Files
Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills/skills/detecting-insider-threat-with-ueba/SKILL.md
T
Mahipal 2fb6a9faff Rewrite 548 skill descriptions to the activation rubric
Each rewritten description now states both what the skill does (concrete
capability, named tools/artifacts) and an explicit when-to-use trigger,
improving agent discovery/activation. Grounded in each skill's own body;
changes confined to the `description` field only (bodies and all other
frontmatter untouched). Produced by a gated audit->rewrite->recheck loop
(548 -> 0 flagged) with a sampled anti-invention check (0 ungrounded).

Schema: 817/817 pass. Framework-ID gate: 0 defects.
2026-08-02 09:32:13 -07:00

2.9 KiB

name, description, domain, subdomain, tags, version, author, license, nist_csf, mitre_attack
name description domain subdomain tags version author license nist_csf mitre_attack
detecting-insider-threat-with-ueba Implement User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) using Elasticsearch/OpenSearch to build behavioral baselines, calculate anomaly scores, perform peer group analysis, and alert on insider threat indicators such as data exfiltration, privilege abuse, and unauthorized access. Use when building or tuning a UEBA pipeline rather than a one-off manual hunt. cybersecurity threat-detection
ueba
insider-threat
anomaly-detection
elasticsearch
behavior-analytics
machine-learning
siem
1.0 mahipal Apache-2.0
DE.CM-01
DE.AE-02
DE.AE-06
ID.RA-05
T1078
T1190
T1059
T1048
T1041

Detecting Insider Threat with UEBA

Overview

User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) moves beyond static rule-based detection to model normal behavior for users, hosts, and applications, then flag statistically significant deviations that may indicate insider threats. Using Elasticsearch as the analytics backend, this skill covers building behavioral baselines from authentication logs, file access events, and network activity, computing risk scores using statistical deviation and peer group comparison, and correlating multiple low-confidence indicators into high-confidence insider threat alerts.

When to Use

  • When investigating security incidents that require detecting insider threat with ueba
  • When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain
  • When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type
  • When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques

Prerequisites

  • Elasticsearch 8.x or OpenSearch 2.x cluster with security audit data
  • Log sources: Active Directory authentication, VPN, DLP, file server access, email
  • Python 3.9+ with elasticsearch client library
  • Baseline period of 30+ days of normal user activity data
  • Defined peer groups based on department, role, or job function

Steps

Step 1: Ingest and Normalize Activity Logs

Configure log pipelines to ingest authentication, file access, email, and network logs into Elasticsearch with a unified user identity field.

Step 2: Build Behavioral Baselines

Calculate per-user baselines for login times, data volume, application usage, and access patterns over a rolling 30-day window using Elasticsearch aggregations.

Step 3: Calculate Anomaly Scores

Compare current activity against baselines using z-score deviation and peer group comparison to generate per-user risk scores.

Step 4: Correlate and Alert

Combine multiple anomalous indicators (unusual hours + large downloads + new system access) into composite risk scores that trigger SOC investigation workflows.

Expected Output

JSON report containing per-user risk scores, anomalous activity details, peer group deviations, and recommended investigation actions.