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Threat Intelligence Explained

“Threat intelligence is evidence-based knowledge about an existing or emerging menace or hazard to assets that can be used to inform decisions regarding the subject’s response to that menace or hazard.”

Threat Intelligence, or Cyber Threat Intelligence, is information an organization uses to understand the threats that have, will, or are currently targeting the organization. This info is used to prepare, prevent, and identify cyber threats looking to take advantage of valuable resources. 

It can be exciting in many situations, but in a world where any number of cyber threats could bring an organization to its knees, it can be downright terrifying. Threat intelligence can help organizations gain valuable knowledge about these threats, build effective defense mechanisms and mitigate the risks that could damage their bottom line and reputation. After all, targeted threats require targeted defense, and cyber threat intelligence delivers the capability to defend more proactively.

While the promise of cyber threat intel is alluring in itself, it is important to understand how it works so you can choose the right cyber threat tools and solutions to protect your business.

Importance Of Threat Intelligence

Threat Intelligence solutions gather raw data about emerging or existing threat actors and threats from a number of sources. This data is then analyzed and filtered to produce threat intel feeds and management reports that contain information that can be used by automated security control solutions. The primary purpose of this type of security is to keep organizations informed of the risks of advanced persistent threats, zero-day threats and exploits, and how to protect against them.

When implemented well, Threat Intelligence can help to achieve the following objectives:

• Ensure you stay up to date with the often overwhelming volume of threats, including methods, vulnerabilities, targets and bad actors.

• Help you become more proactive about future cybersecurity threats.

• Keep leaders, stakeholders and users informed about the latest threats and repercussions they could have on the business.

Common Indicators Of Compromise

Organizations are under increasing pressure to manage security vulnerabilities, and the threat landscape is constantly evolving. Threat Intelligence feeds can assist in this process by identifying common Indicators Of Compromise (IOC) and recommending necessary steps to prevent attack or infection. Some of the most common IOC include:

• IP addresses, URLs and Domain names: An example would be malware targeting an internal host that is communicating with a known threat actor.

• Email addresses, email subject, links and attachments: An example would be a phishing attempt that relies on an unsuspecting user clicking on a link or attachment and initiating a malicious command.

• Registry keys, filenames and file hashes and DLLs: An example would be an attack from an external host that has already been flagged for nefarious behavior or that is already infected.

Types Of Threat Intelligence

There are four varieties of Threat Intelligence: Strategic, Tactical, Technical and Operational. All four are essential to build a comprehensive threat assessment.

• Strategic Threat Intelligence. This analysis summarizes potential cyberattacks and the possible consequences for nontechnical audiences and stakeholders, as well as decision-makers. It is presented in the form of white papers, reports and presentations, and is based on detailed analysis of emerging risks and trends from around the world. It is used to paint a high-level overview of an industry’s or organization’s threat landscape.

• Tactical Threat Intelligence. Tactical intelligence provides information about the Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) that threat actors use. It is intended for those directly involved with protecting IT and data resources. It provides details on how an organization might be attacked based on the latest methods being used and the best ways to defend against or mitigate the attacks.

• Technical Threat Intelligence. This information focuses on signs that indicate an attack is starting. These signs include reconnaissance, weaponization and delivery, such as spear phishing, baiting and social engineering. Technical intelligence plays an important role in blocking social engineering attacks. This type of intelligence is often grouped with operational threat intelligence; however, it adjusts quickly as hackers update their tactics to take advantage of new events and ruses.

• Operational Threat Intelligence. With this approach, information is collected from a variety of sources, including chat rooms, social media, antivirus logs and past events. It is used to anticipate the nature and timing of future attacks. Data mining and machine learning are often used to automate the processing of hundreds of thousands of data points across multiple languages. Security and incident response teams use operational intelligence to change the configuration of certain controls, such as firewall rules, event detection rules and access controls. It can also improve response times as the information provides a clearer idea of what to look for.

Threat Intelligence Lifecycle

There are various steps involved in the threat intelligence gathering process, including the following:

Threat Intelligence Lifecycle

Goals and objectives

To select the right Threat Intelligence sources and tools, an organization must decide what it hopes to achieve by adding threat intelligence to its security solutions and strategy. The goal will most likely be to aid information security teams in stopping potential threats identified during a threat modeling exercise. This requires obtaining intelligence data and tools that can provide up-to-date advice and alerts on the threats considered high risk and high impact. Another important objective is to ensure the right Strategic Intelligence is collected and provided to C-level management so it is aware of changes to the organization’s threat landscape.

Data collection

Logs from internal systems, security controls and cloud services form the foundation of an organization’s threat intelligence program. However, to gain insights into the latest TTPs and industry-specific intelligence, it’s necessary to collect data from third-party threat data feeds. These sources include information gathered from social media sites, hacker forums, malicious IP addresses, antivirus telemetry and threat research reports.

Data processing

Gathering and organizing the raw data needed to create actionable threat intelligence requires automated processing. It is not viable to manually filter, add metadata, and correlate and aggregate varied data types and sources. Threat Intelligence platforms or applications use machine learning to automate data collection and processing, so it can continuously provide information about the activities of threat actors.

Analyze data

This step involves finding answers from the processed data to questions such as when, why and how a suspicious event occurred. This step would answer questions about when a phishing incident happened, what the perpetrator was after and how phishing emails and a malicious domain are linked and how they’re being used.

Report findings

Reports must be tailored to a specific audience so it is clear how the threats covered affect their areas of responsibility. Reports should be shared with the wider community when possible to improve overall security operations.

Final Thoughts

The main purpose of Threat Intelligence is to show organizations the various risks they face from external threats, such as Zero-Day Threats and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). Threat intelligence includes in-depth information and context about specific threats, such as who is attacking, their capabilities and motivation, and the Indicators Of Compromise (IOCs). With this information, organizations can make informed decisions about how to defend against the most damaging attacks.

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