Every few seconds millions of people around the world become the victims of cyber-crime regardless of their industries or organizations. Despite all precautions and security measures, organizations are never far from the next cyber attack. In fact, over the period, cyber attacks have become more advanced and untraceable. It is a big concern for researchers and cyber-crime experts. They have realized that a rule-based approach is not enough to battle security threats. Instead, understanding the hacking patterns, using the best cybersecurity solution, and staying vigilant on the IT infrastructure is a better way to deal with it. Technology like data analytics and data analysis is already helping organizations to predict and enable you to be proactive. But there is one more facet of cyber security that can elevate cyber security- ”Internet of Behavior .”IoB or internet of behavior is an attempt to detect suspicious activities of intruders or hackers. In the digital age, IoB has a massive opportunity to strengthen cyber-security. Let’s

explore more in detail about IoB and its role in enhancing cyber security.

What is IoB?

IOB or Internet of Behavior is an extension of IoT, where data from IoT devices are analyzed from the behavioral psychology perspective. It is a combination of three fields – technology, data analytics, and behavioral science. By using IoT and IoB together, it is possible to process massive data generated by various online activities and devices such as wearables or household electrical devices.

IoB analyzes the data and responds to all behaviors to enhance users’ experience. For instance, a smartwatch was once limited to tracking heart rate, sleep time, and step count, but now it can even send user notifications on irregular heartbeat and even suggest a precautionary step. This ability of IoB to capture unusual patterns or human behavior and suggest action based on that has immense potential in amplifying cyber security.

Why Do Organizations Look Towards IoB For Strengthening Cyber Security?

Cybersecurity has been the topic of discussion since the World Wide Web came into existence.  The internet has been revolutionary in driving unprecedented growth around the globe.  But it also becomes a gateway for people with malicious intent and leaves users vulnerable to phishing attacks, ransomware, malware, DDoS attack, etc.  Cyber attackers hacked all the loopholes in the network and exploited internet users.  As technology becomes advanced, their attacks have also become more intense and frequent. To counteract their attacks, security experts tap into new technologies and strategies. They use a technique like Indicator of Compromise (IOCs ) to detect malicious activity. It acts as a fingerprint left behind at the crime scene. They are often identified as file hashes, domain names, IP addresses, or some other actions. Cyber security experts use them to identify the pattern of attack and take security measures accordingly.  In order to elevate the cyber security measures, experts are integrating IoC with IoB (Internet of Behavior). If IoC acts as a fingerprint at the crime scene, then IoB acts as a witness. IoC is an essential element of cyber security, but with the increasing complexity of cyberattacks, the lifespan of its usefulness has reduced significantly. Another limitation of IoC is that it is built for an infrastructure security-centric world. And the world has been evolving rapidly with the increasing trend of remote and hybrid work cultures. IoB can be helpful in enhancing cyber security and strengthening IoC capabilities in fighting cybercrime. IoB can help to comprehend the

behavior of potential cyberattacks.

How Can IoB Elevate Cyber-security?

Internet of behavior is based on behavioral analytics; any abnormal behavior detected could be an indicator of cyber security threats. A data thief in the virtual world mimics the same characteristics or traits as a physical world thief. Understanding these traits of cyber-criminals can result in improved cyber security. Internet of behavior uses a combination of big data analytics and artificial intelligence to identify these traits. Organizations implement complex machine learning algorithms to analyze user and business entity data. Any change in this algorithm is an indication of a security breach. Detecting advanced persistent threats:  Advanced persistent threats (APTs) define an attack that is carried out by a team of intruders to access the organization’s server for a long period of time. It is difficult to identify

• APTs with traditional security measures because it is designed to skip the common rules for identifying security breaches. Internet of behavior algorithm is created to monitor the activity outside the common threats and is helpful in detecting APTs.
  
• Identifying Insider threats:  Internet of Behavior can be pretty helpful in identifying insider threats.  Since the employees or insiders have access to the system, it can easily skip all the security rules without triggering any alerts.  In such a case, IoB can alert the IT team to any unusual activity exhibited by the insider.
  
• Identify zero-day attacks: Zero-day attacks are those cyber threats that have not been used before or referred for an unknown vulnerability in a computer system. Since these threats were not detected before, there are no rules written to identify them. However, the internet of behavior is designed to monitor abnormal system behavior, so when the system is affected by a zero-day attack, the IoB can identify them.
  
• Identify anomaly in user access permission: Hackers often exploit users’ access credentials to hack the system.  To prevent hackers from exploiting the user access permission, it is essential that the organization monitor users’ accounts consistently.  Any abnormal activity or a breach in the system should be informed immediately to the users. User behavior analytics can come in handy in conducting an in-depth analysis of user accounts and sending alerts to users whenever there is an attempt of unauthorized access.

Conclusion

Business organizations have accelerated their pace for digital transformation to enhance operational efficiency, but the risks of cyber security threats have also risen. The traditional approach to cyber security is less effective against sophisticated cyber attacks, especially when data is distributed over a network of devices. To leverage the true potential of digitization and defend against cyber security threats, business organizations have optimized their strategies for cyber security by using a blend of security measures to fill the security gaps and risks associated with it. Along with technical solutions, the experts are also focussing on behavioral aspects of cyber security threats via IoB (Internet of Behavior). IoB uses a combination of technologies such as big data, AI, facial recognition, etc., to analyze the pattern of cyber-attacks. It gives a better understanding of hackers’ techniques and sneaks into the uncharted world of cybercrime.  This way, IOB not only curtails cybercrime, but also elevates cyber security.