Valeria is under attack! Its cybersecurity defenses are compromised as coordinated cyberattacks threaten the country’s infrastructure. Security teams scramble to contain the damage before the government collapses.
Thankfully, Valeria is not a real country. And the above situation is only fictional. But the Valeria scenario represents an example of common blue team / red team cybersecurity exercises that prepare security teams against cyberattacks. In these simulations, the blue team acts as the defense. They detect, investigate, and respond to threats. The red team is the attacking force that mimics real-life cyberattacks. The purpose of the defense/attack simulation is to detect any vulnerabilities that cyber attackers may exploit. Because of its role as the defensive mechanism, a strong and effective blue team is of utmost importance.
Kristian Jacobsen, CPO at Seculyze, said it best: “we might stop 99% of cyberattacks, but if we mess up on that 1%, allowing one cyberattack to slip through, the consequences can be dire”.
Blue teams must set up a bulletproof defense. Because of their vital role, in this blog post we go over some of the ways you can strengthen your team for the strongest defense.
What are blue teams?
The blue teams may be comprised of internal security personnel or they may be external consultants. The general goal of the team is to assess where to make improvements in an organization’s security posture to stop complex cyberattacks. The vulnerability investigation may be conducted through various means such as:
- Detection engineering
- Microsoft Sentinel configuration
- Threat hunting
- Incident response
In other words, through its defensive tasks, the blue team decides the most effective way to maintain strong security. They figure out how to improve security readiness and expose cyberattack weaknesses.
The top benefits
Here are some reasons why you should pay special attention to strengthening your blue team.
- Great security posture
By investigating security weaknesses you can strengthen your security posture. You identify what preventive measures and tools are most effective in combating attacks, allowing for a proactive response to security threats.
- Get the most value from your cybersecurity infrastructure
By determining where and how attacks exploit infrastructure, you gain the information needed to effectively configure security tools like SIEMs to protect vital infrastructure. With optimized defensive tools, security teams get more value out of the tools that help them maintain a strong security posture.
- Improved response times
With its vulnerability investigation, you document what response procedures should be introduced to make the incident response more efficient. Security investigation can determine what skills the workforce needs the most. More training helps team members respond faster.
- Fewer breach attempts
Security teams need to be proactive and eliminate cyber threats as early as possible. Blue teams identify how to minimize the attack surface. Fewer attack vectors mean that the response can be more precise and attacks are less likely to breach the defenses.
- Highest workforce performance
By identifying how to optimize security infrastructure, you ensure that cybersecurity teams have the strongest response possible. For example, you can determine how best to use security tools, like Microsoft Sentinel, to help analysts reduce false points so that they can focus on the more serious threats. With fewer false positives, the security teams gain the space to maneuver in a fast-changing threat landscape.
What skills are needed?
To get the most benefits from your team, the following skillsets are needed:
Defensive teams participating in the simulation must have excellent analytical skills. They need to be able to rapidly and effectively analyze large amounts of data, including log analysis, to correctly identify and prioritize the most serious threats.
They also need to have a deep understanding of the supportive tools that help them with threat detection and response. This includes expertise in SIEM configuration and operation.
Last but not least, they need to have a crystal-clear understanding of the incident response plan. They need to be able to identify what worked well and what didn’t. They should understand the root cause of the breach to adapt the plan for the next attack. The ability to learn and adapt is a high priority for blue teams.
How we strengthen your blue team
We strengthen your team with the following offerings:
- Detection engineering:
We ensure that the correct alert rules are enabled in your SIEM environment. By enabling alert rules that provide the highest gains with the lowest costs, you remove the false positives that cloud your security investigation. Your team can then work productively towards identifying the most advanced adversaries.
- Microsoft Sentinel configuration:
We help your team get more value from Microsoft Sentinel. This is done by connecting the most relevant data sources such as log sources and OSINT. Relevant data sources mean that your blue team can better analyze their alerts and determine which alerts they should focus on, stopping cyberattacks in their tracks.
- Threat hunting:
For effective threat hunting, blue teams need to leverage threat intelligence in the most productive way possible. Enriching your alerts with threat intelligence means that you can better understand the threat landscape with added data context. Seculyze automated tools can help in this process, automatically adding data context to alerts.
Another important component of threat hunting is intelligence from team members. The blue team should collaborate closely with the red team as the red teams provide insights on attack techniques. Their valuable intelligence enhances blue team threat-hunting capabilities. We can help you set up a plan to foster deeper collaboration and learning between the blue team and the red team.
- Incident response:
We help you establish clear incident response procedures. We continuously update and review your incident response plan to keep up with the fast-changing threat landscape. Regular blue team / red team exercises are a great way to learn what components of your incident response need to be updated. We help you conduct these exercises effectively and extract the most beneficial learnings from them.
Conclusion
Your team saved the day! The cyberattacks were deflected. Valeria is safe. It couldn’t have been done without the blue team.
An effective blue team is more important than ever as cyberattacks evolve in complexity. It’s imperative to take the right steps to strengthen your blue team to its full potential. Strong blue teams can actively identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities and identify how to patch the vulnerabilities for a bulletproof defense.
Seculyze specializes in blue team investigation
Seculyze offers software that integrates into Microsoft Sentinel, automating the tedious tasks involved in blue team analysis such as detection engineering, Microsoft Sentinel configuration, threat hunting, and incident response. This includes identifying the right alert rules, keeping Microsoft Sentinel configured and up-to-date, and prioritizing alerts. The automated tool is a great way to support your blue team to work more efficiently and get more value from the red team / blue team exercises.
Want to know more? Try a free demo of the software.
Our talented consultants are also always ready with personalized recommendations to strengthen your blue team. Reach out if you need any help at all.
Implement a strong defense with an effective blue team today.
