Threat Intelligence in Cyber Security – Explained With Its Lifecycle

When it comes to cybersecurity, a common concern is how best to keep your company safe. What are the threats out there? What should you do when they arrive? And how do you stay ahead of them? In this article, we’ll go through what it is and what each stage in the Cyber threat intelligence lifecycle involves. Also, we will discuss why is threat intelligence important.

Overview: Threat Intelligence 

Threat intelligence, or cyber threat intelligence, is the practice of gathering and analyzing data for predicting future cyber attacks. It is the information that an organization uses to understand the risks. This data identifies threats that will, or are currently targeting the enterprise. This information is obtained by different techniques that is later by used to identify and prevent cyber threats looking to take advantage of the valuable resources. 

Discovering these threats is becoming more difficult as the number of hackers using these tactics is increasing. Also, the tools they are using are becoming more sophisticated.

The scenario is that any kind of cyber threat can make an organization downright terrifying. However, with the help of it, one can gain everything about these cyber threats and mitigate the risks involved. Now, it is critical to understand why it is important and what the stages involved in cyber threat intelligence.

Why is Threat Intelligence Important?

Threat intelligence solutions collect raw data about existing or emerging threats from various sources. This data is then converted to meaningful information to produce management reports later by used for automated security control solutions. The aim here is to keep enterprises informed of the risks of zero-day threats, and how to protect against them.

It can get you the following benefits: 

• Ensure to make you aware of the overwhelming volume of threats.
• Help you become a lot more proactive concerning future cybersecurity threats.
• Keep leaders and users knowledgeable about the most recent threats.

What Are The Threat Intelligence Tools?

In today’s world, cybercriminals are working very hard to discover new tools and techniques to infiltrate networks and do cyber crimes. For this level of security, cyber experts are also dealing with it at their best. 

As security vendors are increasingly facilitating the growing threats, the market is also flooding with Cyber threat intelligence tools. However, all of them are not equal. Experts have come up with a lot of tools and procedures for best responding to the threats.

There are a variety of tools, services, and products available in the market to assist organizations with teams of all sizes and budgets, to tackle the known threats. There are different tools for threat detection and fighting back against cybercriminals. 

One of a kind is some SIEM tools like Splunk, ArcSight, and more. You can learn various SIEM tools by joining the training offered by SIEM XPERT. Enrol today for Real-time SOC Analyst training by SIEM XPERT. 

Understanding the Threat Intelligence Lifecycle

The threat intelligence lifecycle helps the security team to plan and execute various procedures effectively. This team uncovers the emerging threats and increasing business risks. It is a process of converting raw data into intelligence that helps in developing mechanisms to prevent cyber threats. 

Key Objectives of all the 5 Phases of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Lifecycle:

1) Planning and direction: Set the objectives for key roles and processes in an enterprise.

2) Collection: Deploy data collection and processing techniques.

3) Analysis: Translate raw data into meaningful insights.

4) Production: Assess significance and severity based on business and environmental context.

5) Dissemination and feedback: Reporting on finished data, considering confidentiality.

1. Planning and Direction

In this phase, proper planning is done and the goals are set for the cyber threat intelligence program. The security team is formed here with formulating the key roles and responsibilities. The planning is done for the proper support of Cyber threat intelligence functioning.  

This phase involves understanding:

• The assets and processes that are required to be safeguard.
• The results when losing those assets or processes.
• The types that an enterprise needs to respond to threats.
• Priorities about what to protect first.

2. Collection

The collection of the information can be done through security infrastructure, network infrastructure, critical applications, and more. Once it is done, the raw data is transferred for processing in the next phase. In this phase, the data is collected in different ways through technical or human means as defined in phase one. 

It can be through a variety of means, including:

• Pulling information and logs from networks and security devices.
• Subscribing to threat data feeds from organizations and cybersecurity vendors.
• conversations and interviews with knowledgeable sources.
• Scanning open-source news and blogs.
• Scanning websites and forums.
• Infiltrating closed sources.

3. Processing and Exploitation

Until this phase, the raw data is not in a proper format that can be used to give some insights. The data collected in the last phase is then processed for exploitation. It is transformed into useful information by trained experts using tools and technology. This is then converted into a usable format for the analysis. Processing involves:

• Structuring and decryption
• Language translation
• Parsing and filtering.
• Extracting indicators from an email.
• Enriching with other information.
• Contacting endpoint protection tools for blocking.

An example would be to extract IP addresses from a vendor’s report and add them to a CSV file for the purpose of importing to a SIEM product.

4. Analysis and Production

The analysis is a process done by a human that converts processed info into intelligence. It includes facts and forecasts that can assist in framing decisions. This data analysis can be made by various machine-based techniques, and/or statistical methods. This phase is the most important stage in the Cyber threat intelligence lifecycle as it helps in framing the countermeasures for responding to the threats.

Depending on the conditions, the decisions may involve whether to: 

• Look into a potential threat
• What actions should be taken immediately to block an attack?
• How to strengthen security controls 
• How much investment in security resources is justified.

The form in which the insights are presented is equally important. It is useless to deliver it in a form that can’t be understood easily. It should be concise and include a powerpoint presentation or a live video if needed. 

5. Dissemination 

The analyzed information is distributed to the users either by automated methods or manually. This means that the stage involves gaining the finished intelligence output and sending it to the desired place. Major threat information types usually used are security alerts, reports, security alerts, and tool configuration information. 

Most organizations commonly have 5-6 groups that can benefit from it. For each of these, you must ask:

• What Cyber threat intelligence do they require?
• How can any external information support their work?
• How can intelligence be presented to make it easily actionable and understandable for the audience?
• How often the updates and other information are to be provided?
• Through which medium the intelligence is disseminated?
• How can we have a follow-up if they have any questions?

6. Feedback

This phase also provides feedback giving more inputs to the information requirements thereby repeating the lifecycle. The feedback is an assessment that describes whether the extracted intelligence meets the requirements of the intelligence consumer. This feedback helps in producing more accurate intelligence through relevant and timely assessments.

It is important to understand the overall intelligence priorities. Also, it is critical to know the needs of the security teams consuming the Cyber threat intelligence. Their requirements guide all stages of the intelligence lifecycle and let you know the following:

• The types of data to be collected.
• How to process the data to make it useful.
• How to analyze the collected info and present it as actionable intelligence.
• To whom each kind of intelligence needs to be disseminated.
• How fast it should be disseminated
• How fast should be the response to the questions?

Conclusion

Cyber threat intelligence in cyber security is important to predict the future cyber attacks that may occur in any organization. The Cyber threat intelligence lifecycle is a continuous process that forms the basis of implementing a threat intelligence program. Security teams strategize and implement their programs more effectively by the lifecycle. With cyber threats evolving at high speeds, the security teams should have their focus on refining their cyber Cyber threat intelligence processes. Also, they should know how to respond quickly and efficiently to any threat for staying ahead of them.

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