What is Threat Intelligence?

Threat intelligence is a set of data, information, and knowledge about threats to an organization. Threat Intelligence (TI) solutions are designed to help organizations identify and defend against cyber attacks by analyzing data from multiple sources, including public and private feeds, manual analysis, honeypots, and more.

TI Use Case and Ecosystem

TI can be used for the detection of new threats, mitigation of existing ones, building new security products or services, improving existing ones, etc. Some types of Threat Intelligence companies include; Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP), Security Information and Event Management Providers (SIEM), and Security Consulting Firms.

  • The MSSPs are the most common type of Threat Intelligence companies. They provide advanced security services to their customers and have many experts in different areas, such as network security, data protection, and threat intelligence.
  • The SIEM providers offer solutions that enable organizations to collect information about cyber threats and events using various technologies like log management platforms or network monitoring tools.
  • The consulting firms usually have experience working with different types of companies, but they don’t provide specific products themselves; instead, they help their clients find the right solution for them based on their needs

Vital Components

Threat Intelligence Solutions include some key components, including the ability to detect threats, which includes collecting, analyzing, and identifying threats. Furthermore, they hunt threats by finding new or unknown threats in your environment. In addition, they analyze threats by evaluating previously identified threats to determine if they are still valid or need to be removed from your environment due to changes in their behavior patterns or other factors.

And finally, they respond to threats; this refers to how you respond when an incident occurs. It also includes notifying appropriate stakeholders and taking steps such as containment/eradication/recovery based on severity level determined by impact analysis techniques such as OCTAVE (Operationally Critical Threat, Asset, and Vulnerability Evaluation) or CERT-CC’s IMPACT methodology.”

Some of the advantages that Threat Intelligence Solutions provide include:

  • Improved Security Posture: Threat intelligence solutions can help you improve your security posture by providing actionable information about threats targeting your organization. This information allows you to take appropriate measures to protect against those threats, such as blocking malicious IP addresses or installing patches on vulnerable systems.
  • Improved Visibility and Insight: Threat intelligence solutions also provide visibility into the current state of cyber risk in the enterprise, allowing IT teams to see what’s happening across their networks to better identify potential problems before they cause damage.

Some challenges facing Threat Intelligence Solutions include; High Cost, limited resources, limited expertise, and data overload, to name just a few.

How to choose a Threat Intelligence Company 

Choosing the right TI partner involves a 4-step methodology:

  1. Understand your needs
  2. Research the company
  3. Evaluate the technology
  4. Analyze the costs

Some of the best practices for implementing Threat Intelligence Solutions include; developing a comprehensive strategy, prioritizing threats, automating processes where possible, and monitoring results. Some ways to measure the success of a Threat Intelligence Solution include; measuring security metrics, tracking incident response times, analyzing data quality, and finally, monitoring user engagement.

In conclusion, threat intelligence is a powerful tool that can help protect your organization from cyber threats. It’s important to understand that threat intelligence isn’t just about detecting and responding to attacks, but also about preventing them from happening in the first place.

Post Author: Elena Oscar