Hyas Blog | Turning 56 Billion Attacks into a Proactive Defense Strategy: A CISO’s Guide to HYAS Insight

In today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, the sheer volume of malicious activity can be overwhelming. One client recently shared with me a startling statistic: on average, they observed 56 billion unique attacks every quarter.  Yes, that number was 56 billion. For any security leader or CISO, these numbers may seem insurmountable—a deluge of data, noise, and potential vulnerabilities that would certainly keep teams awake at night if not drive burnout, with the high likelihood that the most important one accidentally gets missed. However, this same client also demonstrated that with the right intelligence, it’s possible to cut through the chaos and focus on what truly matters.  As the CTO of a telecommunications company said to me, “HYAS doesn’t just find the needle in the haystack, you find the needle in the stack of needles.”

The Challenge: An Avalanche of Threats

Imagine having to defend against 56 billion unique attacks every three months. This isn’t a theoretical risk; it’s a reality for many organizations operating in an era where cyber threats are not only increasing in volume but also evolving in sophistication. Artificial intelligence is not only making them better and more complicated, but easier to launch; nation-states are providing the money and resources for research and highly complex delivery and insertion mechanisms.  For CISOs and others in the Office of the CISO, the challenge is not just about the quantity of alerts but about discerning which threats are actionable and which are mere background noise. With limited resources and growing expectations, finding a way to reduce the burden while ensuring robust protection is paramount.

The HYAS Advantage: Intelligence that Makes a Difference

HYAS Insight is built on the principle that quality, context-rich intelligence can transform security operations. As one long-term client said to me, “I have a ton of tools. But none of them do what HYAS does. You are the glue that connects all other intel tools”
How?  By leveraging extensive infrastructure intelligence, HYAS Insight empowers security teams to sift through billions of alerts and identify the most relevant threats. In the case of one client, using HYAS Insight led to an impressive 70% reduction in the volume of attacks requiring immediate attention.
This isn’t about eliminating threats altogether—it’s about filtering out the noise. By reducing the initial pool by 70%, the client was then able to integrate other cyber security tools to further analyze and prioritize the remaining signals. The result? A streamlined workflow that focused on actionable intelligence, enabling the team to understand attacker behaviors and pinpoint vulnerabilities effectively.

From Overwhelm to Actionable Insight

For CISOs and security leaders, the implications are clear:

• Focus on What Matters: With a 70% reduction in noise, teams can concentrate on high-priority alerts, ensuring that response efforts are both timely and effective.

• Enhanced Situational Awareness: Understanding the “why” and “how” behind each remaining alert offers critical context—information that is essential for proactive defense and strategic planning.
• Optimized Resource Allocation: By filtering out redundant or irrelevant data, organizations can better allocate their limited security resources, driving efficiency without compromising on protection.

• Infrastructure Intelligence Needs to be the First Step: Every attack, and every criminal, utilizes Internet infrastructure and other Internet resources (emails, phone numbers, DNS data, etc) to command and control their attacks; utilizing this knowledge as the first step provides the best path for rapid, efficient triage.

HYAS Insight doesn’t just reduce the number of alerts—it transforms raw data into actionable intelligence. One CISO said to me “HYAS transforms meta information into actionable intelligence” – the meta information being infrastructure intelligence and related Internet indicators.  This enables organizations to shift from a reactive to a proactive posture, anticipating threats before they escalate into significant breaches.  

Building a Proactive Security Strategy

The journey doesn’t end at filtering and prioritization. With the refined intelligence provided by HYAS Insight, the client was able to:

• Identify Attack Patterns: Understand emerging tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of adversaries.
• Prioritize Investments: Allocate budgets and resources to defend against the most relevant threats.
• Enhance Collaboration: Share key insights with internal teams and external partners, creating a unified and informed security ecosystem.

In an era where cyber adversaries are continuously evolving, the ability to preempt attacks through precise, intelligence-driven insights is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity.

Conclusion: Embrace the Power of Infrastructure Intelligence

The experience of this HYAS client is a compelling case study for all CISOs and security leaders. Confronted with an overwhelming number of unique attacks, they turned to HYAS Insight to cut through the noise, reduce the burden by 70%, and focus on what truly mattered. This approach not only improved their operational efficiency but also enhanced their ability to predict and prevent potential threats.
For organizations looking to fortify their defenses in an increasingly complex digital landscape, investing in comprehensive infrastructure intelligence like HYAS Insight is a strategic move. It’s about turning data overload into actionable intelligence—a vital step in building a proactive, resilient security posture in today’s cyber environment.

Embracing tools that provide deep, contextual intelligence can be the game changer in your security strategy. As threats continue to grow in number and complexity, make sure your defenses are informed by the best intelligence available—because in the realm of cybersecurity, knowing what to ignore is just as crucial as knowing what to fight.