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From the Cybersecurity News Desk

Marriott Data Breach Impacting Over 344 Million Could Have Been Mitigated with Threat Hunting

A recent report shows that it takes organizations an average of 280 days to identify and contain a data breach, but organizations can’t afford to wait this long.

Back in 2018 Marriott suffered a significant data breach. Hackers had access to systems for over 4 years before detection.  339 million guest data records were exposed.  A second data breach happened in 2020, going undetected for over a month with another 5.2+ million guest records being exposed.

We here at GreyCastle Security have witnessed first-hand similar incidents that could have been avoided had a client implemented some form of threat hunting into their cybersecurity programs. The following were indicators of compromise from a real-world incident where data exfiltration occurred. This activity was observed to take place prior to data exfiltration and would have been noticed with regular threat hunting processes.

  • New use of a privileged account which had been dormant for months
  • Installation of unrecognized software on multiple systems
  • Use of unauthorized file transfer software on a file sever
  • Use of network scanning tools
  • The presence of various remote access tools, some of which were unused

What Is Threat Hunting?

Threat Hunting is a proactive method of containing advanced threats before they create harm.  Detection and protection are no longer enough to thwart all attacks as a sustainable strategy. Here is why threat hunting is an important additional approach:

  • 52% of organizations say threat hunting found previously undetected threats
  • 74% of those who threat hunt indicate they have reduced their attack surface significantly
  • 59% indicate enhanced speed and accuracy of response by using threat hunting

What’s our Approach?

At GreyCastle Security, our Threat Hunting team provides insight into attack methodologies used by adversaries, ensuring organizations stay ahead off evolving threats.

  • We scope the data sets that will be used in an investigation. Hunts can branch from various starting points
  • We proactively and iteratively search through network and endpoint data to detect and isolate advanced threats that evade more traditional security solutions

We seamlessly pivot from hunting to forensic analysis in order to disrupt adversaries before they execute their attacks

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    Through our comprehensive approach to cybersecurity, we’ll use solutions such as threat hunting to help ensure your organization is protected against evolving threats.

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