Detecting Suspicious and Malicious Activity on Your Network

In this post, we will explain how you can detect suspicious and malicious activities on your network.

We’ll not only address what threatens your network security, but also what tools you can use to detect these threats before they harm your system, data, or other valuable assets.

So if you want to learn how to protect your network and detect suspicious activities that endanger its security, you’ll enjoy this article. 

Let’s begin!

What Constitutes Malicious Activity on Your Network?

Malicious network activity can include different behaviors that involve unusual access patterns, file and database changes, or any other suspicious activity that could indicate a data breach or an attack.

Detecting malicious activity on time helps you identify the source of the breach and its nature so you could fix it as soon as possible.

How Does Malicious Traffic Threaten Your Network?

When a malicious HTTP request enters your command and control servers, your network devices can become part of the attacker’s botnets.

Cybercriminals who manage to compromise your network security are able to see how many computers your organization has. They can also issue commands and launch more malicious actions to perform ransomware attacks or data theft.

How Can You Detect Suspicious Network Activity?

Malicious traffic detection tools provide constant monitoring of network traffic for signs of suspicious files, links, or actions. 

In order to identify malicious internet activity, the tools check whether the suspicious item is coming from a bad URL or C2 channels.

The tools verify suspicious links against security data collected from millions of devices worldwide and that is how they offer protection against known and unknown threats.

Network Security Tools

There are a variety of tools designed to detect malicious network activity. 

You can use these systems to enforce a variety of security measures to protect your networks from potential threats.

In this part of the article, we’ll explain some of them, and what they can do for your network security.

IDS (Intrusion Detection System)

The Intrusion Detection System is the pioneer in the category of security network management. 

An IDS keeps track of the system’s vulnerabilities and analyzes network activities to spot patterns and signs of known threats.

IDS alerts the IT staff about malicious network traffic, it does not take action to prevent it.

There are two main categories of IDS:

• NIDS (Network Intrusion Detection System) handles a whole subnet at the network level.
• HIDS (Host Intrusion Detection System) takes care of a single host system.

IPS (Intrusion Prevention System)

IPS is considered an expanded version of the IDS.

Their functions and capabilities are similar, but there is one important difference – IPS can take action to prevent cyber attacks by blocking suspicious network activity.

IPS can also be referred to as IDPS which stands for Intrusion Detection Prevention System.

DLP (Data Loss Prevention)

Since sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, secret corporate information, or intellectual property information is the most common target of cyberattacks.

DLP specifically handles data protection. It makes sure that confidential information does not get compromised.

DLP is able to enforce data handling policies and to automatically detect information such as credit card numbers based on their format and alert the teams to prevent unauthorized disclosures.

SIEM (Security Incident and Event Management)

SIEM tools help organizations manage all the data and signals, and correlate potential threat information in a single centralized view of the network infrastructure.

Although SIEMs can offer different features, most of them control network activity to spot security incidents in real-time. These systems also notify IT departments so they can take proper action on time.

NBAD (Network Behavior Anomaly Detection)

Simply monitoring and looking for an activity that falls out of the ordinary is another way to spot suspicious network traffic.

NBAD systems first establish what regular and normal behavior on a given network looks like. Then they monitor all traffic and activity in real-time to identify any malicious internet activity.

Since anomaly detection monitors unusual activity instead of waiting for signs of specific threats, it can help identify zero-day attacks which are normally not easy to spot.

Take Action for Effective Cybersecurity

Each of the malicious traffic detection tools comes with its advantages and disadvantages. 

The effectiveness of network security management depends on how well the tools were implemented, and how ready your team is to take action in case of a security breach.

Proper network security requires experienced cybersecurity professionals that can help you manage the output of security tools and take immediate action to prevent dangerous attacks.

If you’re concerned about your network security, reach out to our cybersecurity experts at Demakis Technologies and get professional help.