Security alerts can cover a wide range of categories, each designed to detect specific types of threats or violations within a cloud environment or an IT infrastructure. Here are some common categories of security alerts:
- Intrusion attempts: Alerts in this category signal potential unauthorized access or intrusion attempts into a system, network, or application.
Example: Alerts triggered by repeated failed login attempts, unusual or suspicious network traffic patterns, or known attack patterns, such as SQL injection attempts.
- Policy violations: These alerts indicate violations of established security policies, configurations, or access controls.
Example: Alerts that are triggered when a user or application accesses restricted resources, circumvents authentication mechanisms, or violates data access policies.
- Malware and virus detection: Alerts related to the detection of malicious software or viruses within the environment.
Example: Alerts that are triggered when malware is identified during file uploads and downloads or when suspicious processes or behaviors indicative of malware activity are observed.
- Data exfiltration: Alerts in this category identify the unauthorized transfer or theft of sensitive data from the organization’s network or systems.
Example: Alerts that are triggered when large volumes of data are sent to external or unusual destinations, or when sensitive files are accessed and copied by unauthorized users.
- Anomalous behavior: These alerts detect deviations from normal patterns of user or system behavior.
Example: Alerts that are triggered when a user logs in from an unusual location, performs actions inconsistent with their typical behavior, or exhibits behavior indicative of insider threats.
- Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks: Alerts in this category identify attempts to overwhelm systems or networks, causing disruptions in service availability.
Examples: Alerts are triggered when a sudden increase in network traffic is detected. This is indicative of a potential DDoS attack.
- Security certificate issues: These alerts focus on problems with digital certificates, such as expired or invalid certificates, which can indicate potential security risks.
Example: Alerts are triggered when SSL/TLS certificate expiration dates are approaching or when certificates are found to be mismatched or signed by untrusted authorities.
- Privilege escalation attempts: Alerts related to attempts to gain unauthorized access to higher-level privileges within systems or applications.
Examples: Alerts are triggered when a user or application attempts to escalate their permissions or manipulate access control lists.
- Suspicious network traffic: Alerts in this category detect unusual or potentially malicious network traffic patterns.
Examples: Alerts are triggered by traffic associated with known malware command and control servers, or traffic patterns inconsistent with normal network behavior.
- Vulnerability exploitation attempts: Alerts identify attempts to exploit known vulnerabilities in software or systems.
Examples: Alerts are triggered when an attacker scans or probes for vulnerabilities or when specific exploit signatures are detected in network traffic.
These common categories of security alerts provide organizations with a broad spectrum of threat detection capabilities, enabling them to monitor, detect, and respond to a wide range of security risks and incidents within their cloud environments and IT infrastructure.