What are the Types of Cyberthreat Intelligence (CTI)?
The three main types of cyberthreat intelligence are:
- Strategic Threat Intelligence - an executive-level intelligence that gives an overall view of the threat landscape, including threat actors, their capabilities, motivations, and attack trends. It enables organizations to make informed security decisions.
- Tactical Threat Intelligence - helps detect threats in networks by analyzing indicators like IP addresses, file hashes, and domains.
- Operational Threat Intelligence - real-time monitoring of networks and systems to identify vulnerabilities and threats. Analysts and responders use this intelligence to detect and respond to cyberthreats quickly.
The critical difference between these is the level of detail and type of consumption. Strategic intelligence paints the overall picture, while tactical and operational intelligence provide more detailed, actionable data that security teams can operationalize within their specific environments. All three work together to enable organizations to understand and defend against complex cyberthreats.
What is Cyberthreat Intelligence?
Cyberthreat intelligence (CTI) is an aspect of cybersecurity that involves collecting, analyzing, and sharing information about potential and current cyberthreats and threat actors. It aims to provide organizations with a deep understanding of cyberattack risks, enabling them to prepare and respond effectively.
CTI includes a variety of intelligence, such as:
- tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by attackers
- indicators of compromise (IoCs) that suggest an attack is underway
- contextual details like the motives and capabilities of the adversaries
This intelligence is not static; it evolves as cyberthreats and technologies develop, requiring constant updating and refinement. By harnessing CTI, organizations can transition from reactive to proactive defense, staying one step ahead of cybercriminals.
What is Strategic Threat Intelligence?
Strategic threat intel focuses on the broad threat landscape, covering major threat actors, campaigns, cybercrime/espionage trends, and future risks. It looks at "the big picture". Strategic assessments often leverage open-source intelligence including academic studies, news reports, conferences, and expert analysis.
Strategic intel reports contain high-level assessments, background, motivation assessments, and strategic security recommendations. Intel looks further ahead, focusing on long-term risks, emerging adversaries, geopolitical factors, etc. Reports are meant primarily for senior leadership, such as CISOs, security executives, and risk managers, to inform high-level decisions.
Stakeholders and Communication
Leaders in the C-suite, board members, and IT management need to know how cyberthreats can impact their organization's strategic decisions, risk management, and resource allocation. Strategic intelligence is communicated in a way that is easy to understand and comprehensive without using technical terms that non-technical leaders may not be familiar with. This helps leaders apply the intelligence to policy and strategy.
Long-term Risks and Business Implications
Looking beyond immediate threats, Strategic threat intelligence considers the long-term risks that may affect an organization's ability to operate or compete. This might include assessing the impact of a changing regulatory landscape, the potential for targeted attacks from nation-states, or the risks posed by evolving technologies like quantum computing or AI. As a result, businesses can better prepare for future challenges by guiding investments in security infrastructure, shaping incident response planning, and informing company-wide security policies.
What is Tactical Threat Intelligence?
Tactical threat intelligence is information that helps security teams detect and respond to threats inside their environments. It focuses on current threats and provides data on emerging campaigns, new attacker infrastructure, and prevalent malware variants. Tactical intelligence complements strategic intelligence, which is more geared towards longer-term risks and decision-making.
Tactical intelligence is all about identifying specific indicators of compromise (IOCs) such as file hashes, domain names, and IP addresses. These IOCs are used by known attackers and can be searched for to identify breach activity. Security teams use IOCs to support activities like threat hunting, incident response, forensic analysis, network analytics, and measuring risk exposure.
Detailed information on attackers' tools, behaviors, and infrastructure can help security teams deploy new defenses, perform investigations, manage vulnerabilities, rotate credentials, and more. It enables security teams to configure controls and sensors to detect threats, scan for evidence of compromise, suspend malicious accounts, block communications with C2 servers, and take other necessary actions.
Tactical intelligence is crucial as it helps teams keep up with the rapidly changing threat landscape and enables security measures to be as current as possible. By using this information, security teams can update firewalls, enhance security protocols, and train personnel to recognize and mitigate these threats.
What is Operational Threat Intelligence?
