What Is Threat Intelligence?

Threat intelligence is the process of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information about potential or actual cyber threats that could target an organization. It involves gathering data from various sources, such as open-source intelligence, dark web monitoring, and security vendor feeds, and using advanced analytics to identify patterns and trends that could indicate a potential cyber attack.

Threat intelligence a critical component of any effective security strategy. By using threat intelligence, organizations can stay ahead of potential threats and proactively defend against cyber attacks. It can help security teams identify and prioritize potential threats, understand the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by threat actors, and implement effective mitigation and response strategies.

Moreover, threat intelligence is essential for enhancing the overall security posture of an organization, as it enables security teams to identify and address vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. By monitoring and analyzing threat intelligence, organizations can also gain insights into emerging threats and new attack vectors, which can inform the development of security policies, procedures, and controls.

Threat intelligence, often synonymous with open source intelligence (OSINT) is knowledge that allows you to prevent or mitigate those attacks. Rooted in data, threat intelligence provides context — like who is attacking you, what their motivation and capabilities are, and what indicators of compromise in your systems to look for — that helps you make informed decisions about your security.

Why Is Threat Intelligence Important?

The field of cybersecurity is currently facing several daunting challenges. Cyber threat actors are becoming more sophisticated and determined, and security professionals are struggling to keep up with the sheer volume of data and false alarms generated by multiple, disconnected security systems. To compound these issues, there is also a significant shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals available to address these challenges. Moreover, the attack surfaces that organizations need to secure are larger than ever before, and they need to consider a wide range of risks beyond just cyber attacks, including physical security, operational disruptions, and reputational damage.

Incorporating threat data feeds into a network is a common strategy for many organizations, but it can create its own set of challenges. In some cases, organizations may struggle to effectively manage the overwhelming amount of data generated by these feeds, which can add additional strain to already overworked analysts. Without the proper tools and processes in place to help them decide which threats to prioritize and which to ignore, analysts may find themselves unable to effectively respond to emerging threats.

Threat intelligence is actionable — it’s timely, provides context, and is able to be understood by the people in charge of making decisions.

Who Can Benefit From Threat Intelligence?

All security & risk teams and leaders! Threat intelligence is widely imagined to be the domain of elite analysts. In reality, it adds value across security functions for organizations of all sizes.

When threat intelligence is treated as a separate function within a broader security team rather than an essential component that augments every other function, the result is that many of the people who would benefit the most from threat intelligence don’t have access to it when they need it.

Security operations teams are routinely unable to process the alerts they receive — threat intelligence integrates with the security solutions you already use, helping automatically prioritize and filter alerts and other threats. Vulnerability management teams can more accurately prioritize the most important vulnerabilities with access to the external insights and context provided by threat intelligence. And fraud prevention, risk analysis, and other high-level security processes are enriched by the understanding of the current threat landscape that threat intelligence provides, including key insights on threat actors, their tactics, techniques, and procedures, and more from data sources across the web.