Threat intelligence guide

Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) refers to gathering, analyzing, and sharing analytic judgments and insights into cyber threat operations, with a particular focus on tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP). It represents more than just the collection of data about potential threats; it is the transformation of that raw information using critical analysis into actionable insights that empower security teams to make informed, data-driven decisions.

CTI informs decisions regarding the subject’s response to those threats. It moves beyond raw data points (like an IP address or a file hash) to provide context such as:

• Who is carrying out the attack?
• Why are they doing it?
• What are their capabilities?
• How do they operate?

By understanding the motives, targets, and attack methods of adversaries, organizations can better prepare their defenses, detect malicious activity earlier, and respond more effectively when incidents do occur.

The primary purpose of threat intelligence is to help organizations understand and mitigate risks associated with cyber threats. By providing context and insight into the threat landscape, threat intelligence enables organizations to shift from a reactive security posture—responding only after an attack occurs—to a proactive one.

Key outcomes of threat intelligence include:

• Informed decision-making: Providing actionable information to security teams, IT departments, risk management professionals, and executive leadership to make better-informed security decisions, from strategic planning to real-time incident response.
• Proactive defense: Identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. This allows organizations to strengthen defenses through efficient identification and prioritization of vulnerability patches, security controls, and other countermeasures.
• Improved detection and response: Enhancing the ability to detect ongoing attacks by providing indicators of compromise (IOC) and understanding adversary TTPs. This leads to faster detection times and more effective incident response, minimizing potential damage.
• Strategic planning: Offering insights into emerging threats, adversary motivations, and geopolitical factors that could impact the organization’s risk profile. This helps shape long-term security strategy and investments.
• Efficient resource allocation: Helping organizations prioritize security efforts and allocate resources effectively by focusing on the most relevant and significant threats.
• Risk reduction: Ultimately, the goal is to reduce the overall risk exposure of the organization by understanding and mitigating threats relevant to its specific industry, geography, and technology stack.

Integrating threat intelligence into a security program offers numerous tangible benefits for businesses of all sizes and across various sectors. These advantages extend beyond simply blocking malicious activity; they contribute to overall business resilience and operational efficiency.

Enhanced security posture

By understanding the specific threats targeting their industry or organization, businesses can tailor their defenses more effectively. This includes configuring security tools like firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDPS), and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions with relevant threat data, leading to fewer successful attacks.

Reduced breach likelihood and impact

Proactive identification and mitigation of threats significantly reduce the chances of a successful security breach. Even if a breach occurs, intelligence-informed incident response can contain the damage faster, minimizing financial losses, reputational harm, and operational disruption.

Improved incident response

Threat intelligence provides crucial context during an incident. Knowing the adversary’s likely TTPs helps responders identify the scope of the compromise, anticipate the adversary’s next moves, and eradicate the threat more efficiently, reducing the mean time to respond (MTTR).

Optimized security investments

Understanding the most pertinent threats allows organizations to invest security budgets more wisely. Instead of adopting a scattergun approach, they can prioritize technologies, personnel, and processes that address the highest-priority risks identified through intelligence analysis.

Support for compliance and risk management

Many regulatory frameworks (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS) require organizations to demonstrate proactive risk management. Threat intelligence provides evidence of due diligence in understanding and mitigating cyber risks, aiding compliance efforts.

Increased situational awareness

Cyber threat intelligence keeps organizations informed about the broader threat environment, including campaigns targeting peers, supply chain risks, and emerging adversary capabilities. This awareness helps anticipate future challenges.

Fraud prevention

Intelligence about phishing campaigns, malicious domains, and fraudulent infrastructure can be used to protect customers and employees from scams and financial loss.

Threat intelligence is often categorized based on its audience, scope, and application. Understanding these types helps organizations consume and utilize intelligence effectively.

Strategic threat intelligence

Audience: Executives, board members, high-level management, policy makers.

Content:

• High-level information about the changing risk landscape.
• Focuses on broad trends, adversary motivations, geopolitical implications, and the potential impact of cyber threats on business objectives and overall risk posture. It is typically less technical.

Purpose

• To inform long-term strategic decisions about risk management, security investments, and overall business strategy.
• Answers questions like “What are the major cyber risks facing our industry?” or “How might geopolitical tensions affect our cyber exposure?”

Timescale: Months to years.

Operational threat intelligence

Audience: Security practitioners, network defenders, security operations center (SOC) analysts, incident responders, architects.

Content:

• More detailed information about adversary TTPs, operations, or campaigns and how that knowledge translates into defenders’ actions.
• Focuses on the “who,” “why,” “how,” “when,” and “where” of an attack, offering insights into an attacker’s intent, capabilities, and the nature and timing of their activities.
• Describes how adversaries conduct their operations—the tools they use, the vulnerabilities they exploit, and the infrastructure they leverage.
• Often aligns with frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK®.

Purpose:

• To help defenders understand how they might be attacked, allowing them to improve defensive controls, write better detection rules, and refine security processes.
• Answers questions like “What methods are adversaries using to gain initial access?” or “How can we detect specific lateral movement techniques?”

Timescale: Real-time to months.

Tactical threat intelligence

Audience: SOC analysts, incident responders, security tool administrators.

