Detecting a Brute Force Attack in 5 Minutes, Reducing Account Takeover Risk by Up to 95%: A Cisometric SOC Case Study

Brute force attacks can generate thousands of login attempts within a short period. When such activity targets a public-facing application with tens of thousands of daily users, the sheer volume of events and distributed attack patterns can make detection and investigation increasingly complex.

In this white paper, Cisometric examines how a distributed brute force attack was detected, investigated, and handled by a SOC team. The attack activity first became visible at 02:10, while the first alert was detected at 02:15, resulting in a Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) of 5 minutes. The team then proceeded with investigation, escalation, and containment.

So, what happened between those five minutes and containment?