What is Cyber Threat Intelligence?

What is Cyber Threat Intelligence?

Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) involves the systematic collection and analysis of data from diverse sources to understand and respond to cyber threats. This includes indicators of compromise, tactics, techniques, and procedures. The initial phase focuses on gathering a comprehensive dataset, forming the basis for subsequent analysis to identify patterns and correlations related to threat actors and their methods.

Contextualization is critical in CTI, ensuring that intelligence is relevant to a specific organization, industry, or sector. This tailored approach enables organizations to prioritize responses based on the threats most likely to impact their unique environment. Sharing plays a pivotal role, with organizations exchanging intelligence to create a collective defense against cyber threats. This collaborative effort enhances the ability to prepare for, detect, and respond effectively to a dynamic threat landscape.

The ultimate goal of CTI is to make intelligence actionable, translating insights into practical security measures. From updating intrusion detection system signatures to configuring firewalls, organizations leverage CTI to proactively fortify their defenses. As a continuous and adaptive process, CTI involves ongoing monitoring and feedback loops to refine and improve intelligence efforts. This iterative cycle ensures organizations maintain a proactive and resilient cybersecurity posture in the face of evolving digital threats.

The Cyber Threat Intelligence Lifecycle

The cyber threat intelligence lifecycle includes the following steps:

Requirements: This phase will provide a road-map for specific threat intelligence operations, and will help security teams;

• Understand and prioritize what needs to be protected.
• Identify the threat intelligence needed to protect assets and respond to threats.
• Understand the impact of a cyber breach on their organization.

Collection of data: This phase involves searching for event log data, public data sources, relevant forums, and social media platforms, and subscribing to industry leaders.

Analysis of data: This phase involves conducting an analysis of the collected data to find answers to the questions posed in the requirements phase and develop recommendations for the stakeholders.

Distribution of intelligence: This phase involves translating the analysis into an understandable format and presenting the results to stakeholders. Recommendations should be presented clearly, without confusing jargon, either in a one-page report or a short presentation.

Collection of feedback: This phase involves collecting feedback from stakeholders to determine if any adjustments are needed for future threat intelligence operations. Stakeholders may change their priorities, how often they would like to receive intelligence reports, or how the data is distributed or presented.

Types of Cyber Threat Intelligence

There are three main types of cyber threat intelligence, which include:

Operational threat intelligence: This involves gathering and analyzing data from a variety of sources such as logs, alerts, and other systems, in order to identify and respond to potentially malicious activity, in real time.

Strategic threat intelligence: This involves identifying potential threats in the future and developing a plan to mitigate those threats. Teams must have a comprehensive view of the threat landscape in order to identify emerging threats and anticipate future trends.

Tactical threat intelligence: This involves identifying and responding to threats in the near-term, and can be used to create a tactical response to an immediate threat.

What Should Cyber Threat Intelligence Provide?

Cyber threat intelligence should provide insights that help organizations better understand their attackers, respond faster to incidents, and proactively get ahead of a threat actor’s next move. Threat intelligence requirements are explained in more detail below;

Multi-Source data collection & correlation: Since different perspectives yield different data and insights, data should be aggregated from as many data sources as possible – both internal and external.

Automated analysis & triage: A threat intelligence platform should perform automated analysis, triage, and prioritization of information to ensure analysts see the most important data first.

Data sharing: Threat intelligence data should be kept in a single, centralized system, and should include integrations to automatically distribute data across an organization’s security deployment.

Automation: As cyber threat actors continue to launch new and improved attacks, the use of automation to streamline the analysis and utilization of threat intelligence is crucial if you want to establish a robust data security strategy.

Actionable insights: A threat intelligence platform should provide actionable insights and security recommendations, since knowing that a particular threat exists is not the same as knowing how to respond to it.

How To Select a Threat Intelligence Platform

There are many different threat intelligence platforms and feeds available. However, it’s worth noting that, when it comes to threat intelligence, more is not always better. Subscribing to multiple feeds and attempting to aggregate and correlate them internally can result in a large amount of redundant and low-quality data. Organizations should choose a threat intelligence platform with the following characteristics:

Real-time data: Since many cyber-attacks last only hours or minutes, an effective threat intelligence platform will provide insights based on real-time data.

Extended threat visibility: A threat intelligence platform should provide insights not only on threats targeting a company’s specific industry but also on threats facing the larger market.

Integration with other solutions: A threat intelligence platform should be able to integrate with multiple cyber-security solutions to automatically respond to threats as they are detected.

