5 Ways to get the most out of Cyber Threat Intelligence

The threat landscape is constantly evolving, becoming more complex and in many cases, overpowering the security environment. With there being a hacking attacking every 39 seconds, organizations are struggling to keep up with the cyber threats that they face. Adding to it, every organization differs, making it difficult to create a one-size-fits-all cybersecurity strategy. This is why organizations are looking for cyber threat intelligence analysts who will be able to give a strong strategy, more suited to the organization. However, while technology is great at making cybersecurity threat analysis more efficient, the value of threat intelligence is lost without making it actionable.

How to make cyber threat intelligence actionable

How to get the most of Cyber Threat Intelligence

Understand what matters

More is not always better!

There are many tools available out in the market, with each vendor selling you theirs with all the different plus points. But, before you decide to buy anything, understand what the risk tolerance of the organization is. Not all threats can be prevented, but knowing which threat should be addressed first will help you make the right choice of what tool you really require.

Know your surroundings

Do you know what data your organization deals with? How about the types of devices they own and use? This matters to ensure that you are targeting the right data. You can then collect data that pertains to these particular devices and the types of assets the organization possesses.

At the same time, understanding what threats apply to your organization is also extremely important. It makes no sense to collect data about a threat in the healthcare industry when your organization deals with banking.

Employ automation but not in isolation

Combining the strength of artificial intelligence (AI) with cybersecurity, security professionals have additional resources to defend vulnerable networks and data from cyber attackers and collect relevant data. This is done to help automate the industry. While automation is important, it is still not enough, especially when it comes to information security intelligence. Human touch is needed to add value to the data collected.

Communicate

In a nutshell, largely today’s defense-in-depth approaches still remain a siloed philosophy. What is needed is to create a strategic cyber threat intelligence program that can be communicated and shared across various stakeholders to make informed decisions. The absence of this will lead to decision-making and prioritization happening in isolation without having the complete context of the problem.

Have the right skills

Being an expert in threat intelligence is pivotal to leverage CTI. To be a threat intelligence pro, it is recommended that you are trained and skilled to collect and analyze information about potential threats to the organization.

EC-Council’s Certified Threat Intelligence Analyst certification program is designed and developed in collaboration with cybersecurity and intelligence experts from around the world. The program gives a detailed view of how to make threat intelligence actionable by turning unknown internal and external threats into known threats.

FAQs

What is threat intelligence in cybersecurity?

Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is that stream of cybersecurity that concentrates on the collection and analysis of information about potential threats to the security of the organization.

How do you get into threat intelligence?

It has been noted that cybersecurity professionals generally don’t fit into a fixed mold. Thus, IT security intelligence is open to all security professionals, even for those who belong to other IT and IT security domains.

What is threat data?

Threat data is an amalgamation of malicious domains and IP addresses. It is a vague data that does not provide any reference to cyber threats. It is available in huge quantities with unarguable facts.