By now, we all appreciate the value of knowledge in the digital world. Knowledge is power, information dispels ignorance, informed decisions are superior, and the more you know about your enemy, the easier it is to overpower them. This is why cybersecurity experts rely on threat intelligence to help prevent and fight cybersecurity threats aimed at their organization.
This article answers the question, “What is threat intelligence?” We will define the term, explain its function, describe its importance, and detail its lifecycle and types. The article concludes with a sample of threat intelligence tools and a cybersecurity program professionals can take to boost their careers in this critical field.
So, what is threat intelligence?
What is Threat Intelligence?
Threat intelligence is evidence-based, detailed, actionable threat information used by cybersecurity professionals to prevent and battle cybersecurity threats targeted at an organization. This information typically includes:
- The mechanisms of a cyberattack
- The means of identifying that a cyberattack is occurring
- The ways different types of cyberattacks might affect the organization
- Action-oriented advice for defending against cyberattacks
Threat intelligence is also called “cyber threat intelligence” (often shortened to CTI) or “threat intel.”
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What Does Threat Intelligence Do?
Threat intelligence helps cybersecurity teams be more proactive, letting them take practical, data-driven actions to head off cyberattacks before they occur. This information can also help organizations detect and react to attacks faster.
Additionally, it helps organizations remain informed regarding new threats to better protect themselves. After all, the more you know what you’re up against, the better you can prepare for it. Cybersecurity experts analyze, organize, and refine the detailed information they gather about attacks so they can learn from and use it to better protect their organizations.
In summary, the more an IT team understands a cyberattack, the better they can decide how to deal with it.
Why is Threat Intelligence Important?
Threat intelligence lets organizations be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to cyberattacks. It is impossible to defend against cyberattacks effectively without first understanding threat indicators, security vulnerabilities, and how cyber threats are carried out; threat intelligence can anticipate, prevent, and contain cyberattacks faster, possibly saving organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars. Additionally, it can enhance enterprise security controls at every layer, including network security.
Specifically, threat intelligence can:
- Provide directions on safety measures. By identifying and analyzing cyber threats, it spots hackers’ various patterns and helps organizations institute security measures to safeguard against future incursions and attacks.
- Prevent data loss. Organizations with a well-structured CTI program can spot cyber threats and stop data breaches from acquiring and releasing sensitive information.
- Raise awareness. Unfortunately, hackers are getting more innovative and creative by the day. To keep up with the opposition, cybersecurity experts share the hacker tactics they have seen with other community members or organizations, creating a collective knowledge base to aid in the fight against cybercrimes.
Types of Threat Intelligence
Cybersecurity threat intelligence is usually divided into three categories: strategic, tactical, and operational. Let’s examine each type:
- Strategic threat intelligence. This CTI type is often a high-level analysis designed for non-technical audiences such as upper management, stakeholders, or the board of a company or organization. Strategic threat intelligence emphasizes “the big picture.” This information involves cybersecurity topics that could impact broader business decisions and examine overall trends and motivations. It is usually based on open sources, meaning anyone can access the information. It’s rendered in white papers, media reports, and research.
- Tactical threat intelligence. This information focuses on the immediate future and is geared towards a more technically proficient audience, such as IT professionals. This CTI type identifies simple indicators of compromise (IOCs), which allows IT teams to look for and remove specific threats within their network. IOCs include log-in red flags, known malicious domain names, bad IP addresses, unusual traffic, or increased file/download requests. Tactical intelligence is considered the most straightforward form of CTI to produce and typically relies on automation. Unfortunately, this information can often have a short lifespan since many IOCs quickly become obsolete, reflecting the rapidly changing tactics of hackers and other cybercriminals.
- Operational threat intelligence. The three w’s lurk behind every cyberattack: ‘who,’ ‘why,’ and ‘how.’ Operational threat intelligence is created to answer these questions by studying past cyberattacks and drawing conclusions regarding timing, intent, and sophistication. It demands more resources than tactical intelligence, but on the upside, the data has a longer lifespan. This longevity is because cyber attackers can’t change their techniques, tactics, and procedures (also known as TTP) as quickly as they can switch their tools, for instance, a specific type of malware.
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The Threat Intelligence Lifecycle
Threat intelligence is typically split into six stages: direction, collection, processing, analysis, dissemination, and feedback. Let’s look at them.
