How to Use Security Threat Intelligence to Shape Your Defenses

By Marianne Chrisos - Last Updated on June 9, 2018
How to Use Security Threat Intelligence to Shape Your Defenses

A better way to defend your business.

Stay smart about security with these threat intelligence ideas.

When businesses talk about security and safety, it is usually a multi-faceted effort on several fronts. Ensuring that employees have key cards and only have access to certain parts of the building is usually part of it. Restricting network access to certain personnel is part of it. Having a staffed security team on site and restricting weapons on campus is part of a safety policy. Starting meetings with a briefing about who’s trained in CPR and where the near exits are can be part of it, too.

There is also usually a big focus on cyber and information security – making sure sensitive data doesn’t leave the building and keeping software and hardware safe from threats. As cybersecurity becomes a growing part of a safe business, security threat intelligence will grow in usefulness.

What is cyber threat intelligence?

Dangerous cyber threats can take many forms, including:

  • Account lockouts
  • Unauthorized database access
  • DDoS attacks
  • Deletion of files

Threat intelligence tools help to analyze possible attacks – how likely they are, what form they would take, when they would happen, who might perpetrate them, and for what reason. Having cyber threat intelligence helps businesses understand the likelihood of danger to their business. Since these threats can risk your organization’s sensitive data, bring down your website, or delete programming, it’s important to understand the potential threats. Understanding the likelihood of an attack happening helps a business plan for that outcome and know with more certainty how to handle an event. Security threat intelligence is meant to help businesses analyze and understand that information more clearly.

Security Threat Intelligence Tools

The best security threat intelligence tools can alert you to possible threats and help your business prioritize what should have your attention. This can help your busy be more alert and focused on relevant things.

FireEye: This software offers insights to businesses where it ranks threats on potential risk. Their analytics are best for teams that have security measures already in place but need help identifying what threats are out there and how immediate they might be.

CrowdStrike: This is a malware search engine and is best used to keep endpoints, where the most breaches happen, safe.

OTX: This is an open-source, user generated threat intelligence framework that is updated by threat researchers and security professionals. It helps IT professionals identify threats as they’re reported and helps businesses plan on their action steps against them.

BluVector: This software is about more than just threat detection – it employs threat hunting. With machine learning capabilities, it can learn about threats as well as the network it’s being used on, to help create the a more sophisticated defense.

Looking Glass: This security threat intelligence platform specializes in protecting global businesses and government institutions and agencies.

Having a threat intelligence policy can help your business understand how to react to a possible threat. While threat intelligence can’t prevent every attack, it can help businesses be more aware and more strategically plan their mitigation approach to prevent disaster and protect your business.

Marianne Chrisos | Born in Salem, Massachusetts, growing up outside of Chicago, Illinois, and currently living near Dallas, Texas, Marianne is a content writer at a company near Dallas and contributing writer around the internet. She earned her master's degree in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University in Chicago and has worked in publishing, advertising, digital marketing, and content strategy.

Marianne Chrisos | Born in Salem, Massachusetts, growing up outside of Chicago, Illinois, and currently living near Dallas, Texas, Marianne is a content writer at a c...

Related Posts