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Detection Engineering Reference

Understand deviation.
Measure observable change.

A structured foundation for reasoning about anomaly detection before selecting models, writing rules, or mapping behavior to adversary techniques.

00
Activity and observability

ATT&CK Activity Catalog

Enterprise tactics

Browse suspicious and malicious activity by MITRE ATT&CK tactic. Every activity includes inline links to the vendor-neutral log sources capable of reporting it.

Open the ATT&CK activity and log-source catalog →
00.5
Deterministic detection

Basic Detection Rule Catalog

Thresholds · signatures · state changes

Technique-level algorithmic detection logic using exact matches, fixed thresholds, allowlists, state changes, and bounded-window correlations, with direct links to the required telemetry sources.

Open the basic detection rule catalog →
Statistical detection

Explain malicious activity as measurable deviation.

The activity-to-anomaly catalog maps ATT&CK-aligned behavior to its comparison unit, expected baseline, measurable deviation, applicable anomaly types, and supporting telemetry. It also identifies activity better handled by signatures or policy rules.

Open the activity-to-anomaly mapping catalog →
01
Statistical foundation

Statistical Anomaly Taxonomy

118 types

Observation

Point, contextual, collective, conditional, and residual deviations.

Time

Trend, level, variance, periodicity, sequence, and change-point behavior.

Distribution

Drift, tail, entropy, modality, quantile, and dispersion changes.

Structure

Multivariate, graph, relationship, spatial, and cross-view anomalies.

Open the complete statistical taxonomy →
02
Observable evidence

Security Log Source Taxonomy

175 sources
01

Endpoint and operating systems

02

Identity and authentication

03

Network infrastructure and traffic

04

Applications, APIs, and databases

05

Cloud, containers, and orchestration

06

Security controls and observability

Open the complete log-source taxonomy →
Working principles

Model the behavior before choosing the detector.

Define the baseline. State the population, entity, peer group, context, and time window.

Verify observability. Confirm that a source records the activity and retains the required detail.

Separate rarity from meaning. Statistical deviation is evidence to investigate, not a conclusion.