Cyber Threat Intelligence

What is Cyber Threat Intelligence?

Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI), often referred to as threat intelligence, is information about potential or current threats to an organization. It involves aggregating, transforming, and enriching raw data into intelligence that can be analyzed, disseminated and acted upon. By understanding the cyber threat landscape, organizations can proactively defend against attacks, mitigate risks, and enhance their overall security posture. 

Types of Threat Intelligence:

• Operational
• Tactical
• Strategic

Sources of Threat Intelligence:

• Commercial feeds: 
  • Third-party feeds that provide threat intelligence, typically through subscriptions or purchases. This may include services such as:
    • Indicators of Compromise: an atomic piece of information that has some intelligence value, such as an IP Address, URL, file hash, and others.
    • Dark web: Parts of the internet that are not indexed by search engines and are typically used for illegal activities. Data from the dark web helps track and investigate dark web activities.
    • Deep web: Exploring the deep web can provide organizations with valuable insights into the specific cyber threats they may face, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of their risk profile.
• Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)
  • Publicly available information that can be used for TI purposes. There are hundreds of structured (e.g., feeds) and unstructured (e.g., blogs, news sites) sources of threat intelligence. These come in a variety of flavors and levels of data quality.
• Community / ISACs / ISAOs
  • Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) and Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAOs) are industry-specific groups that share TI and best practices among their members.
• Internally-produced
  • An organization’s security team can gather and analyze TI internally. This can include data from network and system logs and information collected through active monitoring and investigation.
• Other sources
  • Other threat intelligence sources may consist of External Attack Surface Management (EASM) tools, which monitor an organization’s digital footprint, and Digital Risk Protection Services (DRPS), which provide monitoring and mitigation services for digital risks.

Challenges To Look For and How Threat Intelligence Helps Solve Them:

• Lack of Communication From Stakeholders: One of the primary obstacles security teams face is the lack of engagement with stakeholders to build comprehensive requirements. Organizations can ensure their TI programs are more effective and relevant by actively involving various stakeholders and establishing a requirements-driven approach. This helps in prioritizing and addressing the most critical threats that align with the organization’s specific needs.
• One Size Does Not Fit All:  Leveraging a diverse range of sources can help overcome the difficulty of acquiring a single, comprehensive, and relevant source of threat intelligence. Combining commercial, open-source, and industry-specific intel sharing can provide a well-rounded view of the threat landscape. This multifaceted approach can enhance the depth and breadth of threat insights, enabling more accurate and timely responses.
• Overwhelming Volume of Data: When confronted with the overwhelming volume, variety, velocity, and veracity of TI data, organizations can benefit from advanced tools and processes designed to filter and validate this data. Employing fit-for-purpose tools such as threat intelligence platforms (TIPs) can automate much of the data sifting and validation process, reducing the noise and honing in on actionable intelligence. This, combined with the expertise of skilled cyber threat intel analysts, can significantly improve efficiency and reduce incidents of false positives.
• Too Much Overhead: Streamlining workflows and maintaining clear communication channels can help manage the overhead associated with integrating TI into security and IT processes. Ensuring that there is a feedback loop where teams can easily consume, use, and provide feedback on the intel can minimize the administrative burden. Investing in platforms that facilitate seamless integration and data flow management can also reduce resource wastage and allow the team to focus on proactive threat-hunting and mitigation activities.

By addressing these challenges with robust strategies and tools, threat intelligence can transform from a complex, noise-filled endeavor into a powerful asset that enhances an organization’s security posture and resilience against cyber threats.

How ThreatConnect’s TI Ops Platform Helps Collect, Analyze, Manage, and Operationalize Threat Intelligence:

The ThreatConnect TI Ops Platform allows analysts to achieve the most efficient and effective aggregation, processing, analysis, and dissemination of your cyber threat intelligence.
Key platform features include:

• Unified Threat Library: Serves as a comprehensive source of threat intelligence that is adaptable to the security analyst’s needs and is capable of handling vast amounts of data. It standardizes and streamlines threat intel, ensuring it is clean, de-duplicated, and archived for use by Threat Intel and SecOps teams.
• CAL™: This innovative capability uses Generative AI, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML) to deliver advanced analytics and global intelligence.
• Built-in Low-Code Automation: Low-code automation helps analysts save valuable time and focus on more critical operational, tactical, and strategic threat intelligence activities by enabling the rapid construction and automation of tasks, processes, and playbooks. 
• Built-in Reporting: Sharing threat intel with security operations and cyber risk leaders is vital for timely, data-driven decisions. Reporting built directly into the platform enables analysts to easily create, share, and manage actionable reports.

By leveraging ThreatConnect’s TI Ops Platform, organizations can make informed decisions to protect their assets, ensuring robust and resilient cybersecurity.

Related Resources:

To understand the different types of Threat Intelligence Platforms, check out – Buyer’s Guide for Threat Intelligence Operations

To learn more about ThreatConnect’s TI Ops Platform, visit our Threat Intelligence Operations page and take the interactive tour!

The 7 Tenets of Threat Intel Operations – Tenet #1: Elevating Threat Intelligence