Threat intelligence: Is it intelligent enough?

With the ever-evolving threat landscape, cyberattacks have become more sophisticated; malicious actors are carrying out more advanced cyberattacks with serious consequences on users and organizations. In such a cyberrisk-filled environment, SIEM features like threat intelligence can play a crucial role in strengthening the security posture of organizations.

Threat intelligence is one of the key features of a SIEM solution. Gartner, a leading research and consulting firm, defines threat intelligence as "evidence-based knowledge, including context, mechanisms, indicators, implications, and actionable advice, about an existing or emerging menace or hazard to assets that can be used to inform decisions regarding the subject's response to that menace or hazard."

Threat Intelligence armors cybersecurity teams with a deep understanding and knowledge of how cyberthreats can be prevented or dealt with. It helps them address imperative questions like:

• Who are these malicious actors?
• What are the different attacks they are planning?
• What is their reason behind carrying out these malicious attacks?
• What are their tactics, techniques, and procedures?
• What are the system vulnerabilities that need to be focused on?
• How do organizations defend themselves?

By answering these key questions, security personnel can make smart and confident decisions.

Threat intelligence categories

Threat intelligence data is collected using various techniques from all across the internet. It can be classified under any of the following three categories:

1. Strategic threat intelligence - This gives a broad outlook of the enterprise's security posture, ongoing attack trends, unknown future threats, why attackers are interested in targeting an organization, and which cybersecurity areas to focus on. With the help of information in threat feeds, cybersecurity teams can choose to blocklist communications from various malicious sources such as IP addresses and domains.

2. Tactical threat intelligence - This provides more specific details of the tactics, techniques, and procedures of malicious actors and is generally published in the form of threat feeds, just like strategic threat intelligence. Some of the popular threat feeds among security analysts are Webroot BrightCloud and AlienVault OTX.

3. Operational threat intelligence - This specifies technical information about attacks and indicators of compromise (IOCs), like emails, IP addresses, and domain names. Operational threat intelligence addresses questions like the how and where of attacks to help security teams gain a sound technical understanding of attacks.

Threat intelligence feeds

Threat intelligence merges the information gained from IOCs, threat feeds, and evidence. Threat feeds are a source of real-time data on existing and potential threats and malicious actors. Some popular threat feeds are STIX/TAXII, AlienVault, and Webroot Bright Cloud.

Furthermore, alerts can also be created to warn security teams in the event of a threat. Each threat feed contains unique data regarding numerous threats and attacks, which is why it's critical to refer to as many threat feeds as possible. This information on cybersecurity threats strengthens the organization's security teams to defend against cyberattacks proactively.

Threat intelligence and MITRE ATT&CK

The threat intelligence capability of SIEM solutions, when coupled with the MITRE ATT&CK framework, can bolster any organization's security. MITRE ATT&CK is a comprehensive and highly detailed knowledgebase of different observed tactics, techniques, and procedures that cyberattackers have used in the real world. It helps the organizations to understand how malicious actors operate and what software they use in the attacks, so they can better protect themselves.

Threat intelligence helps organizations detect threats observed worldwide and secure their networks. SIEM solutions offer threat intelligence by creating instant alerts for security teams and initiating response actions immediately to alleviate the impact of attacks. Prevention is better than a cure, and threat intelligence works on the same principle. It helps prevent an attack rather than reacting to it after it occurs.

A SIEM solution like ManageEngine Log360 helps organizations strengthen their security posture by providing them with deeper insights into various security events and correlating their security data with the contextual information available through threat intelligence.

Try a free, 30-day trial of Log360 today to test the solution's threat intelligence capabilities for yourself!