Overcoming Traditional Threat Hunting Challenges: Insights from Robert O’Leary

Summary:
In an interview during the Fraud, Security, and Risk Management Summit, Robert O’Leary, senior solutions architect at Binalyze, discussed the transformation in threat hunting from a reactive to a proactive approach. Traditional methods, which overwhelm analysts with numerous alerts and telemetry data, can delay responses. O’Leary highlighted the efficiency of automated threat hunting, which collects relevant data and creates artifacts from the operating system for quicker remediation and threat prevention. He provided an example of using YARA rules to detect malware across an environment, allowing for swift isolation and remediation. O’Leary also touched on the benefits of AI in writing YARA scripts and the impact of digital forensics on law enforcement and cybersecurity. O’Leary’s background includes a career in law enforcement and digital forensics, starting with the New Jersey State Police.