Threat Intelligence Security Solutions: Significance, Types, and Tools

Organizations are implementing threat intelligence systems to keep their eyes on any ongoing cyber threat on them. This security system helps the companies to prepare, identify, and prevent cyber threats in big organizations and protect valuable information.

Cyber threats have become more sophisticated with time and capable of destroying every size of company. Threat intelligence services help such companies to identify any upcoming threat and get ready to defend the bottom line and reputation of the companies by building strong defense mechanisms. Targeted defense system can safeguard an organization from targeted cyber threat and cyber threat intelligence is the solution for that.

Significance of Threat Intelligence Security System

Threat intelligence security solution collects raw data about any emerging or existing threat from various sources. The collected data is then analyzed and filtered. Threat intel feeds and management reports are produced to the automated security control solutions. The major purpose of this type of security is to keep the companies & organizations informed about the risks in advance and be prepared to fight against them proactively.

Types of Threat Intelligence

Depending on the initial intelligence requirements, sources of information, and intended audience, threat intelligence are categorized into three types:

5. Strategic — Comes with broader trends basically designed for a non-technical user
5. Tactical — Provides outlines of the techniques, tactics, and procedures of threat elements for tech-savvy user
5. Operational — Technical specifics about attacks and campaigns

Strategic Threat Intelligence

Strategic threat intelligence offers a comprehensive overview of the threat possibilities in an organization. This type of intelligence is used to inform threats regarding high-level executive decisions. Reports and briefing are used to present this information. Some of the primary sources of information for strategic threat intelligence include:

• Local and national media, industry and subject-specific publications, and other subject-matter specialists
• Policy documents from non-governmental organizations or nation-states
• Research reports, white papers, and other content produced by security organizations

An effective strategic threat intelligence requires focused and specific questioning to meet the necessity of intelligence. It also requires the expert analysts to go beyond their comfort zone and they might have a good understanding of business and sociopolitical concepts.

Tactical Threat Intelligence

Tactical threat intelligence identifies the techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTPs) of the cyber attackers. It helps the companies to understand, in specific terms, the ways the cyber criminals may attack or pose a greater threat to the company and the best ways to mitigate and nullify such threats.

The easiest way to get tactical threat intelligence is the reports produced by security vendors. Looking for the information related to the the attack trajectories, apparatuses, and infrastructure can be found in these reports.

Operational Threat Intelligence

Operational threat intelligence is awareness about cyber attacks, campaigns, and events. It provides strength to the incident response team by providing specialized insights to the nature, goal, and timing of these cyber attacks.

Since this type of intelligence usually offers technical information such as the kind of attack vector being used, vulnerabilities that are being targeted, or command and control domains being implemented. This type of intelligence is also stated as technical threat intelligence.

Threat data feeds is the most common source of technical information. These feeds typically focuses on a single type of indicator such as suspicious domains.

Tools for Cyber Threat Intelligence Management

An effective cybersecurity solution needs the right tools for its performance evaluation. Some of the tools for the management of cyber threat intelligence include:

1. Threat Reconnaissance and Data Attribution

Threat reconnaissance is more effective in identifying vulnerable assets compared to the traditional threat intelligence solutions. This tool helps the security teams in eliminating the weak spots before they are misused by the attackers.

2. Automatic Detection

Automated threat intelligence detection is an indispensable tool for organizations. Automation also eliminates the chances of human error improving the exactness of the threat intelligence.

3. Consolidated Management

An effective way of communication is difficult in an enterprise as they have many moving parts. Inclusion of a third-party vendor only intensifies this difficulty. With the help of consolidated data management tool, it becomes easier to keep the team on the same page across the organization.

With the rising cyber threats and attacks across the big and small industries in the developed and developing countries, the importance of threat intelligence security solutions has been increased more than ever. This will be the driving factor of the global threat intelligence security solutions industry in near future.

About the Author(s)

   

Upama Goswami

Upama Goswami is a creative writer, editor, aspiring poet, and life-long learner of philosophy, literature, technology, and all things interesting. Her works have been published in various online publications. Upama is quite creative in her craft and can engage her audience with a compelling style of storytelling. She loves to paint, travel, exploring different niches of performing arts, watching movies, and learn new languages in her free time.