Source: The Red Canary Blog: Information Security Insights Author: Brian Davis URL: https://redcanary.com/blog/threat-detection/cloud-threat-detection/

ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY:

Red Canary presents a detailed six-phase process for detecting cloud threats within the control plane using telemetry data.

MAIN POINTS:

1. Threats to the cloud include unauthorized access, credential misuse, API abuse, and data exfiltration.
2. The cloud control plane manages deployed resources and maintains a record of activities via telemetry.
3. Red Canary processes billions of telemetry records daily to identify security threats.
4. The six phases of detection are Ingest, Standardize, Combine, Detect, Suppress, and Respond.
5. Ingestion focuses on moving relevant data to the processing system while filtering out unnecessary information.
6. Standardization ensures data is in a common format for easier integration of multiple data sources.
7. Combining data establishes a contextual overview for identifying behavioral trends indicative of threats.
8. Detection involves applying predefined analytics to the combined data to identify malicious behavior.
9. Effective telemetry monitoring aids in identifying high-noise data sources to reduce processing costs.
10. Using a standardized model simplifies downstream detection logic for various telemetry sources.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Understanding the cloud control plane is essential for securing cloud environments.
2. Filtering telemetry data is crucial to manage costs and enhance detection efficiency.
3. Standardizing data formats streamlines the integration of diverse data sources in security analysis.
4. Creating a contextual overview helps detect trends that single events may not reveal.
5. Employing a structured detection process improves threat identification and response capabilities.