Map your security data before shortlisting a threat hunting tool

A hunting tool is only as useful as the data it can reach. Most tools in this guide work on top of the data a team already runs, so the fit between your sources and a tool's connectors decides much of the value. That fit is easier to judge before the first sales call than after it.

Step 1: List your sources by type

Use the six types from the data sources lesson: SIEM, EDR, identity provider, cloud logs, data lake or warehouse, and SaaS apps. For each type, list the platforms you run. Most teams find more than they expected, especially under SaaS.

Step 2: Add four facts per source

For every source, record: - Where the data lives. The platform itself, the SIEM, a data lake, or more than one. - Retention. How many days you can look back. - Access. Who can grant read-only access for a tool, and how long that usually takes. - Query method. The query language or API.

Retention is the one teams get wrong most often. A hunt that looks back 90 days is limited by the shortest retention among the sources it joins.

Step 3: Mark what matters most

Not every source matters equally for hunting. Mark the three or four that would answer your most important hunt questions. If identity attacks worry you most, the identity provider and EDR rise to the top. If cloud misuse is the concern, cloud logs come first.

Step 4: Check each vendor's named sources

Our data source grid records, for each tool, which of the six types its public pages name and gives examples. Compare your top sources with each row. Three outcomes are possible. - Named. The vendor names the platform or type. Confirm the details in a demo. - Named at type level only. The vendor names the type, such as identity providers in general, but not your platform. Ask directly. - Not named. The public pages do not say. That is common and does not mean the source is unsupported. Some vendors do not publish connector lists at all; the grid notes where that is the case.

The side-by-side comparison shows the same named-source rows for up to five tools at once.

Step 5: Ask how each source is reached

Tools differ in whether they query data where it sits or copy it first. Artemis Security, for example, describes ingesting the data its detections depend on and querying high-volume data in place. For each of your top sources, ask which mode applies, what permissions are needed, and whether queries against that source carry a cost on your side.

What you end up with

A one-page table: your sources, their facts, and a column per shortlisted tool showing named, type level or ask. It keeps demos focused on your environment, and it gives you a fair basis for a proof of concept.

The final lesson covers the other half of the shortlist: setting your own weights.