Baselining is the process of creating a reference point or standard for the normal operations and performance of an organization’s network, systems and security protocols.

This reference point, known as a baseline, serves as a benchmark against which all future activities and systems behaviors will be compared to.

This goal of baselining is to identify what constitutes as “normal” or expected behavior in a given environment, making it easier to detect anomalies, vulnerabilities, or malicious activities that differ from this baseline.

The Importance of Baselining in Cybersecurity

Baselining is crucial as it helps organizations to better understand the typical patterns of their networks, user behavior, and system operations. Once these norms have been established, any unusual deviations can be flagged as potential security incidents, such as a cyberattack or unauthorized access.

For example, if a system that typically logs in users from specific geographic locations suddenly sees a surge of login attempts from an unfamiliar location, baselining enables the security teams to notice the abnormality quicky and investigate it.

Baselining also plays a significant role in performance monitoring, vulnerability management, and incident response. It allows security teams to detect problems before they evolve into larger issues. A baseline provides a clear and measurable starting point, enhancing the ability to quickly pinpoint system disruptions, errors, or potential weaknesses in an environment.

Types of Baselines

There are several areas where baselining is applied, each serving a different purpose in maintaining the integrity and security of systems. Key types of baseline include:

  1. Network Baseline: A network baseline refers to the normal configuration, traffic patterns, and behavior of network devices like routers, firewalls, and switches. By monitoring network baselines, security teams can detect unauthorized traffic flows, DDoS attacks, or intrusions into the network. Baseline network traffic might include common protocols, IP addresses, and typical bandwidth usage. Any deviation from this could signify a breach.
  2. System Baseline: This type of baseline focuses on the operating systems and hardware configurations within an organization. A system baseline includes the standard operating system settings, software applications, patch levels, and file system configurations. It helps cybersecurity professionals to identify unauthorized changes in configurations, missing patches, or installations of malicious software that could pose a security risk.
  3. User Behavior Baseline: User behavior baselining tracks and defines normal activities for individual users or groups within the organization. This will include typical login times, locations, and access patterns to critical systems or data. By understanding how users usually interact with the system, organizations can detect suspicious activities such as abnormal login times, attempts to access sensitive files, or use of credentials in unusual ways.
  4. Endpoint Baseline: This involves defining the configuration and behavior of endpoint devices such as desktops, laptops, mobile phones, or IoT devices. These baselines include settings like device software versions, firewall settings, antivirus status, and the presence of security updates.

How Baselining Works

The process of baselining typically involves several stages:

  1. Data Collection: The first step is to gather data from various sources such as system logs, network traffic, and user behavior. This data should cover a sufficient period to capture typical behaviors and patterns.
  2. Analysis and Definition: After data collection, cybersecurity teams must analyze the information to identify patterns, regular activities, and legitimate system behaviors. From this analysis, they can define what constitutes as normal operations for each system component.
  3. Establishing the Baseline: Once the analysis is complete, a formal baseline is created and documented. The baseline includes specifications for expected performance, security settings, and activity patterns.
  4. Continuous Monitoring: After a baseline is established, it’s important to continuously monitor system activity to detect deviations. Monitoring tools can help automatically flag unusual behavior that might indicate a security threat.
  5. Update and Adaptation: Baselining is not a one-time activity. As systems evolve, new applications are added, or infrastructure changes, the baseline must be updated to reflect these changes. Regular reviews and adjustments help maintain its accuracy over time.

The Role of Baselining in Threat Detection

Baselining plays a vital role in modern cybersecurity defense strategies, particularly in threat detection. By creating a clear understanding of what “normal” looks like, it becomes significantly easier to identify outliers – potential signs of a cyberattack, system failure, or breach.

Automated anomaly detection systems use baselining to generate alerts when they detect deviations from the predefined normal behavior, which could be the first indicator of a security incident.

Conclusion

Baselining is essential for organizations to protect against threats. It enables proactive threat detection, system performance monitoring and faster incident response.

While baselines are not static and must be regularly updated as technology and user behavior change, they serve as a fundamental tool for maintaining the security and integrity of an organization’s network and systems.

About BlackFog

BlackFog is the leader in on-device data privacy, data security and ransomware prevention. Our behavioral analysis and anti data exfiltration (ADX) technology stops hackers before they even get started. Our cyberthreat prevention software prevents ransomware, spyware, malware, phishing, unauthorized data collection and profiling and mitigates the risks associated with data breaches and insider threats. BlackFog blocks threats across mobile and desktop endpoints, protecting organizations data and privacy, and strengthening regulatory compliance.