Aruba IntroSpect vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics comparison

Aruba IntroSpect is a User Behavior Analytics (UEBA) tool that uses supervised and unsupervised machine learning to automatically baseline user and device behavior while actively looking for anomalous activity that may indicate a threat. The solution detects compromised users’ systems by identifying changes in typical IT access and usage. By accelerating alert prioritization, incident investigation, and threat-hunting efforts, Aruba IntroSpect can automate the detection of attacks and risky behaviors. In addition, the solution allows security teams to stay ahead of malicious activity and also insecure or negligent users, so they can manage threats before they become damaging. Aruba IntroSpect is suitable for IT organizations of every size and enables businesses to easily and rapidly scale machine-learned behavior detection from small projects to full enterprise deployments.

Aruba IntroSpect can detect:

• Account abuse
• Account takeover
• Command and control
• Data exfiltration
• Lateral movement
• Password sharing
• Privilege escalation
• Flight risk
• Phishing
• Ransomware

Aruba IntroSpect Deployment Options

• On-premise VM or appliance for Packet Processor
• AWS or on-premise deployment for Analyzer

Aruba IntroSpect Data Sources

The IntroSpect platform can process data sources, including:

• VPN, FW, IPS/IDS, web proxy, email logs
• NTA sources: Packets and NetFlow
• DNS logs
• Active Directory logs
• DHCP logs
• External threat feeds
• Alerts from third-party security infrastructure

Aruba IntroSpect Features

Aruba IntroSpect has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

• Advanced analytics
• 100+ supervised and unsupervised machine learning models
• Continuously updated risk scoring
• Accelerated investigations
• Packets
• Flows
• Logs and alerts
• Enterprise scale
• Spark/Hadoop platform

Aruba IntroSpect Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Aruba IntroSpect. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

• Fast deployment: Besides having different options for deployment (on-prem or cloud), the solution offers a standalone or integrated platform. For fast deployment, users can ingest data natively or from SIEM, log management, or a packet broker.

• Efficient: The Aruba IntroSpect solution reduces the time and effort that is required to understand, diagnose, and respond to an attack.

• Deep insights: Security teams can triage better, make more informed decisions, and respond before damage occurs.

• Machine learning-based analytics: The solution builds baselines for normal behavior of both individual entities and groups by continuously monitoring IT activities.

• Comprehensive security profile: When users implement Aruba IntroSpect, they gain access to a security profile with continuous risk scoring and enriched security information.

• Automatic risk profiles: Aruba IntroSpect automatically creates a risk profile for every user, system, and IoT device connected to the network, saving users an additional step.

• Proactive threat hunting: Through its query interface, Aruba IntroSpect proactively spots threats without the overhead of finding, searching, and summarizing isolated data stores.

• Prioritize security risks: Risk scores are based on machine learning that can account for key factors like the order and time of incidents across various attack stages as well as time since detection and business context. Accurate, normalized scores mean security analysts can confidently prioritize their efforts.

• Instant visibility: When using the solution, users get instant visibility to high-risk activity. Aruba IntroSpect provides access to complete investigative records.

Cisco Secure Network Analytics is a highly effective network traffic analysis (NTA) solution that enables users to find threats in their network traffic even if those threats are encrypted. It turns an organization’s network telemetry into a tool that creates a complete field of vision for the organization’s administrators. Users can find threats that may have infiltrated their systems and stop them before they can do irreparable harm.

Cisco Secure Network Analytics Benefits

A few ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy Cisco Secure Network Analytics include:

• Security scaling. Secure Network Analytics makes it easy for organizations to scale up their level of network protection to match the growth that their business is experiencing. It can be deployed on whatever type of system is necessary. Users will have their growth needs met at every stage of their business journey because the solution offers users the ability to use it on-premises or in the cloud and it can be consumed as a SaaS-based or license-based solution. Whenever any kind of device is added, Secure Network Analytics can automatically classify that device so that it is seamlessly integrated into its network protection system.

• Detects threats as they appear. Users gain the ability to scan their network traffic for even the most advanced threats at all times. Secure Network Analytics easily identifies the early warning signs that are typically initiated before attacks are conducted by bad actors. Once these signs are found, users are warned so that they can take steps to prevent those threats from escalating. This also enables users to determine the source of the threat and whether it might have spread further than initially thought.

• Eliminate blind spots. Organizations that use Secure Network Analytics can view their network traffic across both private networks and public cloud environments. The scanning power of the solution allows users to gain complete visibility with a fewer number of sensors than their competitors require to achieve a similar level of protection.

Cisco Secure Network Analytics Features

Some of the many features that Cisco Secure Network Analytics offers include:

• Centralized security management. Secure Network Analytics’ Identity Services Engine feature enables users to control their network from a single graphical user interface. Administrators can simplify their jobs by controlling profiler, posture, guest, authentication, and authorization services from a single pane of glass.

• Machine learning tools. Secure Network Analytics uses machine learning to generate alerts when malicious or suspicious activity is detected. It also analyzes the threat so that users gain insight into the nature of the dangers that confront them. Additionally, it examines the threats to determine whether they are actual threats or false alarms. This significantly reduces the number of false alarms that administrators have to spend time attempting to resolve.

• Automation. Users can automate routine tasks that users would otherwise have to handle manually. This automation feature frees administrators and employees to handle other more critical tasks.

Reviews from Real Users

Cisco Secure Network Analytics is a solution that stands out even when compared to many other comparable products. Two major advantages that it offers are the way that it enables users to define the threshold at which the solution will issue a warning to administrators and the predefined alerts that it offers straight out of the box.

Gerald J., the information technology operations supervisor at Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc., writes, “StealthWatch lets me see the ports running in and out and the country. It has excellent reporting, telemetry, and artificial intelligence features. With the telemetry, I can set thresholds to detect sudden changes and the alarms go through the PLC parts. I can see all the ports running on that trunk.”

A senior security engineer at a tech services company, says, “Cisco Stealthwatch has predefined alerts for different types of security issues that might happen in the network. Whether it's PCs or servers that are used for botnets or Bitcoin mining we receive the alerts automatically. This functionality is what we receive from the solution out of the box.”