Security Context
Security Context in cybersecurity refers to the set of attributes, conditions, and circumstances that surround an entity (such as a user, a process, a device, or a non-human identity, such as an API key) at a specific moment in time. It provides the "who, what, when, where, why, and how" necessary to interpret an action or event and accurately determine its risk or legitimacy.
In essence, context turns a simple log entry or event—which is just a signal—into actionable intelligence by providing meaning.
Components of Security Context
The security context comprises correlated layers of information that are continuously monitored to support dynamic security decisions. These factors often fall into two main categories:
1. User and Identity Context
This relates to the entity requesting access or performing an action.
Identity: The unique identifier of the entity (e.g., username, security identifier (SID), or API key).
Role/Permissions: The official role, group membership, or permissions granted to the user or identity. This defines what the entity should be allowed to access.
Behavioral Profile: The established historical pattern of activity for that entity (e.g., typical login times, usual resources accessed, normal data volumes). Anomaly detection relies heavily on this.
Ownership/Creation: For non-human identities like API keys, the context includes who created the key, why it exists, and its creation date.
2. Environmental and Situational Context
This relates to the conditions under which the action is occurring.
Location: The geographic location or network location (e.g., secure corporate network vs. public Wi-Fi) of the request.
Device Posture: The security status of the device being used (e.g., device type, operating system patch level, presence of disk encryption or security software).
Time of Access: The time of day or day of the week when the action occurs. An access request at midnight may be suspicious depending on the entity’s role.
Resource Criticality: The sensitivity of the data or system being accessed (e.g., a test server versus a production financial database).
Importance and Application
The security context is fundamental to modern security design philosophies, particularly Zero Trust and Contextual Access Control (CAC).
Dynamic Access Control: Instead of granting access based only on a password, CAC uses the combined security context to make real-time, risk-based decisions. For example, a user logging in from their usual office device during business hours may be granted seamless access. Still, the same user logging in from a foreign country on an unsecured device outside working hours may be blocked or prompted to provide additional Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
Threat Prioritization: Context allows security teams to prioritize alerts and remediation efforts based on the potential business impact. A vulnerability on an unpatched server owned by the finance department (high business impact) is prioritized over the same vulnerability on a test server in a decommissioned lab (low business impact).
Incident Response: During an attack, context is vital for connecting the dots across logs and events, enabling analysts to trace the attacker's path, understand the full scope of the compromise, and assess the incident's severity.
ThreatNG's capabilities are specifically designed to address the challenges inherent in establishing a Security Context by fusing external technical findings with decisive organizational and financial details. This enables security teams to transform ambiguous alerts into actionable, high-certainty intelligence.
ThreatNG’s Role in Establishing Security Context
ThreatNG's core function is to provide the Contextual Risk Intelligence needed to move beyond raw data, eliminating guesswork and the "Crisis of Context" often experienced by security operations centers (SOCs).
External Discovery and Continuous Monitoring
ThreatNG performs purely external unauthenticated discovery to identify an organization's entire attack surface. This external perspective is the "what" an attacker sees, establishing the fundamental environmental context of the risk. The capability to continuously monitor the external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings ensures that the security context remains current as exposures change dynamically.
External Assessment for Contextual Risk
ThreatNG's assessments and ratings are explicitly designed to introduce context and help with prioritization:
Contextual Risk Intelligence (ThreatNG Context Engine™): This patented solution achieves Irrefutable Attribution by using Multi-Source Data Fusion to iteratively correlate external technical security findings with decisive legal, financial, and operational context.
Context Example: If ThreatNG discovers an exposed port (a technical finding), it correlates that with Securities and Exchange Commission Filings or Lawsuits. This correlation provides Legal-Grade Attribution—the certainty required to justify security investments—by contextualizing the technical risk with its potential business impact.
Cyber Risk Exposure Security Rating: This rating includes findings from Subdomains intelligence, like exposed ports, private IPs, and missing security headers.
Context Example: Finding an exposed port is an isolated event. However, ThreatNG adds context by identifying that the port is on a subdomain hosted on a specific Cloud Platform (e.g., AWS or Azure) and linked to a critical Technology Stack (e.g., a Database). This correlation establishes the "where" and "what" of the asset being accessed.
Investigation Modules
ThreatNG's investigation modules are built to aggregate disparate findings into a clear security context:
Technology Stack Investigation Module: This module uncovers nearly 4,000 technologies that comprise a target’s external attack surface.
Context Example: This module determines the "what" of the asset by identifying the exact technologies (e.g., WordPress CMS, Stripe Payment Processing, Datadog Monitoring) used on a subdomain. Knowing the technology provides the critical context for which vulnerabilities (CVEs) and extortion vectors are relevant to that specific asset.
Certificate Intelligence: This module provides identity context.
Context Example: It shows TLS Certificates and their Issuers and links them to Associated Organizations (Domains, Certificates, and Emails). This helps confirm the identity (the "who" and "what" of the digital identity) of the assets and whether they are legitimate or expired.
Sentiment and Financials: This module provides pure business context.
Context Example: Discovering publicly disclosed organizational-related lawsuits, SEC Filings, and ESG Violations (e.g., environmental or financial offenses) provides the "why" of the risk. This context helps prioritize technical risks—a vulnerability on a system related to a publicly disclosed financial violation is far more critical than an unrelated one.
Intelligence Repositories (DarCache)
The intelligence repositories provide external, curated facts that enrich the security context.
DarCache Vulnerability (KEV and EPSS): A vulnerability (CVE) found by itself is just a technical fact. ThreatNG provides context by adding KEV (confirming active exploitation—the "how" it's being used) and EPSS (predicting the likelihood of future exploitation—the "when" it’s most likely to be attacked). This context allows security teams to prioritize based on the adversary's intent.
Cooperation with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's high-certainty, contextualized findings are ideal for triggering actions in complementary security systems.
Complementary Solutions Example 1 (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response - SOAR): When ThreatNG’s Context Engine™ finds a Compromised Credential (the technical finding) and correlates it with a highly sensitive asset identified by the Technology Stack module (the business context), this high-certainty finding can be sent to a SOAR platform. The SOAR platform can then use the security context to automatically trigger a pre-defined, high-priority workflow, such as isolating the specific exposed host and forcing a Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) reset for the compromised user.
Complementary Solutions Example 2 (Governance, Risk, and Compliance - GRC): ThreatNG’s External GRC Assessment provides context by mapping external risks directly to GRC frameworks like PCI DSS and HIPAA. If a finding, such as an exposed cloud bucket, is discovered, ThreatNG provides the security context that this is an external security risk that impacts a specific compliance mandate. This contextual finding can then be seamlessly delivered to a complementary internal GRC solution to track and report the compliance gap automatically.
