As organizations are hosting their critical data on virtual servers and with greater use of networking, automation, and the internet, the risks associated have increased manifold in cyberattacks. As in any other activity, intelligence is critical to ward off any attack by enemies. In the IT context, threat intelligence is the knowledge that allows businesses and government organizations to prepare and prevent such attacks.
Threat intelligence is backed by data that allows one to know in advance the identity of attackers, their motivation, how capable they are. This also indicates that areas in the system are weak or vulnerable, which could be the potential target. By knowing this crucial information’s as an intelligence input, cyber experts make informed decisions on how to beef up the security.
Types of threat intelligence
It is crucial to break down cyber threat intelligenceinto three major categories. It is often seen in a typical threat intelligence lifecycle. The initial intelligence input and the final result vary depending on the source of information and target audience.
- Strategic – these are broad inputs based on that helps a non-technical audience to understand and become alert.
- Tactical – identify the tactics and techniques used by hackers and meant for a technical audience.
- Operational– provides details of specific attacks and campaigns.
The importance of Threat Intelligence
Increasing cybercrime has threatened the cybersecurity industry. To top it all, hackers keep changing their attack strategies and stay one step ahead in the process. Their job is even simpler with unsecured systems across the network and a shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals.
A cyber threat intelligence service in North America can address threat data issues, what tools to use, and when. Machine learning is the best way to automate the collection of threat data, process, and integrate existing solutions in the system. Recognizing the unstructured data from unknown and fishy sources and then connecting the dots. This will provide the context of the compromise and the type of tactics used by attackers. The advantage of having threat intelligence is that it is timely, actionable, and recognized by security experts.
Benefits of threat intelligence
Everyone is benefited from it. Cyber threat intelligence may sound complicated and for technical domain analysts, but in reality, it concerns everyone, including various security functions across the organizations.
Security operations teams can’t process threat intelligence data manually despite the alerts they receive. The integration of threat intelligence with existing security solutions helps to automate priorities and filter alerts. On the other hand, the vulnerability management team prioritizes the critical weaknesswith threat intelligence information.
The other security parts such as fraud prevention, risk analysis, and other high-level security processes are boosted by understanding the latest threat that the intelligence provides.
Conclusion Cyber threat intelligence is not raw data. They are a finished product that comes out of the threat intelligence cycle. This cycle consists of data collection, processing, and analysis. It is called a cycle because it raises new questions at different stages, and gaps are plugged in over the course of intelligence gathering.