Detecting Insider Threat with UEBA

Overview

User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) moves beyond static rule-based detection to model normal behavior for users, hosts, and applications, then flag statistically significant deviations that may indicate insider threats. Using Elasticsearch as the analytics backend, this skill covers building behavioral baselines from authentication logs, file access events, and network activity, computing risk scores using statistical deviation and peer group comparison, and correlating multiple low-confidence indicators into high-confidence insider threat alerts.

When to Use

• When investigating security incidents that require detecting insider threat with ueba
• When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain
• When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type
• When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques

Prerequisites

• Elasticsearch 8.x or OpenSearch 2.x cluster with security audit data
• Log sources: Active Directory authentication, VPN, DLP, file server access, email
• Python 3.9+ with elasticsearch client library