Cyber Threat intelligence is one of the most critical concerns in the evolving threat environment of rapid day-zero attacks, cyber-criminality and espionage activities; the traditional approaches will be increasingly important to maintain but will simply not be sufficient to address risk in individual organizations adequately.

Threat actors are constantly inventing new tools and techniques to enable them to get to the information they want. They are getting better at identifying gaps and unknown vulnerabilities in an organization’s security.

In the evolving threat environment of rapid day-zero attacks, cyber-criminality and espionage activities, the traditional approaches will be increasingly important to maintain, but will not be sufficient to properly address risk in individual organizations. Threat actors are constantly inventing new tools and techniques to enable them to get to the information they want and are getting better at identifying gaps and unknown vulnerabilities in an organization’s security.

Also learn : Certified Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst

What Exactly is threat intelligence?

Threat intelligence is what threat data or threat information become when gathered and evaluated from trusted, reliable sources, processed and enriched, then disseminated in a way that can be considered actionable to its end-user.

Intelligence means that the end-user can identify threats and opportunities in the cybersecurity landscape, using accurate, relevant, contextualized information. By eliminating the need to sort through thousands of alerts from data, security teams can maximize their own limited resources and accelerate their decision-making processes.

When the nature of the threat is suspected and attributed to a specific threat actor, processes can be adjusted (e.g., deciding what should be done with a piece of targeted malware), countermeasures developed (e.g., if actor X is attacking, it has historically gone after a certain type of information), or develop metrics to trend the attempts over time in order to posture the organization against losses best.

It is therefore important not only to be able to prioritize CTI processes but to understand how they can be integrated into the security operations functions in a way that adds value.

How Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) provides value?

For CTI to be useful, it needs to be focused on the business’s priorities, helping to reduce the organization’s risk profile by enhancing security operations and business decision-making.
For intelligence to accomplish this, several factors have to be considered:
• Intelligence should strive to be timely — it should address an issue that is happening or likely to happen
• Intelligence should strive to be accurate — it should be representative of the actual activity seen
• Intelligence should strive to be actionable — the organization should be able actually to do something with it
• Intelligence should strive to be relevant — the content addressed should be something of value to the business.

The six phases of the Threat Intelligence Lifecycle.

How the Threat intelligence more beneficial to SOC?

The benefits of real-time detection using CTI is most proactive defense mechanism. In most SOC, the false positive alarms are causing more noise due to inadequate knowledge of the attack pattern or TTPs or IOC’s or the attack surface used by the adversary.

Real-time threat intelligence can help you maintain visibility of the landscape so that your security infrastructure can respond to the latest threats in real-time.

This includes detecting malicious activity already inside your network, analyzing it and helping your security team understand the attackers’ objectives. Many companies are yet to see the value of adding threat intelligence to their cybersecurity infrastructure as a crucial layer of deep defense.

You can also check the Most Important Cyber Threat Intelligence Tools List For Hackers and Security Professionals

Types of Threat Intelligence

Strategic threat intelligence provides a wide view of the threat environment and business issues. It is designed to inform the decisions of executive boards and senior officers. Strategic threat intelligence usually is not overly technical and is most likely to cover topics such as the financial impact of cybersecurity or major regulatory changes.

Tactical threat intelligence focuses on attackers’ tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). It relates to the specific attack vectors favored by threat actors in your industry or geographic location.

Typically this form of intelligence is highly actionable and is used by operational staff such as incident responders to ensure technical controls and processes are suitably prepared.

Typically this form of intelligence is highly actionable and is used by operational staff such as incident responders to ensure technical controls and processes are suitably prepared.

Operational threat intelligence is related to specific, impending attacks. It helps senior security staff anticipate when and where attacks will come.

Technical threat intelligence comprises a stream of indicators that can be used to automatically identify and block suspected malicious communications.

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Conclusion

“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight
a hundred battles without disaster.”
― Sun Tzu

Also Read:

SOC First Defense phase – Understanding the Attack Chain – A Basic Defense approach with/without SOC

SOC Third Defense Phase – Understanding Your Organization Assets

Modern CyberSOC – A Brief Implementation Of Building a Collaborative Cyber Security Infrastructure