Content:

• Highly technical and specific information about ongoing or imminent attacks.
• Includes details like malicious IP addresses, command and control (C2) domains, file hashes, vulnerability exploits currently being used, and specific malware signatures. These are often referred to as IOCs.

Purpose:

• To provide actionable data for immediate defensive actions, such as blocking malicious IPs/domains, identifying compromised systems through specific hashes, or triggering alerts in security tools like SIEM or EDR platforms.
• Answers questions like “Are any of our systems communicating with known C2 servers?” or “Has this specific malicious file been seen on our network?”

Timescale: Real-time to days/weeks.

Technical threat intelligence

Audience: Highly specialized roles like malware analysts, forensic investigators, threat hunters.

Content: Deep-dive details on specific indicators, such as malware analysis (code structure, functionality, command protocols), tool artifacts, or network traffic patterns associated with a particular threat.

Purpose: To support specific investigations, reverse-engineer adversary tools, and develop highly specific detection mechanisms. Often feeds into tactical and operational intelligence.

Timescale: Varies based on investigation.

These categories often overlap, and intelligence can flow between them. For example, technical analysis of malware (technical) can reveal new C2 infrastructure (tactical) and shed light on adversary methods (operational), which might eventually contribute to understanding a broader campaign (strategic).

At its core, cyber threat intelligence is a continuous process of gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information about potential or existing cyber threats. It involves sifting through vast amounts of data, examining it within a broader context, and constructing a narrative that can inform strategic and tactical decision-making. Unlike basic threat data, which might simply be a list of known malicious indicators, CTI looks at the bigger picture, providing the “who, why, how, and what next” behind cyber attacks. Ultimately, the goal of CTI is to provide evidence that a threat is valid and to offer actionable insights for mitigating that threat.

Several core components underpin effective cyber threat intelligence. These include:

1. Systematic collection of threat-related information from a diverse array of sources, both internal and external. Internal sources might include data from an organization’s own networks, logs, and security devices, while external sources can range from open-source intelligence (OSINT) to commercial threat feeds and information sharing communities.
2. Once collected, this raw data undergoes rigorous analysis to extract meaningful insights. This involves identifying patterns, correlating indicators, and understanding the context behind the data. Experienced analysts play a crucial role in this phase, asking critical questions to uncover the nuances of the threat landscape.
3. The ultimate output of this process is actionable intelligence—insights that can be directly used to improve an organization’s security posture, inform incident response plans, and proactively defend against future attacks. To ensure the value of this intelligence, it should adhere to principles like being complete, accurate, relevant, and timely (CART).

A critical distinction exists between threat data and threat intelligence. Threat data is essentially a list of possible threats or indicators of compromise (IOC), such as IP addresses or malware hashes. While valuable, this data lacks the context and analysis needed to truly understand the nature and potential impact of a threat.

Threat intelligence, on the other hand, takes this raw data and interrogates it, examining the broader context to construct a narrative that can inform decision-making. It transforms a simple list of indicators into a story about who the attackers are, what they are trying to achieve, and how they are going about it.

This added layer of analysis and context is what enables organizations to make faster and more informed security decisions, moving from a reactive stance to a proactive one.

Following are the typical steps of the cyber threat intelligence lifecycle.

1. Planning and direction: Define the goals of the intelligence program based on the needs of stakeholders.
2. Collection: Gather raw data from various sources—OSINT, technical sources (network/endpoint traffic, logs), etc.
3. Processing: Convert raw data into a usable format, for example, by standardizing, reformatting, decrypting, or deduplicating the data.
4. Analysis: Interpret the data, evaluate its reliability and relevance, look for patterns and connections, and add context by applying analytical techniques, hypothesis testing, and understanding adversary motivations and capabilities.
5. Dissemination: Deliver finished intelligence to the stakeholders who need it, in a format they can understand and use.
6. Feedback: Gather feedback from the consumers of the intelligence. Was the intelligence accurate? Was it relevant to their needs? Was it timely? Did it help them make better decisions?

Cyber threat intelligence is an indispensable element of mature cybersecurity strategy, providing organizations with the knowledge and capabilities needed to navigate the complex and ever-changing threat landscape. By providing context-rich, evidence-based knowledge about adversaries and their methods, threat intelligence empowers organizations to move beyond reactive defense towards a more proactive and resilient security posture. It enables better decision-making, improves detection and response capabilities, optimizes resource allocation, and ultimately reduces organizational risk.

The following knowledge bases, white papers, and resources can prove valuable when learning more about threat intelligence and how to operationalize it.

Explore these resources and consider how integrating threat intelligence, even by starting small with open source feeds and focused goals, can enhance your security posture. From there, engage with peers and industry groups to learn from shared experiences and collective knowledge.

• MITRE ATT&CK® Framework: A globally-accessible knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques based on real-world observations
• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – Cyber Threat Intelligence: (US government resources and advisories)
• SANS Institute – Reading Room: Research papers and webcasts on various cybersecurity topics, including CTI
• ENISA – Threat Landscape: European Union Agency for Cybersecurity reports
• The Red Canary blog: Subscribe to receive monthly Intelligence Insights in your inbox