What is Threat Intelligence in Cybersecurity?

Threat intelligence is the analysis of data using tools and techniques to generate meaningful information about existing or emerging threats targeting the organization that helps mitigate risks. Threat Intelligence helps organizations make faster, more informed security decisions and change their behavior from reactive to proactive to combat the attacks.

What is cyber threat intelligence and why do you need it?

Cyber Intelligence is the knowledge that allows you to prevent or mitigate cyber-attacks by studying the threat data and provide information on adversaries. It helps to identify, prepare, and prevent attacks by providing information on attackers, their motive, and capabilities.

Threat intelligence prepares organizations to be proactive with predictive capabilities instead of reactive for future cyber-attacks. Without understanding security vulnerabilities, threat indicators, and how threats are carried out, it is impossible to combat cyber-attacks effectively. Using cyber intelligence security professionals can prevent and contain attacks faster, potentially saving the cost in the event of cyber-attacks. Threat intelligence can elevate enterprise security at every level, including network and cloud security.

What Does Threat Intelligence Do?

Threat intelligence helps organizations with valuable knowledge about these threats, build effective defense mechanisms, and mitigate the risks that could cause financial and reputational damage. Threat Intelligence is the predictive capability to defend the future attacks that the organization is exposed to so they can proactively tailor their defenses and preempt future attacks.

Who is A Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst?

A cyber intelligence analyst is a security professional who monitors and analyzes external cyber threat data to provide actionable intelligence. These experts triage data of security incidents collected from different threat intelligence sources and study the pattern of attacks, their methodology, motive, severity, and threat landscape. This data is then analyzed and filtered to produce threat intelligence feeds and reports that help management (security officer) in making decisions concerning organizational security. Often, these individuals are Certified Threat Intelligence Analysts who come with both the knowledge and skills needed for the job role.

What Are The Types of Threat Intelligence?

Cyber Threat Intelligence is mainly categorized as strategic, tactical, technical, and operational.

1. Strategic Threat Intelligence

Strategic threat intelligence provides an overview of the organization’s threat landscape. It is less technical is mainly for executive-level security professionals to drive high-level organizational strategy based on the findings in the reports. Ideally, strategic threat intelligence provides insights like vulnerabilities and risks associated with the organization’s threat landscape with preventive actions, threat actors, their goals, and the severity of the potential attacks.

2. Tactical Threat Intelligence

Tactical threat intelligence consists of more specific details on threat actors TTP and is mainly for the security team to understand the attack vectors. Intelligence gives them insights on how to build a defense strategy to mitigate those attacks. The report includes the vulnerabilities in the security systems that attackers could take advantage of and how to identify such attacks.

The finding is used to strengthen the existing security controls/defense mechanism and helps to remove the vulnerabilities in the network.

3. Technical Threat Intelligence

Technical threat intelligence focuses on specific clues or evidence of an attack and creates a base to analyze such attacks. Threat Intelligence analyst scans for the indicator of compromise (IOCs), which includes reported IP addresses, the content of phishing emails, malware samples, and fraudulent URLs. Timing for sharing technical intelligence is very critical because IOCs such as malicious IPs or fraudulent URLs become obsolete in a few days.

4. Operational Threat Intelligence

Operational threat intelligence focuses on knowledge about the attacks. It gives detailed insights on factors like nature, motive, timing, and how an attack is carried out. Ideally, the information is gathered from hacker chat rooms or their discussion online through infiltration, which makes it difficult to obtain.

Challenges in gathering operational Intelligence:

  • Threats usually communicate over encrypted or private chat rooms, and access to these channels is not easy.
  • It is not easy to manually gather relevant intelligence from huge data of chat rooms or other communication channels.
  • Threat groups may use confusing and ambiguous language so that no one can understand their conversation.

Creating a Cyber Threat Intelligence Program

What is a Cyber Threat Intelligence Program?

