What Is Threat Prevention?

Threat prevention is a security measure designed to identify, mitigate, and block cyber threats before they can cause harm. It includes proactive strategies like malware detection, intrusion prevention, and behavioral analysis to stop attacks before they reach systems.

Stanislav Krajcir

02.12.2024

5 min read

Threat prevention also leverages firewalls, endpoint protection, and AI-driven threat intelligence to detect anomalies and prevent unauthorized access, ensuring data security and business continuity.

We analyzed the different forms of threat prevention and identified some of the most effective strategies that security-first companies are implementing today. 

The Importance of Threat Prevention

Threat prevention hinges on identifying and taking protective maneuvers ahead of an attack. This demands a degree of peripheral awareness. 

On the horizon this year are two primary factors that are increasing attack risk: 

• The implementation of AI
• Wider international unrest

AI is the new and alarming addition to an attackers’ toolkit: not only is it able to lend the tools of malware production to larger swathes of people, but there are even greater concerns around automated, large-scale attacks. 

This places more stress on the cybersecurity tools and processes most organizations rely on – especially if these widespread are able to make small tweaks that evade signature-based detection. Not all of the AI threat is conjecture, either: in 2024, deepfaked audio and video were used to conduct a phishing campaign – manipulating a financial analyst into sending their attackers $25 million. 

International unrest is also upping the complexity of attacks: nation-backed state threat actors have greater skills and resources than ever before, ballooning the risk of hyper-complex attacks that manipulate new zero-day techniques. 

Threat Prevention vs. Threat Detection

Detection is the first stage to any form of cybersecurity. It’s how the tools, tactics, and procedures of cybercriminals are identified and isolated from the noise of normal end-user and device behavior. 

Threat prevention has typically been the more human element: skilled professionals are required to monitor tools, analyze data correlations, engage in hunting advanced threats, and restore business operations effectively. 

There’s an overarching goal to threat prevention: give the personnel access to the right info at the right time. 

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Strategies and Techniques for Threat Prevention

The ability to protect the entirety of an organization’s assets from threats is no small task. It’s why organizations are implementing AI and ML capabilities into their threat prevention strategies. 

Here are the 5 primary techniques that form the basis of threat prevention. 

#1. Implement a Mature Patch Management Process

Application vulnerabilities are one of the easiest ways into an organization’s defenses; all it takes is a string of oversights for attackers to gain access to internal resources. Thankfully, patching is also one of the most accessible forms of threat prevention. Patches are typically released within days.

Because most organizations now rely on many apps, patch automation is increasingly essential: threat actors often analyze public vulnerability announcements, and develop exploits extremely quickly. 

These “N-day” exploits can be just as destructive as zero-day vulnerabilities. It is equally crucial to ensure that vendor updates are authentic; updates are typically signed and delivered via secure channels to maintain content integrity. 

Without swift and comprehensive patch application, threat actors can exploit vulnerabilities within the patch cycle.

#2. Assign Access Based on Privilege

Controlling privileged accounts and services is critical to threat prevention, as threat actors frequently target administrator credentials in an attempt to access high-value assets. 

To prevent this, privileges should be assigned based on the risk exposure and operational requirements of each user; otherwise known as Privileged Access Management. Tiered administrative access can be one of the most cost-effective forms of this: higher tiers of access offer increased access privileges, but are restricted to a smaller number of personnel. 

To ensure its integrity, secure backend credential management is vitally important. 

#3. Inventory and Prune Network Assets

Linking detection and prevention, the ability to know where all assets are – and which ones are critical to its operations – demands a thorough inventory of network devices and software. 

Equally necessary is removing any unnecessary, unwanted, or unexpected hardware and software. 

Once all network assets are identified, it’s likely that the security team will find more devices than they expected. This is the basis of shadow IT. It’s vital to take a fine-toothed comb to the assets on each network: all devices, applications, operating systems, and security configurations need to be accounted for, and if they’re no longer used or necessary, removed, or have their privileges restricted in line with their real-world requirements.

 Some organizations rely on asset discovery tools that automatically discover every connected device; others do it manually. 

#4. Utilize threat intelligence

Multi-source reputation and information-sharing services can be used for files, DNS addresses, URLs, IPs, and email addresses. These drastically enhance the detection and prevention of malicious behavior by providing access to a broader scope of threat analysis and intelligence than an organization can achieve independently. 

#5. Continuously Hunt and Defend Against Network Intrusions

Threat prevention relies on more than visibility: it’s an active, ongoing process that requires threat hunting operations and penetration testing on a regular basis. 

These tests don’t just assess the threat resilience of an organization’s tech stack, but they also test the incident response procedures that your organization has in place. Adopting this lets you move beyond basic threat prevention into a mature, iterative approach that grows with the company. 

Maximize Security with Check Point’s SASE

Protecting corporate networks requires advanced solutions. Check Point’s SASE delivers fast, reliable access to all your on-premises and cloud resources, while securing your network with zero trust access, advanced threat prevention, AI-powered protection, and more.

With Check Point’s SASE, protecting your critical assets as you move to the cloud is simple, backed by top-tier internet security performance. 

Book a free demo today to learn more.