While an attacker only needs to be right once, security teams must be right every time. That’s why SOC teams must stop ransomware attackers from exploiting AD weaknesses.

Operating in shifts around the clock, Security Operations Center teams strive to prevent, detect and respond to cybersecurity threats and incidents. But in an evolving threat landscape where bad actors relentlessly attack critical assets such as Active Directory, security analysts find that traditional SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solutions fall short. Consider major ransomware operators such as LockBit 2.0, Conti, and BlackMatter—they all used AD to introduce or propagate malware.

SOC teams rely on SIEM solutions to aggregate and correlate log and other data from assets across an organization’s IT infrastructure, including AD. While the SIEM is a powerful solution to monitor the network infrastructure in general, it was never designed for the specifics of AD security. 

Key challenges faced by SOC teams include:

False positives: Analysts in the SOC struggle dealing with the myriad alerts generated by SIEM solutions, and pinpointing the few truly critical events. As a result, SOC teams spend too much time assessing countless false alarms, which impacts their ability to address real threats effectively. 

Difficulty preventing backdoor creation: Recent ransomware attacks reveal that hackers increasingly understand they can easily gain unrestricted access to a victim’s AD environment by exploiting misconfigurations and creating backdoors. Combating this threat requires capabilities that go beyond what a SIEM has to offer.

Adding the intelligence piece to SIEM

How can SOC teams gain more visibility into AD so they can better detect threats that fall through the cracks of a traditional SIEM? 

An AD-specific solution such as Tenable.ad does not just fill the gaps of a traditional SIEM but actually integrates with SIEMs to improve AD security and increase SOC efficiency, enhancing the organization’s cybersecurity posture. Tenable.ad adds the “AD intelligence” piece to your SIEM, eliminating false positives and zeroing-in on the critical vulnerabilities that must be addressed right away. With Tenable.ad, SOC teams boost their productivity and efficiency, and strengthen the security of their AD environments.

Read our white paper Must-Have #1: Make Your SOC Identity-Aware and you’ll learn:

Why SOC teams struggle to monitor Active Directory and to detect live attacks with generic SIEMs
How SOC teams can fill the gaps of their SIEM using an AD-specific solution
How Tenable.ad acts as a pre-SIEM solution to bolster security defenses and boost SOC efficiency

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