Navigating the threat detection journey: how you turn data into defence

Not every alert is a threat, and not every threat is a priority. As Microsoft security experts, we know how much of a balancing act this is. A 2024 survey found that 22% of cybersecurity professionals acknowledged having ignored security alerts, due to alert fatigue. But as a security analyst, your role is to detect the unseen risks, turning alerts into actionable intelligence to protect company data – and its reputation.

The threat detection journey has many moving parts and requires collective knowledge and input to keep critical company assets safe, but security analysts can lighten the load by leveraging Microsoft security technologies and advanced automation to help them to prioritise with purpose.

In this blog, we explore the three core stages of the threat detection journey – detection, analysis and response – looking at how the advanced AI and behavioural analytics tools available within Microsoft’s security products can help security teams to make effective data driven decisions that contain and eradicate threats rapidly, stopping threat actors in their tracks.

Proactive threat detection

Stage one of the journey is detection, and this can be broken down into two halves. Real-time and near real-time (also known as ‘after the fact detection’). The real-time side of the process involves proactively and continuously monitoring systems, networks and user activity to immediately identify threats as they occur. At Softwerx, our expertise here lies in the Microsoft Defender product suite which incorporates Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, Defender for Cloud, Defender for Cloud Apps and Defender for IoT. We advise our clients on how to unlock the power of these tools, streamlining security to maximise their investment.

The near real-time or, after the fact detection, takes multiple log sources and analyses a broader time frame of events to identify anomalies. This is handled by Microsoft Sentinel – a cloud-native Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platform and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) solution.

Together, Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Sentinel offer a comprehensive security solution each serving specific but complementary roles, but there is a third role required here. The role of the Microsoft expert who brings to the table the ability to truly maximise these solutions.

The key to success lies in this first stage of the threat detection journey. Leveraging the full capabilities of the technology, ensuring that each of the Microsoft Defender products in use is configured correctly and according to the unique requirements of the organisation. Out of the box, these products will detect 80% – 90% of incoming threats, but to detect what is happening, immediately, and get to the problem fast, your defence services need to be working as effectively as possible. This means using qualified detection engineers who understand the nuances of the software, the automation and enablement, and who can configure the tools more precisely, using best practices, so that you get as close to the 100% detection mark as possible.

As Microsoft experts our approach here is to utilise methods such as enabling cloud-delivered protection, configuring Advanced Threat Protection, running regular scans or using heuristic and behaviour-based detection. If your team doesn’t have the resources to leverage the full functionality of Defender, it’s well worth seeking support through a Microsoft Security Partner to optimise your security investment.

Investigation and analysis

The next stage of the threat detection journey is analysis, for more detailed scrutiny. Comprehensive examination is carried out via automated rules which work to understand behaviour, tactics and techniques, looking at the root cause and the impact. The goal here is to accurately identify, understand and mitigate risks. The key to success comes in getting the rules right.

Microsoft Sentinel drives automation, leveraging threat intelligence feeds to look for patterns and abnormalities. By creating rules based on the data ingested from event logs and alerts, a common blueprint is established from which anomalies can be identified. When we combine this with UEBA (User and Entity Behaviour) to identify anomalous activities based on patterns, we establish a more effective way to investigate a potential compromise.

It’s crucial that the rules Sentinel uses here are configured to fit the environment and that analysts understand where all the points of information exist – firewalls, laptops, servers, platform services and subscriptions. No two organisations will be the same, so achieving a deep understanding of an organisation’s unique systems is vital for success. It’s important to be able to understand what was normal last week. What’s changed? What was normal for the last 24 hours and what has changed in the last hour? Having the right data together in one place and being able to execute these types of comparisons consistently and at scale is key to identifying potential weaknesses before they become a compromise.

While each business case varies, with the right tools, the right configurations and analysis rules that match the available data, organisations are well placed not only to detect threats, but to have the actionable intelligence to take the most effective next steps.

Rapid response and remediation

Response, the third element of the threat detection journey, is where a threat impact is mitigated through containment and eradication. This process will involve preventing the spread of the threat by isolating affected systems or disabling compromised accounts, before removing threats from the environment, cleaning any infected systems and restoring any losses.

The key to success here is consistency. Automation will take response and remediation to a certain point but beyond this point, human intelligence is required. All these humans need to be singing from the same hymn sheet.

If you have a small, one-person security operation, then that person is going to struggle to cope with the demand so it would be worth seeking external support to assist that person or look at expanding your security team. If you have a team but no consistency of operations, then this will create gaps which can in turn create vulnerabilities. Each security analyst should follow the basic principles of ‘who, what, when, where and how’ and be able to answer those questions when dealing with the incident. Who are the threat actors? Who are they targeting? What is the nature of the threat? Ransomware? Malware? Phishing? What is the potential impact? When was the threat first detected? Where does it originate from? How was the threat delivered? Consistency and continuity during this stage of the process will create more a more comprehensive, efficient and timely response to a threat and support your remediation effort.

Having a strong, well-structured and proactive threat detection solution in place helps organisations to reduce risk whilst meeting compliance requirements and building resilience against evolving threats. It is a critical pillar of the defence strategy, harnessing insights and the intelligence to stop threats before they become breaches.

By providing expert professional advice, consultancy and support in Microsoft infrastructure, security and licensing Softwerx, empowers midmarket organisations to take full advantage of their Microsoft investment to create comprehensive, always-on unified security defence that protects the environment to enable sustainable business growth.