Operational intelligence is intended to identify characteristic attack vectors and patterns of behavior to proactively identify the likely precursors of an impending attack. Operational intelligence is concerned with real-time monitoring of the "When" "Where" and "How" of an offensive operation and requires an understanding of an adversary's capabilities and of a target's exposure.
Key aspects of Operational Threat Intelligence that organizations should be aware of include the following.
Real-Time or Near Real-Time Information
Operational threat intelligence needs up-to-date information on active threats, like ongoing cyberattacks, current exploit trends, or newly discovered vulnerabilities.
Actionable Intelligence
This type of intelligence provides specific details that enable organizations to take immediate action. For example, it may include indicators of compromise (IoCs), such as specific malware signatures, IP addresses, URLs, or tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by threat actors.
Contextual Relevance
The intelligence must be relevant to the organization’s specific environment, assets, and risk profile. It should help security teams understand how a particular threat could impact their systems and operations.
Integration with Security Tools
Operational threat intelligence is often integrated into security tools such as intrusion detection systems, security information and event management (SIEM) systems, and endpoint protection platforms. This integration allows for automated responses to threats.
Support for Incident Response
It aids in the rapid response to security incidents by providing information that helps in understanding the nature of the attack, the attacker's identity or motivation, and the best methods for remediation and recovery.
Collaboration and Sharing
Operational intelligence is most effective when it is shared. Sharing threat intelligence with peers, industry groups, or government entities allows for a broader understanding of threats and coordinated defense strategies.
Detailed Insights
Incident response teams can achieve significant benefits by obtaining detailed insights into specific threats. Operational threat intel allows them to personalize their response instead of relying on generic strategies. Security professionals use this type of intelligence to improve their defensive tactics and to guide the development of more sophisticated and targeted security measures. It empowers organizations to shift from a reactive security stance to a more proactive one, where threats are countered with greater precision and effectiveness.
Application of Cyberthreat Intelligence
One key component of effective CTI is the sharing of information between organizations and within various departments of a single organization. Best practices in CTI involve collecting and analyzing data, and contributing to and learning from the broader security community.
Tools and Platforms for CTI Analysis
Various specialized tools and platforms are available to assist with the collection and analysis of threat intelligence. These tools range from advanced malware analysis systems to comprehensive threat intelligence platforms that aggregate and correlate data from multiple sources.
Automation and Artificial Intelligence in CTI
The use of automation and artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly prevalent in CTI. These technologies can process vast amounts of data at high speeds, uncover patterns that might elude human analysts, and predict future attacks based on current trends.
Challenges in Cyberthreat Intelligence
Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) faces various challenges and is constantly evolving. Some of the current challenges and potential future developments in CTI include:
Automation and AI
The future of CTI will likely see an increased reliance on automation and artificial intelligence. Machine learning algorithms can more efficiently sift through large datasets, identify patterns, and detect anomalies than humans.
Threat Intelligence Platforms
Developing advanced threat intelligence platforms will enable organizations to aggregate, correlate, and analyze threat data more effectively. These platforms will offer better visualization, reporting, and integration with other security tools.
Increased Collaboration
Organizations will continue to recognize the importance of collaboration in CTI. Public-private partnerships, information sharing, and cooperation between sectors and industries will be essential for collective defense.
Threat Actor Attribution
Improving techniques for attributing cyberattacks to specific threat actors or nation-states will become more refined. This will assist in developing more targeted responses and deterrence strategies.
Supply Chain Security
With increasingly complex supply chains, CTI will focus more on securing the digital supply chain. This involves monitoring and mitigating threats that can propagate through interconnected systems.
Quantifying Risk
Organizations will work on developing more sophisticated methods for quantifying cyber risks. This will help prioritize CTI efforts and allocate resources effectively.
Standards Developments
Governments and regulatory bodies may implement new frameworks and standards for CTI and information sharing. These regulations could help streamline and standardize CTI practices.
Enhanced Threat Sharing
Improved mechanisms for sharing threat intelligence while addressing privacy and legal concerns will likely emerge. This could involve developing secure information-sharing platforms and standards.
The future of Cyber Threat Intelligence holds promise, but it also presents ongoing challenges. As threats continue to evolve, organizations and governments must adapt by leveraging advanced technologies, fostering collaboration, and addressing data privacy and security complexities. As the digital landscape evolves, CTI will remain a critical component of modern cybersecurity strategies.