Direction
The direction phase focuses on setting goals for the threat intelligence program. These could include:
- Identifying the types of threat intelligence the organization needs to defend its assets and respond to threats
- Understanding which aspects of the organization must be protected and potentially creating a priority order
- Understanding the organizational impact of a data breach
Collection
This second phase involves gathering data to support the goals and objectives we established in the previous phase. Data quantity and quality are vital to avoid overlooking severe threats or being misled by a false positive. In the collection phase, organizations must identify their data sources, which might include:
- Interviews with knowledgeable, informed stakeholders
- Metadata from security devices and internal networks
- Open-source news sites and blogs
- Threat data feeds supplied by credible cybersecurity organizations
Processing
All the collected data needs to be converted into a usable format. Different data collection methods require diverse processing methods. For instance, data gathered from human interviews may have to be fact-checked and cross-checked against similar data.
Analysis
Once the data has been turned into a usable format, it needs to be analyzed. The analysis process turns information into intelligence that typically guides organizational decisions. These decisions could include whether the organization should increase its investment in security resources, whether to investigate a given threat or set of threats, what actions must be taken to block an imminent threat, or what threat intelligence tools are required.
Dissemination
After the analysis has been carried out, the primary recommendations and conclusions must be disseminated to the organization’s relevant stakeholders. Note that different teams within the organization have different needs. To effectively disseminate intelligence, it’s worth asking what kinds of intelligence each audience needs, in what format they prefer, and how often they require the reports.
Feedback
Stakeholder feedback helps improve the overall threat intelligence program, ensuring it reflects the requirements and objectives of each team and group. The word “lifecycle” emphasizes that it is not a linear, one-shot process but a circular, iterative process that organizations rely on for continuous improvement.
A Sampling of Threat Intelligence Tools
Although there is a disturbing array of cyberattack methods and a horde of unprincipled individuals ready to use them, there, fortunately, is a solid selection of threat intelligence tools to combat these incursions.
- Malware disassemblers. Malware disassemblers reverse-engineer malware to understand how it works, which then helps security engineers decide how to best defend against future similar attacks from that kind of malware.
- Security information and event management (SIEM) tools. SIEM tools let security teams monitor the network in real time, collecting information about suspicious traffic and unusual behavior.
- Network traffic analysis tools. As the name implies, network traffic analysis tools gather network information and record network activity, providing information that makes it easier to detect intrusions.
- Threat intelligence communities and resource collections. It takes a community to defend against cyber incursions effectively. These tools consist of freely accessible websites that aggregate known compromise indicators and community-generated data about threats. Many of these communities support collaborative research and offer actionable advice on mitigating or fighting cyber threats.
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FAQs
Q: What is meant by threat intelligence?
A: Threat intelligence is evidence-based, detailed, actionable information cybersecurity professionals use to prevent and battle cybersecurity threats targeted at an organization.
Q: What are the different types of threat intelligence?
A: Cybersecurity threat intelligence is usually divided into three categories: strategic, tactical, and operational.
Q: Why do we need threat intelligence?
A: Threat intelligence can:
- Provide directions on safety measures. By identifying and analyzing cyber threats, threat intelligence spots the various patterns hackers use and helps organizations institute security measures to safeguard against future incursions and attacks.
- Prevent data loss. Organizations with a well-structured CTI program can spot cyber threats and stop data breaches from acquiring and releasing sensitive information.
- Raise awareness. Hackers, unfortunately, get smarter and more creative by the day. To keep up with the opposition, cybersecurity experts share the hacker tactics they have seen with other community members or organizations, creating a collective knowledge base to aid in the fight against cybercrimes.
Q: What is the threat intelligence lifecycle?
A: The lifecycle involves the stages of direction, collection, processing, analysis, dissemination, and feedback.
Q: How do you work in threat intelligence?
A: Typically, candidates need a bachelor’s degree in computer science, IT, or a related field, plus some experience in computer science, particularly with network security systems. Some positions require security clearance, and some organizations may require a particular advanced degree or certification.
Q: Where do cyber intelligence analysts find their CTI data?
A: Cyber threat intelligence analysts typically monitor private and public websites to get the latest information on what cybercriminals are doing. Just as the FBI sends agents to infiltrate a criminal gang, cyber intelligence analysts often lurk in the digital underground, gathering knowledge about cybercriminal tactics. The digital underground consists of countless online sites, marketplaces, and forums where hackers and other cybercriminals share tactics and information. Online sites typically include the deep web, the darknet, hacker forums, social media sites, and text-sharing sites like Pastebin and Pastie.
Q: Is threat intelligence in demand?
A: Absolutely, yes. There are more cyberattacks than ever, and the perpetrators are getting more creative and persistent. Organizations need threat intelligence to keep up with the latest threats and thereby combat them more effectively.
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