How Lepide Helps with Threat Intelligence

While the Lepide Data Security Platform doesn’t curate and publish threat intelligence feeds, it does aggregate and correlate event data from a wide range of platforms, including Azure AD, Office 365, Exchange Server, Google Workspace, Amazon S3, and more. It uses machine learning models to differentiate between legitimate user activity and activity that is potentially malicious. It can also generate real-time alerts and detailed reports, and even automate a response to events that match a predefined threshold condition.

If you’d like to see how the Lepide Data Security Platform can help you aggregate and correlate important security information, schedule a demo with one of our engineers.

FAQs

How can I get started with using cyber threat intelligence (CTI) in my organization?

Implementing Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) in your organization requires a well-defined strategy. The first step is to understand your specific needs and goals. Conduct a thorough risk assessment to identify your critical assets, vulnerabilities, and potential attack vectors. This will help you prioritize areas where CTI can have the most significant impact. Additionally, define clear goals for your CTI program. Do you aim to improve threat detection, inform security decision-making, or gain deeper insights into specific threat actors?

Next, focus on building your CTI program. Assess your existing resources and identify any skill gaps within your team. Consider investing in training programs to equip your team with the necessary knowledge and expertise for CTI implementation. Additionally, choose CTI sources that align with your defined needs and goals. This could include commercial threat feeds, open-source intelligence (OSINT), and threat sharing communities.

Finally, implement the CTI lifecycle. This involves collecting threat intelligence from chosen sources, processing and analyzing the data to extract actionable insights, sharing these insights with relevant stakeholders like security teams and decision-makers, and continuously gathering feedback to refine your approach. Remember, it’s best to start small and gradually expand your CTI program as you gain experience and resources. Seeking guidance from cybersecurity professionals or managed security service providers (MSSPs) can be invaluable in this process. By carefully planning, implementing, and continuously improving your CTI program, you can effectively strengthen your organization’s cybersecurity posture and proactively manage cyber threats.

What are some specific examples of how CTI has been used to successfully prevent or mitigate cyber-attacks?

CTI has demonstrably helped organizations prevent and mitigate cyberattacks in several ways. It has enabled the identification and disabling of malicious infrastructure like command-and-control servers, disrupting ongoing attacks and preventing further infections. By sharing this information with internet service providers or law enforcement, these servers can be taken down, effectively hindering attacker operations.

Furthermore, CTI provides valuable insights into the tactics and tools employed by attackers in recent campaigns. This allows organizations to prioritize patching efforts, focusing on vulnerabilities most actively targeted by known threats. This targeted approach reduces the attack surface, making it harder for attackers to gain a foothold in the network.

CTI can also be used for proactive threat hunting. By informing the development of hunting rules and indicators of compromise (IOCs), organizations can actively search for malicious activity within their networks. This proactive approach allows them to identify and respond to potential threats before they escalate into major incidents, potentially saving valuable time and resources.

Moreover, CTI can be used to disrupt phishing campaigns. When information about upcoming phishing campaigns targeting specific industries or organizations is revealed by CTI, the targeted entities can be prepared to identify and avoid these attempts, mitigating potential data breaches or financial losses.

It’s important to remember that the effectiveness of CTI is multifaceted. The quality of the intelligence itself, the organization’s ability to analyze and act on it, and collaboration with other stakeholders like law enforcement and industry partners all play crucial roles in maximizing the benefits of CTI.

What are the different tools and resources available to help organizations collect and analyze CTI data?

Organizations can leverage various tools and resources to collect and analyze CTI data. Open-source intelligence (OSINT) involves gathering information from publicly available sources like social media, news, and security forums. Tools like Maltego and SpiderFoot can automate data collection and visualization from these sources.

Commercial threat feeds offer curated and enriched threat intelligence, often focused on specific industries or threat actors, through a subscription model. Additionally, joining threat sharing communities like TheHive allows security professionals to collaborate and exchange valuable insights and perspectives.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems aggregate and analyze logs from various security devices, providing insights into potential threats within an organization’s network. Sandbox analysis tools like Cuckoo Sandbox allow safe execution of suspicious files to analyze their behavior and identify potential malware.

Finally, analytical frameworks like the MITRE ATT&CK Framework offer a standardized approach to describing attacker tactics and techniques, aiding in threat detection and analysis. By effectively combining these tools and resources with skilled analysts, organizations can build a robust CTI program to stay informed about evolving threats and proactively defend their systems.