What is Detection engineering?
Detection engineering is the process of designing and implementing systems, tools, and processes to help:
- Uncover security risks and threats in computer networks, software systems, and other digital environments; and
- Contain and resolve incidents before they can cause significant damage to an organization and its business.
Detection engineering should not be confused with threat hunting. While both are essential and complementary components of any comprehensive and proactive cybersecurity strategy, they are also distinct and different practices.
Detection engineering focuses on identifying anomalies, unusual behavior, or indicators of compromise that could indicate an ongoing security breach or a potential attack by developing systems and tools to detect threats. It’s a systematic approach that is constantly reinforcing cyber defenses and creating new ways to detect old, new, and emerging threats with the goal of preventing data breaches, protecting sensitive information, and safeguarding the integrity of systems. Detection engineers use a combination of technical and non-technical skills, including expertise in data analysis, threat intelligence, and computer programming, to develop and deploy technologies — such as network detection and response (NDR) and security information and event management (SIEM) systems or other detection mechanisms — to collect data and identify indicators of compromise or other anomalies.
By contrast, threat hunting is a more hands-on approach that involves actively searching for potential threats and security risks by analyzing network traffic, logs, and other data sources and investigating suspicious activities within an organization’s systems and networks.
In Netenrich
The Netenrich Detection Engineering, Analytics, and Threat Hunting (DEATH) Labs team uses data, data analytics, machine learning, external intelligence, the Resolution Intelligence Cloud™, and their extensive experience to find and prevent threats. The team delivers intelligence-driven threat awareness and analytics that help improve an organization’s ability to detect, contain, and mitigate cyber threats.