Cyber Threat Intelligence program combines thousands of Threat Intelligence Feeds into a single feed, instead of viewing them separately to enable consistent characterization and, categorization of cyber threat events, and identify trends or changes in the activities of cyber adversaries. The program consistently describes cyber threat activity in a way that allows efficient information sharing and threat analysis. It assists the threat intelligence team by comparing the feed with internal telemetry and creates alerts.

How Do You Implement Cyber Threat Intelligence?

Once relevant cyber threat information is extracted from threat data, it goes through a process of thorough analysis and structured processing with necessary technologies and techniques followed by sharing with required stakeholders to harden the security controls and prevent future cyber-attacks.

Golden Rules for Implementing a Cyber Threat Intelligence Program

  • Create a Plan
  • Involve the right people
  • Understand the difference between Threat Data and Threat Intelligence
  • Communication
  • Know who all need the Intelligence
  • Implement the right TTP (Tools, Techniques and Procedures)
  • Integrate with the Organization security technology

Enterprise Objectives for Cyber Intelligence Programs

Aligning enterprise objectives in creating the threat intelligence program sets the roadmap for threat intelligence. The data, assets, and business processes that need to be protected should be well defined along with the impact analysis of the losing such assets. It helps to outline; what type of threat intelligence is required and who all should be involved.

Role of Threat Analyst in Threat Intelligence Life cycle

Cyber intelligence analysts, also known as “cyber threat analysts,” are information security professionals who use their skills and background knowledge to collect and analyze the threat data to create intelligence in the form of reports and share with the respective department. Certified cyber intelligence analyst is required for creating a threat intelligence program.

Threat Intelligence Strategy and Capabilities

Threat intelligence strategy involves sound planning with the application of tools, techniques, and methodologies, followed by a review to check the effectiveness of the plan. While devising the strategy, one should also consider their threat intelligence capabilities and structure the program accordingly, including the support of different departments.

Cyber Threats and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

Understanding cyber threats and advanced persistent threats are the most crucial aspect of threat intelligence program.

What are Advanced Persistent Threats (APT)?

An advanced persistent threat is an attack in which an unauthorized user gains access to a network system and remains there for a long time without being detected. Advanced persistent threats are highly menacing for organizations, as attackers have continuous access to the company’s data. Advanced persistent threats are carried out in phases which involve hacking the network, hiding themselves to access as much information as possible, planning an attack, studying organization’s information systems, searching for easy access to sensitive data, and exfiltrating that data.

Cyber Threat Intelligence Frameworks

Cyber threat intelligence framework creates intelligence to respond to cyber-attacks by managing, detecting, and alerting security professionals of potential threats. It provides an actional plan to mitigate the attacks by collecting the latest threat source information and create threat models.

Understanding Cyber Kill Chain & IOCs

 

The cyber kill chain is a series of steps that trace stages of a cyberattack from the early reconnaissance stages to the exfiltration of data. The kill chain helps us understand and combat ransomware, security breaches, and advanced persistent attacks (APTs)

The cyber kill chain is a series of steps that trace stages of a cyberattack from the early reconnaissance stages to the exfiltration of data. The kill chain helps us understand and combat ransomware, security breaches, and advanced persistent attacks (APTs)

 

Organization’s Current Threat Landscape

This includes identifying critical threats to an organization, assessing the organization’s current security posture, security team’s structure, and competencies. Understanding of organization’s current security infrastructure and operations assist security professionals in assessing risks for identified threats.

Requirements Analysis

Requirement analysis is all about mapping organization’s ideal target state, identifying needs, and requirements for cyber intelligence, defining requirements and categories, aligning the requirements of business units, stakeholders and third parties, prioritizing intelligence requirements, the scope of cyber threat intelligence program, engagement rules, non-disclosure agreements, and common risks to cyber threat intelligence program.

Planning for a threat intelligence program

Key elements of a Cyber Threat Intelligence Program are: