What is Threat Intelligence in

Cybersecurity?
Threat intelligence is the analysis of data using tools and techniques to
generate meaningful information about existing or emerging threats
targeting the organization that helps mitigate risks. Threat Intelligence
helps organizations make faster, more informed security decisions and
change their behavior from reactive to proactive to combat the attacks.
 

What is cyber threat intelligence and why

do you need it?
Cyber Intelligence is the knowledge that allows you to prevent or mitigate
cyber-attacks by studying the threat data and provide information on
adversaries. It helps to identify, prepare, and prevent attacks by providing
information on attackers, their motive, and capabilities.
Threat intelligence prepares organizations to be proactive with predictive
capabilities instead of reactive for future cyber-attacks. Without
understanding security vulnerabilities, threat indicators, and how threats
are carried out, it is impossible to combat cyber-attacks effectively. Using
cyber intelligence security professionals can prevent and contain attacks
faster, potentially saving the cost in the event of cyber-attacks. Threat
intelligence can elevate enterprise security at every level, including
network and cloud security.

What Does Threat Intelligence Do?

Threat intelligence helps organizations with valuable knowledge about
these threats, build effective defense mechanisms, and mitigate the risks
that could cause financial and reputational damage. Threat Intelligence is
the predictive capability to defend the future attacks that the organization
is exposed to so they can proactively tailor their defenses and preempt
future attacks.

Who is A Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst?

A cyber intelligence analyst is a security professional who monitors and
analyzes external cyber threat data to provide actionable intelligence.
These experts triage data of security incidents collected from different
threat intelligence sources and study the pattern of attacks, their
methodology, motive, severity, and threat landscape. This data is then
analyzed and filtered to produce threat intelligence feeds and reports that
help management (security officer) in making
decisions concerning organizational security. Often, these individuals are
Certified Threat Intelligence Analysts who come with both the knowledge
and skills needed for the job role.
 

 What Are The Types of Threat Intelligence?

Cyber Threat Intelligence is mainly categorized as strategic, tactical,
technical, and operational.
 
 

1. Strategic Threat Intelligence

Strategic threat intelligence provides an overview of the organization’s
threat landscape. It is less technical is mainly for executive-level security
professionals to drive high-level organizational strategy based on the
findings in the reports. Ideally, strategic threat intelligence provides
insights like vulnerabilities and risks associated with the organization’s
threat landscape with preventive actions, threat actors, their goals, and
the severity of the potential attacks.
 
 
2. Tactical Threat Intelligence
Tactical threat intelligence consists of more specific details on threat
actors TTP and is mainly for the security team to understand the attack
vectors. Intelligence gives them insights on how to build a defense
strategy to mitigate those attacks. The report includes the vulnerabilities
in the security systems that attackers could take advantage of and how to
identify such attacks.
The finding is used to strengthen the existing security controls/defense
mechanism and helps to remove the vulnerabilities in the network.

3. Technical Threat Intelligence

Technical threat intelligence focuses on specific clues or evidence of an
attack and creates a base to analyze such attacks. Threat Intelligence
analyst scans for the indicator of compromise (IOCs), which includes
reported IP addresses, the content of phishing emails, malware samples,
and fraudulent URLs. Timing for sharing technical intelligence is very
critical because IOCs such as malicious IPs or fraudulent URLs become
obsolete in a few days.

4. Operational Threat Intelligence

Operational threat intelligence focuses on knowledge about the attacks. It
gives detailed insights on factors like nature, motive, timing, and how an
attack is carried out. Ideally, the information is gathered from hacker chat
rooms or their discussion online through infiltration, which makes it
difficult to obtain.

Challenges in gathering operational Intelligence:

 Threats usually communicate over encrypted or private chat rooms, and access to these

channels is not easy.
 It is not easy to manually gather relevant intelligence from huge data of chat rooms or
other communication channels.
 Threat groups may use confusing and ambiguous language so that no one can understand
their conversation.

Creating a Cyber Threat Intelligence

Program
What is a Cyber Threat Intelligence Program?
Cyber Threat Intelligence program combines thousands of Threat
Intelligence Feeds into a single feed, instead of viewing them separately to
enable consistent characterization and, categorization of cyber threat
events, and identify trends or changes in the activities of cyber
adversaries. The program consistently describes cyber threat activity in a
way that allows efficient information sharing and threat analysis. It assists
the threat intelligence team by comparing the feed with internal telemetry
and creates alerts.
 

How Do You Implement Cyber Threat Intelligence?

 
 
Once relevant cyber threat information is extracted from threat data, it
goes through a process of thorough analysis and structured processing
with necessary technologies and techniques followed by sharing with
required stakeholders to harden the security controls and prevent
future cyber-attacks.
 

Enterprise Objectives for Cyber Intelligence

Programs
Aligning enterprise objectives in creating the threat intelligence program
sets the roadmap for threat intelligence. The data, assets, and business
processes that need to be protected should be well defined along with the
impact analysis of the losing such assets. It helps to outline; what type of
threat intelligence is required and who all should be involved.

Role of Threat Analyst in Threat Intelligence Life

cycle
Cyber intelligence analysts, also known as “cyber threat analysts,” are
information security professionals who use their skills and background
knowledge to collect and analyze the threat data to create intelligence in
the form of reports and share with the respective department. Certified
cyber intelligence analyst is required for creating a threat intelligence
program.

Threat Intelligence Strategy and Capabilities

Threat intelligence strategy involves sound planning with the application
of tools, techniques, and methodologies, followed by a review to check
the effectiveness of the plan. While devising the strategy, one should also
consider their threat intelligence capabilities and structure the program
accordingly, including the support of different departments.

Cyber Threats and Advanced Persistent Threats

(APTs)
Understanding cyber threats and advanced persistent
threats are the most crucial aspect of threat intelligence program.

What are Advanced Persistent Threats (APT)?

An advanced persistent threat is an attack in which an unauthorized user
gains access to a network system and remains there for a long time
without being detected. Advanced persistent threats are highly menacing
for organizations, as attackers have continuous access to the company’s
data. Advanced persistent threats are carried out in phases which involve
hacking the network, hiding themselves to access as much information as
possible, planning an attack, studying organization’s information systems,
searching for easy access to sensitive data, and exfiltrating that data.

Cyber Threat Intelligence Frameworks

Cyber threat intelligence framework creates intelligence to respond to
cyber-attacks by managing, detecting, and alerting security professionals
of potential threats. It provides an actional plan to mitigate the attacks by
collecting the latest threat source information and create threat models.
Understanding Cyber Kill Chain & IOCs
The cyber kill chain is a series of steps that trace stages of a cyberattack
from the early reconnaissance stages to the exfiltration of data. The kill
chain helps us understand and combat ransomware, security breaches,
and advanced persistent attacks (APTs)
The cyber kill chain identified the phases of a cyber attack from early
reconnaissance to the goal of data exfiltration and used as a tool to
improve an organization’s security.
Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) are the evidence such as URLs, IP
addresses, system logs, and malware files that can be used to detect
future breach attempts using intrusion detection systems (IDS), and
antivirus software.

Organization’s Current Threat Landscape

This includes identifying critical threats to an organization, assessing the
organization’s current security posture, security team’s structure, and
competencies. Understanding of organization’s current security
infrastructure and operations assist security professionals in assessing
risks for identified threats.

Requirements Analysis
Requirement analysis is all about mapping organization’s ideal target
state, identifying needs, and requirements for cyber intelligence, defining
requirements and categories, aligning the requirements of business units,
stakeholders and third parties, prioritizing intelligence
requirements, the scope of cyber threat intelligence program,
engagement rules, non-disclosure agreements, and common risks to
cyber threat intelligence program.
 
 

 Establishing Management Support

Prepare and document the project plan in accordance with the policies to
initiate the program and cover the strategies to ensure management’s
support and detailed the outcome and the objective of the program and
how business objectives are lined up.

Building a Threat Intelligence Team

Creating a team of cyber threat intelligence analysts and defining their
roles and responsibilities based on their core competencies and skillsets.
Creating a talent acquisition strategy and defining the required skill set,
qualifications, professional certifications, and positioning the threat
intelligence team.

Threat Intelligence Program Review

Reviewing the structure of the threat intelligence program to access
success and failure. Findings during the review help to improve the actual
program and make the required updates.

Threat Intelligence Data Collection & Processing

Cyber Threat Intelligence Data Collection and Acquisition
Collecting relevant threat data for analysis and processing is an important
step for creating cyber threat intelligence. The data is collected from
various sources using predefined TTP (Tactics, Techniques and
Procedures). Few sources of data are internal like network logs, past cyber
incidents, and security landscape. The external source includes threat
feeds, communities, forums, open web, and dark web.
 

Cyber Threat Intelligence Feeds and Sources

What is A Threat Intelligence Feed?

Threat intelligence feeds and sources are continuous streams of
actionable information on threats and bad actors. Threat intelligence
analysts collect security data on IoCs such as uncommon activity and
malicious domains and IP addresses from various sources. Feeds are just
the raw data on threats; an analyst extracts the intelligence from them for
creating reports.
 

TTP (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures)

for Threat Data Collection
1. Data Collection through Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)
This includes data collection through open sources like Search Engines,
Web Services, Website Footprinting, Emails, Whois Lookup, DNS
Interrogation, and Automating OSINT effort using
Tools/Frameworks/Scripts.
2. Data Collection through Human Intelligence (HUMINT)
This process involves data collection through Human-based Social
Engineering Techniques, Interviewing, Interrogation, and Social
Engineering Tools.

3. Data Collection through Cyber Counterintelligence (CCI)

In this step, threat data is collected through Honeypots, Passive DNS
Monitoring, Pivoting Off Adversary’s Infrastructure, Malware
Sinkholes, and YARA rules.
4. Data Collection through Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)
Collecting digital evidence data from internal sources, external sources,
and creating custom threat IOCs.
5. Data Collection through Malware Analysis
Malware analysis is the process of understanding the origin and impact of
a malware sample and how it functions by deploying analysis
tools. Malware functions in multiple ways and gathers information about
unsecured devices without the knowledge of the user.

Bulk Data Collection

Collecting as much as possible intelligence demands a bulk data
collection, and from that data, the analyst needs to figure out the relevant
data. The integration of tools and effective data management helps to
refine that data which can be processed and analyzed for creating
intelligence. Finding the relevant pieces of information from the bulk data
is not easy; it is like searching a needle in a haystack. Hence the right skill
set is necessary for creating a threat intelligence program.
 

Understanding Data Processing and

Exploitation
Next come the data processing and exploitation, which requires
structuring and normalizing the collected data by using various data
processing techniques like sampling, validation, sorting, formatting, and
aggregation. The data is then stored in a format that analysts can derive
valuable insights and generate actionable intelligence. The data can be in
the form of charts and graphs with a specific context in a way that makes
more sense to the analysts and gathers information efficiently when
required to take actions faster. It even reduces the risk of overlooking
critical information.

Data Analysis
Threat data analysis is the process of searching, interpreting, illustrating,
analyzing internal and external threat data, and determining the patterns
to notify relevant teams of potential security issues as defined in the
planning stage. The objective of threat data analysis is to assist analysts to
easily and correctly interpret the threat data and utilize it to the full
potential and generate accurate intelligence.

Data Analysis Techniques

 Statistical Data Analysis

 Analysis of Competing Hypotheses
Intelligence Reporting and Dissemination
Creating cyber threat intelligence reports and sharing with relevant units
in the security department is the last step in a threat intelligence program.
For intelligence to be actionable, it must be shared with the right people at
the right time. Ideally, cyber threat intelligence reports contain
information that helps security professionals to make decisions regarding
organizational security controls and protect the organizations from cyber
threats.

How do you use cyber threat intelligence?

 
1. Inform the security, professionals about the bad actors, potential threats, their methods,
motive, and vulnerabilities organization are posed to.
2. Help security professionals to be proactive about future cyber-attacks.
3. Keep stakeholders informed about the latest threats and their impact on the business
4. Help the security operations team to triage cyber-attacks, risk analysis, vulnerability
management, and wide-scope decision making.

What is the future of threat intelligence?

According to a report by Grand View Research, Inc., the market for threat
intelligence will reach $12.6 billion by 2025. This clearly shows the growing
demand for cyber threat intelligence experts. In the future, there is
enormous scope for threat intelligence services with the growing demand.
Companies, although investing generously in their cybersecurity solutions,
remain susceptible to cyber-attacks, and this is an alert to help us realize
that the traditional cybersecurity approach must be replaced with new
and effective solutions, one of them is “cyber threat intelligence
–  a  proactive approach to  predictive analysis.”
A career in cyber threat intelligence has several number of avenues
in the space of cybersecurity, and essentially there is a need for security
professionals with skills in threat intelligence due to the evolving security
landscape.

 Cyber Threat Intelligence Jobs

As per LinkedIn, over 10,000 Threat Intelligence jobs are vacant
worldwide, which recounts a huge demand for threat intelligence
professionals globally and will significantly influence and shape the face of
cybersecurity.
 

How Much Does a Cyber Intelligence Analyst

Make?
On average cyber threat intelligence analyst’s salary in the United States is
$75,000, and they typically make between $51k – $140k.

 How Do You Become a Threat Intelligence

Analyst?
When an organization is investing in a cyber threat intelligence program,
then they also want experts skilled in data collection, processing, analysis,
modeling, creating reports, timely sharing with the intended security
units to protect their system, and network from a cyberattack.
 
 
 

Threat Intelligence Program

FAQs
 

Q1. What is cyber threat intelligence and how is it

used?
Ans. Cyber threat intelligence is information about threats an organization
has or is exposed to, their modus operandi, motive, and the business
impact in the event of such attack. This intelligence is used to identify,
prepare, and protect the organization from cyber threats.
 

Q2. What is the difference between strategic

intelligence and tactical intelligence?
Ans. Strategic and tactical intelligence differ in several ways. Strategic
Intelligence is for top executives in cybersecurity to formulate policies and
make decisions regarding the organization’s security. On the other
hand, tactical intelligence is about threat vectors, vulnerabilities
in the organization system, and how to create a defense strategy to
prevent such attacks.
 
Q3. What are the qualification criteria for Cyber
Threat Intelligence Training Courses?
Ans. Any mid-level to high-level cybersecurity professionals
with a minimum of 2 years of experience can opt for cyber intelligence
certification.
 

Q4. Are there any free cyber threat intelligence

tutorials or resources?
Ans. EC-Council has a repository of learning resources and is not limited
to the Threat Intelligence domain. Here is the list of resources, a). EC-
Council Free Resources, b). EC-Council Blogs, c). EC-Council Whitepaper,
d). EC-Council Cyber Talks
 

Q5. Can I do threat intelligence analyst

certification online with EC-Council?
Ans. Yes, you can enroll for an online mode of training. Threat intelligence
analyst courses are delivered in all three modalities – classroom training,
online self-paced, and live online.
 

Q6. What are the job titles one can aim for after
cyber threat analysis training?
Ans. After cyber threat analysis training, you are ready for jobs
like Threat Intelligence Specialist, Threat Intelligence Analyst, Cyber Threat 
Investigator, Threat Researcher, Threat Intelligence Engineer, Threat
Intelligence & Vulnerability Analyst.
 
Department of Computer Science
B.Sc. -1st Year (3Yr. Program)
Computer Science (CS)
Cloud Technology & Information Security (CTIS)
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AIML)
Mobile Application & Information Security (MAIS)
Course Scheme
Faculty Mapping
Syllabus

Department of Computer Science

B.Sc. -1st Year (4 Yr. Program)
Under NEP-2020
Computer Science (CS)
Cloud Technology & Information Security (CTIS)
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AIML)
Mobile Application & Information Security (MAIS)
Course Scheme
Faculty Mapping
Syllabus