This blog outlines what you can expect to read in our newly-released Cyber Threat Intelligence: Solutions Guide and Best Practices. Download a full copy of the guide to learn more about the Intelligence Cycle, free resources, and Digital Shadows (now ReliaQuest)’ approach to CTI.

What is Cyber Threat Intelligence?

According to Gartner, Cyber Threat Intelligence is “evidence-based knowledge…about existing or emerging menaces or hazards to assets.” Security teams are often pressed for time and must prioritize which issues to escalate or vulnerabilities to prioritize. With a constantly evolving and fast-paced landscape of attackers and a sprawling attack surface with not only organizational risk, but also risk from third-parties, a robust Cyber Threat Intelligence solution is key to a better understanding of threats. Being able to quickly comprehend a threat in context to your organization with Cyber Threat Intelligence will improve the overall understanding of risk and free up time to focus on remediation or proactive mitigation.

The specific use cases associated with threat intelligence vary from organization to organization. Some focus on vulnerability intelligence; others on brand; others on data leakage. This latest guide, however, focuses on the most traditional form of threat intelligence–cyber threat intelligence. 

In this guide, we bring together some of the best practices for building a cyber threat intelligence program. TLDR: by using the Intelligence Cycle, you can turn data into intelligence. 

Data, information and intelligence funnel

Reason 1: Cut Through Industry Jargon 

PIR. CCIR. IOC. COA. SAT. ACH. There’s an awful lot of jargon within the cyber threat intelligence community. The commercial CTI industry borrows a fair chunk of army nomenclature, which gives an analytic rigor, but it can also make the industry seem daunting to newcomers.

This guide cuts through this jargon and explains exactly what CTI means for a day-to-day security professional. We keep the useful most common-language terminology around, making it digestible for all audiences, and even structuring it around the illustrious Intelligence Cycle. 

 

Reason 2: Understand SearchLight’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Capability 

For those of you that do want to learn more about our approach, we include a small section on SearchLight’s CTI capability towards the end of the guide. For the sake of continuity, we went ahead and mapped this to the intelligence cycle so you can understand how SearchLight (now ReliaQuest’s GreyMatter Digital Risk Protection) fully tailors its intelligence to organizations. You can view more about this in the image below. 

If you want to learn more about SearchLight’s CTI products, I would encourage you to check out:

  1. TI datasheet
  2. Our weekly intelligence summary
  3. Actor Profiles for yourself in Test Drive
The intelligence cycle

Reason 3: Plenty of Free CTI Resources and Tools

While we are pretty fond of our own CTI offering here at Digital Shadows (now ReliaQuest), this is not a self-aggrandizing puff piece. Within the guide, we have woven in some of our favorite reading materials and free tools for you to dive deeper into specific areas. 

We’ve separated these resources into: 

  • General intelligence tradecraft 
  • CTI-specific intelligence resources
  • Free CTI feeds
  • Free CTI tools

This is by no means a comprehensive list, so if you have any recommendations of resources to add to our guide, I’d encourage you to email us at [email protected]. 

Threat Intel Resources

Well, what are you waiting for? Download your Cyber Threat Intelligence Solutions Guide today to learn more!