Ever wanted to be a spy? With such a great deal of espionage operations happening online, gathering threat intelligence might feel like being a modern-day James Bond.
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Think about cyber threat intelligence as having a spy network working to protect your business online. It's all about gathering information on potential cyber threats — understanding how bad actors operate, what areas of business they might target, and what tools they use. Companies cannot effectively defend themselves from cyberattacks without well-researched, reliable data. With threat intelligence, businesses can stay one step ahead of cybercriminals, know what to look out for, and have a clear understanding of how to protect their assets.
What is threat intelligence?
It's true that when a major cyberattack hits the news, the sheer volume of information can feel overwhelming. Threat intelligence is essentially your organization's structured approach to managing that chaos.
To be precise, what is threat intelligence? It is the process of taking vast amounts of raw data, such as suspicious IP addresses, malware samples, or dark web discussions, and refining it into actionable, contextualized information.
This process, which security experts call the threat intelligence lifecycle, involves planning, collection, analysis, and dissemination. Ultimately, using this information allows you to move past just a simple reaction. You gain the foresight to understand exactly who might be targeting you, why, and how they plan to strike.
Why is cyber threat intelligence important?
You might be wondering, why go through all that effort? Well, threat intelligence is critical for organizations because it allows them to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated attackers. Instead of waiting to be attacked (a purely reactive stance), a robust threat intelligence program helps you understand the actual methodology of cybercriminal groups, state-sponsored actors, and insider threats.
By looking for clues in various places—sometimes deep within the dark web where illicit activities are planned—your team gains valuable operational intelligence on specific attack methods, tools, and potential targets. This is vital for threat detection efforts, allowing security teams to stop playing defense everywhere and instead focus resources where the biggest risks lie. Ultimately, this helps you proactively protect your most valuable digital assets.
Benefits of threat intelligence
So, you might be asking, what exactly are the practical returns of investing in a robust threat intelligence program? Here are a few most noticeable advantages for your organization:
Early threat detection and prevention. Threat intelligence functions as a highly sophisticated early warning system. By consistently monitoring emerging attack patterns and new techniques, you can proactively strengthen defenses before a campaign is even launched. This, in turn, significantly improves your capacity for threat detection.
Improved incident response. When a security incident occurs, high-quality intelligence is invaluable. Not only does contextual knowledge about the attacker's motives significantly speed up the investigation, but it also allows your team to achieve much faster containment and recovery during incident response.
Enhanced risk management and prioritization. Not every vulnerability poses the same level of danger. Threat intelligence provides the necessary data to accurately assess organizational risk. So, instead of wasting time patching low-impact flaws, you can concentrate your resources where the risks are being actively exploited.
Increased security posture. Making security decisions based on verified data, rather than guesswork, leads to a stronger and more mature security posture. This allows the entire organization to operate proactively, moving beyond constant reaction.
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Threat Intelligence Lifecycle
Gathering threat intelligence is a complicated process that involves collecting, processing, and analyzing large volumes of data. The outcome of this process should focus on vulnerabilities specific to your organization. It should be detailed and contextual and, last but not least, be actionable.
Let’s examine the six phases of the threat intelligence lifecycle:
1. Direction
The direction phase is a crucial part of the process: you cannot perform a secret service operation without specifying its objectives. Therefore, you should follow in the footsteps of the character played by Jodie Foster in the 4th season of “True Detective” and ask questions such as:
Who are the attackers?
What motivates them?
Which data assets and business processes need to be protected?
Protection of which aspects of the organization is our priority?
What happens if we fail to protect them?
What types of threat intelligence do we need to protect the company’s assets and respond to emerging dangers?
2. Collection
After setting goals and objectives, we can move to the next phase: data collection. The security team gathers raw data from various sources, including open-source intelligence (OSINT), commercial feeds, internal logs, and information shared within the cybersecurity community. At this stage, it’s important to validate our sources of information and the accuracy of collected data. This will allow us to avoid missing severe cyber threats or being misled by false positives.
3. Processing
Remember that nowadays, threat analysis relies on processing huge volumes of data, which is automated and requires data to be standardized and formatted. When our collected data are compatible, we can identify relationships and connections between different pieces of information to better understand the cyber threat landscape.
4. Analysis
Threat intelligence analysis is a human process that turns processed information into actionable intelligence, enabling data-driven decision-making. The analysis should prioritize risks, resulting in the creation of a threat management roadmap. It should also provide a context for collected threat intelligence by understanding the motives, capabilities, and tactics of cybercriminals. What’s important here is to present threat analysis in a way that decision-makers will easily understand.
5. Dissemination
Dissemination is a crucial part of threat intelligence management. Analyzed data must be transformed into actionable intelligence reports, alerts, or indicators of compromise (IOCs) that the security team can use to strengthen the company’s defense system. Then, those should be shared with relevant teams and decision-makers within the organization and, in some cases, with trusted external partners.
6. Feedback
Threat intelligence management and effectiveness must be evaluated. Did the intelligence have the impact you expected? Did it improve the company’s safety? What went wrong in the entire process? Answering those questions helps your business move forward and improve its threat intelligence program.
3 types of threat intelligence
Not all threat intelligence is created equal. Security experts typically break down the knowledge gathered into 3 core types, defined by their audience and utility:
Tactical threat intelligence
This type is designed for short-term use by security operations teams. It focuses on the lowest level of detail, such as specific indicators of compromise (IOCs)—think malicious IP addresses, URLs, and file hashes. Tactical threat intelligence is used daily to configure firewalls, update security tools, and power threat detection efforts. And since attackers often target login details through these very channels, it also highlights why using a robust password manager is absolutely essential for protecting your credentials.
Operational threat intelligence
Designed for security analysts and incident response teams, operational intelligence focuses on the how and when of an attack. It provides insight into a threat actor's specific tools, infrastructure, and modus operandi (TTPs). For instance, learning that a known group targets organizations via a specific phishing technique allows for targeted threat hunting and better defensive planning.
Strategic threat intelligence
This intelligence is intended for executives, boards, and non-technical stakeholders. Strategic intelligence provides a high-level overview of the major cyber risks impacting the business's industry, geography, or business model. It focuses on global trends, financial implications, and long-term organizational risk to inform overall business decisions and the direction of the threat intelligence program.
How NordPass can help protect organizations
A country needs all kinds of security measures to protect its citizens: the border guard, the police, an army, and special agents. It can be safe only if all parties work together. The same rule applies to keeping your business safe. It requires all types of threat intelligence — every single one of them is an important part of the cybersecurity landscape. They are interconnected, and only together can they provide comprehensive defense against cybercrime. Even the best strategic plans won’t stand a chance if the company fails to recognize data breaches in real-time.
Luckily, there are tools available that can make gathering technical threat intelligence easier and more efficient. The NordPass built-in Data Breach Scanner automatically scans leaked databases and compares them with information stored in your and your IT team's password manager vaults. It generates password breach reports with detailed information about data leaks that have affected your company. Most importantly, it notifies you or your security team in real time about every new breach so you can act and protect your company immediately. Give it a try, and don’t let cyber threats slip through your company’s defense anymore!