Protecting Against Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) with CrowdStrike Falcon

Cybersecurity threats continue to grow in the age of APTs (advanced persistent threats) e.g., you assume your own state spy service can attack critical infrastructure. Enterprises require strong solutions for safeguarding their digital assets as the complexity of these threats grows.

Chapter 2: CrowdStrike Falcon — An APT Solution

To add the first layer of resistance to this kind of attacks, my first thought goes to a complete solution like CrowdStrike Falcon. This blog post will show how CrowdStrike Falcon protects businesses from these threats, and it will explain the necessity to rent firewalls, servers and routers.

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

ATPs (advance persistent threats): ATPs refers to cyber-attacks in which unauthorized users gain access to a network and remain undetected for a long period. Typical of this type of attacker, they will often hide in your network for long periods allowing them to spy and pilfer data. Unlike pervasive cybersecurity threats, APTs are orchestrated by highly skilled threat actors that typically have considerable resources to invest and also enjoy the financial backing of nation states.

APT Is not the same as an instantly profitable project This time attackers will focus on intelligence gathering and it might take longer campaigns, concentrating on particular industries like finance, government or healthcare. APTs can bypass traditional cybersecurity controls due to their sophistication, so organizations must rely on advanced solutions like CrowdStrike Falcon.

CrowdStrike Falcon’s APT Detection & Response

Advanced Malware with CrowdStrike Falcon for APTDetection, Prevention & Response Using Next-Generation Technology

Here is how the architecture of the platform functions:

Cloud-Native Architecture

The CrowdStrike Falcon protects customers through a highly scalable, cloud-native architecture that enables enhanced real-time threat analysis. Its lightweight agent gives you a quick deployment across your devices, so it has leverage in environments that require large-scale deployments. And always up-to-date Threat Intelligence that updates dozens of times per day helps keep us ahead of the curve on newly emerging APTs.

Machine Learning & AI

Falcon uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to recognize unusual activities that may indicate the presence of an APT. Falcon doesn’t rely on traditional, signature-based detection systems and instead evaluates large volumes of information in order to detect threats well before they surface.

Behavioral Analytics

CrowdStrike Falcon uses behavioral analytics to track how applications and users typically behave, and this generates alerts when observed behaviors deviate from normal operation. This makes it possible to detect stealthy APTs that have slipped under the radar of normal security controls. Falcon correlates the network telemetry with a behavioral engine to create an exact baseline of behavior on an enterprise’s network and lets security teams know as soon as anomalies are detected permitting a faster prevention before data exfiltration occurs.

Threat Intelligence and Automation

CrowdStrike Falcon detects known APT Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) using advanced threat intelligence. Some immediate actions are taken to ensure the risk is contained before it can be fully exploited. The unification in intelligence provides security teams with threat intelligence that they can use such as who is the infected user, what data has been stolen, and how they can respond effectively to APTs.

Falcon in Action – The APT Perspective

There are many real-world examples demonstrating the effectiveness of CrowdStrike Falcon. Following are some illustrations:

Case Study 1: Financial Services Industry

Sophisticated Nation-State-Backed APT Hits Multinational Financial Services Company With CrowdStrike Falcon, the company quickly detected and isolated threats. With the help of the AI that Falcon have to offer and their use of machine learning technology, they were able to benefit from enhanced levels of threat identification which ultimately led to data theft being massively limited.

Case Study 2: Healthcare Segment

For example, one of the largest healthcare providers faced a targeted attack that ultimately sought to exploit patient data. The threat intelligence functions of CrowdStrike Falcon detected his operations very early on. The behavioral analytics layer picked up on a deviation in user access that reflected abnormal behaviour, therefore the organisation was able to stop any data being breached.

Case Study 3: Government Infrastructure

A national government organization targeted by a sophisticated cyber attack from a nation-state to compromise state security. Through its usage of CrowdStrike Falcon, the agency was able to attribute that the attack had been orchestrated by criminals and recovered intelligence on where and how the attackers were setting themselves up for attacks. This approach to proactive threat management helped the agency strengthen its future defense against APTs.

APT Protection Best Practices

Advanced threats are where tools like CrowdStrike Falcon come in handy, but you should also look to adopt certain best practices that will help your enterprise become more secure:

• Security Audit-Regular audits of network security paying due diligence to the identification of possible vulnerabilities. This guarantees that all systems, including rented firewalls, servers, and routers are well-configured and secured.
• Security Awareness Training: Teach personnel to identify phishing attacks and other common threat actor methods. An Alert Established — First Line of Defense Against APTs
• Network Segmentation: Split your network into more pieces to reduce the impact of an intrusion, and to slowdown attackers from moving laterally throughout a system. It decreases the possibility of having a singular point of failure.
• Backups and Recovery Plans — Backup critical data regularly, and have a solid recovery plan. This provides the strategy to keep business running in case of successful attack.
• Advanced Threat Detection Solutions: Look to solutions that have advanced threat detection mechanisms. By renting out expensive hardware such as firewalls and routers in each call centre you can massively improve security at low capital costs. It keeps their defense relatively solid and enable quick response times to any new potential threats.

Conclusion

In Summary: Given that cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and APTs continue to pose a material risk, companies need fresh approaches to safeguard their digital estates. The AI-fueled threat detection, propagated by behaviors analytics and real-time intelligence of CrowdStrike Falcon combined in an extensive feature set can make quite a deal of defense against APTs or Nation-state attacks. Businesses can also bolster their security posture by pairing these tools with best practices, and the tactical leasing of advanced security infrastructure to aid in safeguarding essential data and resources.

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