Best Practices for Triaging and Validating Threats

Effective threat triage and validation are critical components of a sound corporate security strategy. As organizations face an ever-increasing volume of security alerts and potential threats, the ability to quickly assess, prioritize, and validate these risks becomes paramount. Implementing best practices for triaging and validating threats not only helps security teams focus their efforts on the most critical issues but also ensures that resources are allocated efficiently to mitigate genuine risks. 

Below are five well-accepted strategies for triaging and validating threats.

 5 Proven Strategies for Triaging and Validating Threats

1. Establish a Clear Workflow: Develop a structured process for evaluating and escalating potential threats detected through all sources listened to, including social media.
   
   
2. Cross-Reference Multiple Sources: Validate threats by checking against other intelligence sources and databases.
   
   
3. Assess Credibility: Evaluate the source of the threat, considering factors such as account history and network connections.
   
   
4. Determine Intent and Capability: Analyze whether the threat maker has the means and motivation to carry out the threat.
   
   
5. Employ Advanced Analytics: Utilize natural language processing to analyze social media data more effectively.
   
   
   

The Cost of Neglecting Your Threat Validation Processes

Failing to effectively triage and validate threats can have severe financial, operational, and legal consequences for an organization. From a financial perspective, inadequate threat assessment can lead to costly overreactions to false alarms or, conversely, underestimating genuine threats that result in significant damages.

Operationally, ineffective threat validation can cause unnecessary disruptions when minor issues are escalated, diverting resources from critical tasks. Alternatively, overlooking serious threats can lead to major operational breakdowns, such as prolonged system outages or production halts.

Legally, organizations may face significant liabilities if they fail to adequately address known threats. This could result in regulatory fines, lawsuits from affected parties, and potential criminal charges in cases of gross negligence. Take, for example, the Walmart occurrence in 2022, in Chesapeake, Virginia. In this tragic incident, a Walmart supervisor shot and killed six colleagues before taking his own life. Subsequent lawsuits filed by victims' families allege that Walmart should have been aware of the shooter's potential danger to other workers. The lawsuits claim that:

• The shooter had a documented history of strange and aggressive behavior at work.
• He allegedly stated that if he was ever fired, people would remember his name.
• He repeatedly asked colleagues if they had received active shooter training.
• He allegedly kept a "kill list" of potential victims/targets.

Moreover, in industries with strict compliance requirements, such as healthcare, finance, and or any private business in California due to SB-553, inadequate threat management can lead to violations of data protection regulations, resulting in hefty penalties.

Ultimately, the inability to properly triage and validate threats can compromise an organization's overall structure, potentially leading to reputational damage and loss of consumer trust, which can have long-lasting impacts on the business.