Cybersecurity Identity Insights

As identity becomes the biggest battleground in cybersecurity, security teams must do everything possible to keep attackers from impersonating legitimate users and weaponizing their access to orchestrate destructive data breaches that encounter little to no resistance. One way, arguably the best way, for defenders to gain an advantage is by collecting cybersecurity identity insights to help anticipate attacks early enough to take preemptive measures that either prevent or minimize any damage. Attacks on identities are certain. Whether they become incidents depends on which side has better cybersecurity identity insights.

Overview of Cybersecurity Identity Insights

What are cybersecurity identity insights?

Cybersecurity identity insights are a form of threat intelligence focused specifically on cybersecurity risks posed by exposed credentials. If hackers buy a stolen password off the dark web, for example, they could easily bypass security controls, so teams must be aware of where and when identity information gets exposed anywhere outside of the organization. The process of finding, analyzing, and utilizing those cybersecurity identity insights is one that security teams increasingly rely on to keep identities, and by extension the entire IT infrastructure, secure from attacks. As the number of identities and the tenacity of hackers both rise rapidly, however, getting adequate cybersecurity identity insights becomes more complex and cumbersome than ever before.

How can cybersecurity identity insights be acquired?

Cybersecurity identity insights can potentially exist anywhere in the digital world, making it fairly easy to acquire some of them but exceedingly difficult to acquire all of them. There are tools and techniques, both manual and automated, to collect these insights, but many companies have not yet put formal processes in place to capitalize on identity intelligence, making this an untapped resource for cybersecurity. Security teams have to see the value of cybersecurity identity insights before they can get serious about acquiring more of them.

How can cybersecurity identity insights be applied?

Security teams are always assessing their most urgent risks and important defenses, and cybersecurity identity insights help to make both of those clear in order to focus security resources where they are most needed. Just a few examples include:

Deactivate dangerous accounts: Knowing what credentials have been exposed allows security teams to first prioritize the biggest risks and then systematically change credentials or deactivate accounts before they get exploited.
Locate hidden anomalies: Insights into where and how hackers might try to compromise identities lets security teams focus their attention wherever they’re most likely to find anomalies.
Block risky access: Authentication and access are dynamic and imperfect processes, but cybersecurity identity insights help to link both sides and fill any gaps in-between, making secure yet efficient access management a reality.

What Makes Cybersecurity Identity Insights Relevant Right Now?

Why are cybersecurity identity insights beneficial for security teams?

Most organizations (90%) have experienced an identity-related security incident in the past year according to the Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA), and 84% suffered a direct business impact as a result. Hackers are putting more time, effort, and ingenuity into exploiting identities for two simple reasons.

First, as companies undergo digital transformation, they are relying on ever larger numbers of digital identities, each of which is potentially a target. Second, as companies get more serious about cybersecurity, identities remain a relatively quick and easy way to sneak past defenses and get close to valuable assets.

As the literal “keys” to the digital kingdom, identities will always be appealing to hackers, making any insights into where, when, why, and how identities might be compromised look extremely beneficial to the security teams responsible for keeping those identities—and everything behind them—resilient against attacks.

What makes cybersecurity identity insights hard to find?

It bears repeating that potential identity threats can exist anywhere on the internet, across all of social media, and of course on the dark web where the largest and most dangerous threats are located. Often no one is aware when credentials get exposed, so in addition to having a huge haystack to search through, security teams don’t know what the needle looks like, or even if it exists.

Further complicating both factors is the fact that hackers are secretive by trade, sharing the most valuable threat intelligence in the shadows of the dark web or behind the private walls of illicit Telegram channels. For all these reasons, collecting cybersecurity identity insights takes prohibitive amounts of time and input for most teams—and even ample resources are not enough to unearth the insights teams need most.

How are cybersecurity identity insights evolving?

The nature of these insights and their application in cybersecurity are both evolving:

Identity expanding: No longer just usernames and passwords, the concept of identities now encompasses everything from access privileges to session cookies. Bad actors are finding more ways to exploit identities, and with each advancement, security teams need enough insight to keep up.
Pace accelerating: The amount of time between when identities get stolen and when they get exposed or exploited continues getting smaller, meaning that cybersecurity identity insights are often incomplete and quickly become irrelevant. If collecting insights used to be adequate on an occasional or sporadic basis, security teams now need continual monitoring and real-time data.
Protection integrating – In order to turn cybersecurity identity insights into meaningful security upgrades, teams are starting to integrate these insights into their broader identity and access management (IAM) and cybersecurity strategies, both by adopting tools and by revising policies and protocols.

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How Does Flare Supply Cybersecurity Identity Insights

What kinds of cybersecurity identity insights can Flare provide?

Flare maintains a massive and always-growing repository of exposed credentials that users can search to identify which of their own credentials and identity assets have been exposed. Automation continuously searches the clear, deep, and dark web for credentials that have been exposed in data breaches, stolen through infostealer logs, accidentally posted to code repositories, or otherwise put at risk, including details that security teams need to know such as:

Names
User IDs
Emails addresses
Passwords
Active session cookies
Security questions

Flare not only reveals when these details have been exposed, but also sheds light on who has accessed them and what their agenda might be, going beyond cybersecurity identity insights to provide proactive threat intelligence in the vital moments before an attack—when prevention is still possible.

How does Flare make cybersecurity identity insights actionable?

Cybersecurity identity insights are only valuable when they help security teams become more efficient and effective, and Flare does exactly that. By automating the discovery process, Flare saves teams countless numbers of hours they can redirect towards analyzing and acting upon insights. For each exposed credential that gets discovered, Flare provides helpful context so teams can assess criticality and prioritize efforts. Wherever possible, Flare includes remediation instructions to get exposed credentials removed or even automates the process. Flare maintains the largest database of exposed credentials available anywhere, just as importantly, the platform takes every opportunity to translate that threat intelligence into real-world risk reduction.

How are teams using Flare’s cybersecurity identity insights to promote resilience?

The possible applications for cybersecurity identity insights are only limited by the creativity of security teams. Here are a few ways teams are already using these insights to boost every facet of cybersecurity:

Prevent Leaks – Teams can improve at preventing credentials from getting exposed once they know where and how they’re currently getting exposed.
Enrich Alert- Detection, response, and analysis times go down once identity insights are integrated with SIEM and SOAR alerts.
Automate Response – More of cybersecurity can run in an independent or expedited fashion with identity insights filling intelligence gaps.
Enhance Zero-Trust – Achieving and maintaining a zero-trust strategy is more realistic once security teams can find and remediate risky accounts and compromised logins.
Complete Threat Detection – Monitoring the entire external attack surface to see and stop attack early becomes feasible with the addition of identity insights.