Detection engineers are at the core of modern security operations and their success depends on knowing what detections to prioritize and how to measure success. But high-level frameworks and disconnected data streams can leave them without critical guidance. While MITRE ATT&CK standardizes how TTPs are described, it can’t define detection priorities or success criteria without contextual mapping and validation.
Threat-Led Defense extends ATT&CK’s value by grounding it in operational context. By connecting adversary procedures to real detections, data sources, and configurations, detection engineers can shift from theoretical coverage to measurable outcomes. In doing so, ATT&CK evolves from a static reference model into an actionable engineering roadmap revealing where defenses are strong, redundant, or at risk.
Detection teams rely on the MITRE ATT&CK framework as a common language for describing TTPs, but its scope is intentionally broad. When viewed through the discipline of Threat-Led Defense, ATT&CK becomes more actionable helping teams focus on the specific adversary behaviors that appear in their own environments.
Tagging alerts to OS Credential Dumping (T1003) or Process Injection (T1055) helps normalize telemetry, but technique-level tagging alone isn’t actionable. Detection engineers need a way to prioritize detections around adversary actions, mapped to the systems and assets most at risk..
The challenge isn’t with the framework itself, but in how its applied. Without translating high-level techniques into procedure-level detail, teams struggle to align tuning efforts with the real-world blind spots adversaries exploit. Threat-Led Defense closes this gap by operationalizing ATT&CK, turning abstract techniques into testable, and validated detections that deliver measurable defensive value.
While ATT&CK techniques define what adversaries do, procedures show how they execute the technique. Detection engineers need to know the exact commands, file paths, or process relationships that bring adversary behaviors to life. Without that granular level of detail, even the most comprehensive ATT&CK mapping may not drive real-world results.
Procedures give detection teams the operational clarity they need to turn intelligence into tuned, testable detections. They describe adversary behavior in the same operational language used by detection engineers to write rules, build hunts, and validate signals across tools.
When properly implemented in the detection engineering workflow, procedures enable teams to:
Once procedures are mapped to the environment, the next step is understanding how they align with current defenses. Coverage Maps make that connection visible. They link specific adversary procedures to the tools, rules, and configurations already in place. This reveals precisely where the organization has protection, where it has overlaps, and where true gaps remain.
For example, suppose your team is focused on Credential Dumping. Within that technique, you might map three distinct procedures:
In a Coverage Map, these appear as distinct behaviors tied to specific detections and tools. This reveals where coverage is strong, where tuning is needed, and where new detections must be built, turning ATT&CK from abstract knowledge into actionable engineering priorities.
By mapping detections to procedures instead of broad techniques, detection engineers gain a concrete view of how well their stack defends against the behaviors that matter most, transforming ATT&CK from abstract knowledge into actionable engineering priorities.
By mapping detections to procedures instead of broad techniques, detection engineers gain a concrete view of how well their stack defends agains the threats and behaviors that matter most, transforming ATT&CK from a static framework into a dynamic, threat-led planning tool.
Once your Coverage Map exposes which procedures are unprotected or only partially covered, acting on that intelligence is the next step. Detection engineers can prioritize new or refined detections based on threat relevance and data availability, focusing first on adversary behaviors that are both likely to occur and observable within their telemetry sources.
For instance, if your map shows partial coverage for rundll32.exe comsvcs.dll, MiniDump, you might create a detection that monitors for unusual rundll32 command-line parameters combined with LSASS access requests. Aligning each rule to a specific procedure ensures you’re defending against concrete attacker behavior, not abstract techniques.
Managing detections this way helps teams avoid duplication, reduce noise, and accelerate measurable progress. Every detection added or tuned directly improves measurable in the organization’s defensive coverage.With this approach, you can assign a Confidence Score that proves engineering time is closing gaps tied to real adversary behaviors instead of abstract risks.
Detection engineering doesn’t end with rule creation. It matures through ongoing validation and iteration.
Once the team deploys new detections, their effectiveness should be verified against the same adversary procedures they were built to catch. One way to do this is by integrating Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) results or red team findings into your Coverage Map. This confirms whether those behaviors trigger alerts as expected.
Each validation cycle turns assumptions into evidence, feeding failed detections back into tuning, while increasing coverage and confidence where success is proven.
Continuously validating and refining coverage at the procedure level helps show progress beyond simply “adding new detections.” It can demonstrate reduced investigation time, decreased tool overlap, and quantifiable improvements in behavioral defense, all backed by data from the same adversary actions detection rules are built around.
Tidal Cyber is the first true Threat-Led Defense platform built to flip the traditional defensive model by putting real adversary behavior at the center of your defense strategy.
By mapping techniques, sub-techniques, and procedures to ATT&CK, we reveal exactly where you’re exposed and how attackers actually operate. It’s a level of precision you’ve never had before, empowering your security team to proactively reduce risk and optimize high-impact security investments.
Threat-Led Defense is Tidal Cyber’s unique implementation of Threat-Informed Defense, enhanced with procedure-level granularity to make CTI more relevant and actionable.