Beyond Anomalies: How Autonomous Threat Hunting Uncovers the Full Attack Story

APIs are essential in today's digital landscape, supporting everything from mobile apps to vital backend systems. As their importance grows, they also become attractive targets for advanced attackers who bypass traditional security methods. These adversaries do not simply exploit API flaws; instead, they mimic normal user behavior to launch subtle,

slow-and-low attacks that are difficult for conventional tools to detect.

Modern API security relies on moving beyond basic anomaly detection to truly understanding the intent behind API traffic. This is crucial for organizations that rely on APIs. Salt Security has enhanced this foundation with a more powerful approach, Autonomous Threat Hunting.

The Detection Gap: Why Understanding Intent Matters

API security can be viewed as a hierarchy of detection capabilities:

• Level 1: Known Threats. Tools like Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) are essential for blocking known attacks through signature matching. However, they cannot detect attacks that exploit the unique business logic of your custom APIs.
• Level 2: Basic Anomaly Detection. This involves flagging unusual activities. While better than signatures, this approach generates massive alert fatigue. Research indicates that fewer than 1% of anomalies are truly malicious.
• Level 3: Malicious Intent. The highest level focuses on understanding if the behavior is truly malicious. Salt Security’s core strength lies in this area. Our patented AI Intent Engine uses deep contextual analysis to model the normal behavior of your organization’s specific APIs.

Introducing Autonomous Threat Hunting: A Game Changer

Salt Security is once again raising the bar. We are proud to introduce Autonomous Threat Hunting, a groundbreaking new capability that strengthens our patented AI Intent Engine.

Think of our core Intent Engine as the brain that understands normal behavior. Autonomous Threat Hunting is its new investigative power, automating the very tradecraft of an expert SOC analyst to uncover the entire attack story. It connects the dots between seemingly unrelated activities over time, turning thousands of low-level anomalies into a clear picture of a sophisticated attack campaign.

From a Single Anomaly to a Full Attack Story

Let's consider a real-world BOLA scenario. An attacker makes a valid API call to see their own account. Then, they subtly change a single identifier in the next API call to probe for another user's information. A third request probes a different ID.

Each request on its own seems harmless, and a basic anomaly engine can't be sure if it's malicious. Salt Security’s Autonomous Threat Hunting, however, connects these events over time. It sees the enumeration pattern, correlates it with other subtle indicators, and recognizes the attacker's true intent: a coordinated attempt to exfiltrate sensitive data. It understands the full story and provides a single, high-fidelity alert.

The Unmatched Benefits of This Powerful Combination

Uncover Hidden Threats: By using deep contextual analysis, Salt can detect the most sophisticated, multi-step attack campaigns that evade all other security measures.

Eliminate Alert Fatigue: Instead of overwhelming your team with thousands of low-value anomaly alerts, we consolidate a full attack into a single alert with a new ‘Critical’ rating, allowing your team to focus only on verified threats.

Safeguard Business Logic: Protect your organization from attacks that exploit loopholes or manipulate legitimate API functionality for unauthorized financial gain or data theft.

Protect Against Zero-Day Attacks: Because the platform learns and adapts from your data, it can identify and stop brand-new threats without documented signatures.

Take the Next Step

In today's landscape, traditional security measures are insufficient. Salt Security’s industry-leading behavioral analysis and intent detection set the standard.

To see the power of Autonomous Threat Hunting firsthand, we invite you to schedule a personalized demo with our security experts. And to get a clear, evidence-based view of your current external risks, you can also request a complimentary API Attack Surface Assessment.

The post Beyond Anomalies: How Autonomous Threat Hunting Uncovers the Full Attack Story appeared first on Security Boulevard.