What is ITDR - Identity Threat Detection and Response

What is ITDR?

Organizations face increasing challenges in safeguarding their valuable assets against identity-centric cyber threats in the rapidly evolving distributed digital landscape. The frequency and sophistication of data breaches that exploit credible identities have rendered traditional prevention, detection, and response measures insufficient. This is where Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) comes into play.

ITDR, or Identity Threat Detection and Response, is a vital security practice designed to detect, mitigate, and respond to various identity-related risks. These risks include compromised user accounts, unauthorized access, data breaches, misuse of credentials, and fraudulent activities. Safeguarding against these threats is crucial for organizations to protect their sensitive information and maintain a secure environment.

In this blog post, we will explore the significance of ITDR in safeguarding against breaches and how it can bridge the gap between the Security Operations Center (SOC) and Identity and Access Management (IAM) controls and teams.

Understanding the Need for ITDR Vendors

The cybersecurity landscape is evolving rapidly, with attackers becoming more sophisticated and identity-focused in their methods. Recent identity-centric cyberattacks on Okta, Uber, Cisco, and many more, have highlighted the vulnerability of identity infrastructure and the exploitation of identity systems. While prevention measures such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and different IAM systems are essential, they are empirically not foolproof. This underscores the need for a comprehensive contextual approach that includes detection and response.

The Rise of Identity-Centric Threats

Hackers don’t hack in; they log in.

Statistics indicate that approximately 80% of attacks involve the misuse of credentials, underscoring the critical role of identity systems in breaches. Attackers exploit weak identity and access management points to gain unauthorized access, execute the lateral movement, escalate privileges, and exfiltrate or encrypt data. Organizations must recognize that either the reactive SOC approach or prevention alone is insufficient and shift toward identity-centric detection and response.

Threat actors also leverage AI and other modern tools to enhance their identity-centric campaigns and exploit unsuspecting targets. Talos Intelligence provides valuable insights into how AI-powered techniques, such as natural language processing and generative models, enable attackers to craft sophisticated and personalized phishing emails. These techniques allow them to bypass traditional email filters and increase the chances of success in deceiving users. Current detection controls are vulnerable to AI-Powered threat actors to evade detection by blending in with normal user behaviour patterns, manipulating the traditional security measures to identify malicious activity.