricted to a certain geographic location but are suddenly seeing login patterns originating from unknown locations, then consider it a red flag.

IP addresses are great examples of IoCs as they provide useful pieces of evidence for tracing the geographical origins of an attack.

High Privilege User Activities

Privileged accounts have the highest level of access due to the nature of their roles. Threat actors always like to go after these accounts to gain steady access inside a system. Therefore, any unusual changes in the usage pattern of high privilege user accounts should be monitored with a grain of salt.

If a privileged user is using their account from an anomalous location and time, then it certainly is an indicator of compromise. It is always a good security practice to employ the Principle of Least Privilege when setting up accounts.

Read More: What Is the Principle of Least Privilege and How Can It Prevent Cyberattacks?

An Increment in Database Reads

Databases are always a prime target for threat actors as most personal and organizational data is stored in a database format.

If you see an increase in the database read volume then keep an eye on it as that might be an attacker trying to invade your network.

A High Rate of Authentication Attempts

A high number of authentication attempts especially failed ones should always raise an eyebrow. If you see a large number of login attempts from an existing account or failed attempts from an account that does not exist, then it is most likely a compromise in the making.

Unusual Configuration Changes

If you suspect a high number of configuration changes on your files, servers, or devices, chances are someone is trying to infiltrate your network.

Configuration changes not only provide a second backdoor to the threat actors into your network, but they also expose the system to malware attacks.

Signs of DDoS Attacks

A Distributed Denial of Service or DDoS attack is mainly carried out to disrupt the normal traffic flow of a network by bombarding it with a flood of internet traffic.

Therefore, it is no wonder that frequent DDoS attacks are carried out by botnets to distract from secondary attacks and should be considered as an IoC.

Read More: New DDoS Attack Types and How They Affect Your Security

Web Traffic Patterns With Unhuman Behavior

Any web traffic that does not seem like normal human behavior should always be monitored and investigated.

Tools To Help Monitor the Indicators of Compromise

Discovering and monitoring IoCs can be achieved by threat hunting. Log aggregators can be used to monitor your logs for discrepancies and once they alert for an anomaly, then you should treat them as an IoC.

After analyzing an IoC, it should always be added to a blocklist to prevent future infections from factors like IP addresses, security hashes, or domain names.

The following five tools can aid in identifying and monitoring the IoCs. Please note that most of these tools come with community versions as well as paid subscriptions.

1. CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike is a company that prevents security breaches by providing top-of-the-line, cloud-based endpoint security options.

It offers a Falcon Query API platform with an import feature that allows you to retrieve, upload, update, search, and delete custom indicators of compromise (IOCs) that you want CrowdStrike to watch.

2. Sumo Logic

Sumo Logic is a cloud-based data analytics organization that focuses on security operations. The company offers log management services that utilize machine-generated big data to deliver real-time analysis.

By using the Sumo Logic platform, businesses and individuals can enforce security configurations for multi-cloud and hybrid environments and quickly respond to threats by detecting IoCs.

3. Akamai Bot Manager

Bots are good for automating certain tasks but they can also be used for account takeovers, security threats, and DDoS attacks.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. is a global content delivery network, that also offers a tool known as the Bot Manager which provides advanced bot detection to find and prevent the most sophisticated bot attacks.

By providing granular visibility into the bot traffic entering your network, the Bot Manager helps you better understand and track who is entering or leaving your network.

4. Proofpoint

Proofpoint is an enterprise security company that provides target attack protection along with a robust threat response system.

Their creative threat response system provides automatic IoC verification by collecting endpoint forensics from targeted systems, making it easy to detect and fix compromises.

Safeguard Data by Analyzing Your Threat Landscape

Most security breaches and data thefts leave trails of breadcrumbs behind and it is up to us to play security detectives and pick up on the clues.

Fortunately, by analyzing our threat landscape closely, we can monitor and compile a list of indicators of compromise to prevent all types of current and future cyber threats.

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