Threat management is a cybersecurity process used by organizations to detect, prevent, and respond to cyberattacks and cyber threats targeting their IT systems, network, and data.
Organizations today face a never-ending barrage of sophisticated and insidious cyber threats. Threat management is an active and intentional practice of working to deal with those threats. It encompasses the policies, procedures, and processes that enable organizations to identify, assess, and protect themselves against everything from viruses, data breaches, and phishing schemes to SQL code injection attacks, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, identity threats, and botnet assaults.
Threat management is a key part of threat detection and response (TDR) because it helps organizations identify any gaps in their attack surface. This allows them to predict where bad actors are most likely to strike, detect active and potential threats to their cybersecurity, and respond to attacks on their IT infrastructure as quickly, efficiently, and decisively as possible.
Key components of a threat management strategy
A comprehensive threat management strategy includes several key components to provide the greatest possible protection. These include:
- Multiple coordinated defense mechanisms to enhance an organization’s overall security posture
- Continuous monitoring and assessment to identify vulnerabilities
- Proactive threat detection to discover cyberattacks before they can cause undue harm
- Detailed incident response plans to stop, mitigate, and recover from cyberattacks quickly and economically
Threat management vs. risk management
While threat management and risk management are both important tools for cybersecurity, there is a key difference between them.
Risk management is primarily proactive in nature because it’s focused on helping organizations anticipate and prevent potential or hypothetical risks by eliminating any flaws, weaknesses, or vulnerabilities in their systems before an attack occurs, rather than dealing with specific threats or attacks after they happen.
Threat management, on the other hand, takes a more reactive approach to cybersecurity by helping an organization catch and defend against actual threats or attacks as early as possible after they occur, and then respond to those incidents as quickly and effectively as possible.
How does threat management work?
Threat management strategies draw on the latest industry-leading threat intelligence to stay ahead of emerging threats, gain a better understanding of the mindset, motivations, and methods of cybercriminals, and reduce the risk of damage from an attack. Using that intelligence, threat management procedures follow a continuously repeating three-step process of identification, assessment, and response:
Step One: Identification
The cybersecurity team carries out a thorough inventory and analysis of an organization’s IT network, systems, and processes to identify any flaws or vulnerabilities.
Step Two: Assessment
Any identified vulnerabilities are assessed and a variety of cybersecurity tools, practices, and technologies are deployed to fill in gaps, implement new access controls, and enhance the organization’s ability to detect, identify, and respond to cyberattacks.
Step Three: Response
Lastly, response and recovery plans for virtually any kind of threat are put in place to allow organizations to respond to attacks more efficiently and learn from past incidents. This positions them to better defend themselves against similar attacks in the future.
To speed up response times and minimize potential damage, threat management strategies generally include continuous real-time monitoring and 24/7 rapid response plans that can help organizations deal quickly and efficiently with any incidents.
Threat management strategies can also be integrated seamlessly into existing security tools, policies, and operations to create a more coordinated and cohesive approach, enhance an organization’s security posture, and minimize risk.
Examples of threat management tools and technology
Threat management strategies combine a variety of different methods of defense into a single coordinated security solution. This includes tools and technologies like:
- Security information and event management (SIEM) systems
- Intrusion detection and prevention (IPS)
- Endpoint detection and response (EDR)
- Extended detection and response (XDR)
- Network detection and response (NDR)
- Identity threat detection and response (ITDR)
- Managed detection and response (MDR)
- Real-time threat monitoring and analysis
- Anti-spyware and anti-malware software
- On-site firewalls or firewall as a service (FWaaS) subscriptions
- Vulnerability scanning tools
As with so many other areas of cybersecurity, AI and machine learning (ML) have greatly improved the effectiveness of threat management in recent years. In addition to analyzing vast amounts of raw data, AI tools can learn an organization’s normal patterns of activity and detect abnormalities faster and with a higher degree of accuracy. This allows organizations to identify ever-more complex attacks and significantly improve their threat detection and response capabilities.
In addition, as organizations increasingly come to rely on cloud-based IT services and infrastructure, threat management strategies have also evolved to include cloud-based security systems like firewall as a service (FWaaS), securing data and managing threats in both on-site and cloud environments.
Best practices for effective threat management
The most effective threat management strategies tend to follow a few key best practices. These include establishing a detailed and proactive threat management framework, regular vulnerability assessments, threat modeling, continuous real-time threat hunting, and developing an array of robust incident response plans.
It’s also essential to make sure cybersecurity teams receive continuous training and regular updates to help them stay on top of emerging threats and handle a wide range of different attacks.
Lastly, automated cybersecurity systems can play a pivotal role in threat management by enabling organizations to detect, analyze, and respond to cyber threats and attacks with greater speed and efficiency.
Where can I get help with threat management?
Trend Micro™ Threat Intelligence delivers deep insights into emerging threats, vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise (IoCs), backed by more than 35 years of global threat research. With more than 250 million sensors, research from more than 450 global experts, and the industry’s largest bug bounty program—the Trend Zero Day Initiative™ (ZDI)—it provides unparalleled intelligence for proactive security.
Coupled with Trend Vision One™ Security Operations (SecOps), your organization will be able to detect, investigate, and respond proactively with the power of XDR, SIEM, and SOAR. Correlate events across endpoint, server, email, identity, mobile, data, cloud workload, OT, network, and global threat intelligence feeds—surfacing the highest priority, actionable alerts, and automating complex response actions.