Amazon announced a new threat detection service at the recent AWS re:Invent event in Las Vegas that is designed to help protect users from security threats.

Launched by the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing division, Amazon GuardDuty uses machine learning to help identify potential anomalies and provide recommendations to reduce the risk. The intelligence-driven service aims to help IT decision-makers deal with the ever-growing range of attack vectors in the digital age.

How the Service Works

GuardDuty continuously searches public and AWS-generated events looking for developments, patterns and problems. The service analyzes activity using AWS-developed threat intelligence technology and industry-leading third-party sources. The goal is to hunt out unauthorized behavior to keep AWS accounts safe.

The service keeps an eye out for unusual API calls and potentially dangerous deployments that imply account compromise. It also monitors for exploration work by threat actors. Findings are presented as low-, medium- or high-level threats, according to TechCrunch. GuardDuty then delivers evidence to users along with recommendations for remediation.

Users can send these results to services from third-party providers. IT decision-makers can use these integrations to undertake analysis and automate prevention. Amazon also announced future plans for further link-ups with other partners.

Test-Driving Amazon GuardDuty

Security professionals do not have to deploy specialist software to run GuardDuty. They can enable the service through the AWS Management Console and then use this information to monitor API calls and network actions across their accounts to establish a baseline of normal activity.

IT managers looking to take GuardDuty for a test drive can take advantage of a free 30-day free trial. According to ZDNet, more than 50 customers and partners have used the service during the past seven months.

Beat the Odds With Threat Detection

The odds of being hit by a data breach are as high as 1 in 4. Organizations must understand the probability of being attacked, the threats that affect their operations, and the factors that can both reduce and increase the impact and cost of a breach.

Threats constantly adapt to the broad range of systems and services used in modern, digital organizations. For example, Amazon noted that growing reliance on the cloud means that businesses often have multiple AWS accounts with potentially thousands of instances of a single program.

Identifying potentially errant behavior across complex accounts and instances is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. GuardDuty can help reduce the heavy lifting associated with threat detection.

AWS Partners With IBM for Expert Managed Security Services

As part of the launch at re:Invent, AWS announced a partnership with IBM to provide managed security services (MSS) for GuardDuty starting in early 2018. This integration will enable AWS user organizations to leverage IBM’s augmented intelligence and global threat insight capabilities and ingest GuardDuty alerts into IBM QRadar SIEM.

AWS customers can also benefit from IBM’s incident response, threat management and other expert services, as well as the cognitive capabilities and advanced analytics delivered out of the X-Force Command Centers around the globe. With the support of IBM and the advanced machine learning capabilities of GuardDuty, AWS customers can drastically reduce the chances of a data breach and strengthen their ability to remediate security threats before they reach the organization’s crown jewels.