The correct answer isanalyzing abnormal behavior patterns across identity, endpoint, and network telemetry. This approach represents the foundation of modern threat hunting and directly addresses adversaries who deliberately avoid traditional detections.

Advanced attackers increasingly rely onliving-off-the-land techniques, stolen credentials, and legitimate administrative tools such as PowerShell, WMI, RDP, and cloud APIs. These activities rarely generate malware signatures or known IOCs, making alert-driven and signature-based defenses insufficient. As a result, mature threat hunting programs shift focus towardbehavioral analysis and anomaly detection.

Option A and D rely on static indicators such as IPs, domains, and hashes. These sit at thelowest levels of the Pyramid of Painand are trivial for attackers to change. Option B is purely reactive and limited to known malware, offering little value against stealthy intrusions.

By correlating identity logs (authentication patterns, geolocation anomalies), endpoint telemetry (process execution, parent-child relationships), and network activity (unusual connections, lateral movement patterns), hunters can detectIndicators of Attack (IOAs)rather than waiting for confirmed compromise. This enables identification of credential misuse, privilege abuse, and lateral movement even when no malware is present.

This methodology aligns withMITRE ATT&CK TTP-based hunting, which focuses on tactics and techniques instead of tools or infrastructure. It also reflects a higher tier in theThreat Hunting Maturity Model, where organizations proactively search for unknown threats rather than responding to alerts.

In professional SOC environments, this shift dramatically increases detection coverage against advanced adversaries and reduces dwell time. Therefore, optionCis the most accurate and strategically sound answer.