Advanced Threat Intelligence: Transforming Cybersecurity Effectiveness

What are IOCs and how can they help evolve your organisation’s threat intelligence? Avkash Kathiriya has the answers

In the current cybersecurity landscape, threat intelligence has emerged as an indispensable tool for any organisation focused on taking a proactive stance against the risks they face. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines threat intelligence as the process of gathering, processing, analysing and enriching information to support critical security-related decision-making. As such, it is instrumental in enabling security teams to anticipate and counter cyber threats.

The increasing sophistication of cyber threats calls for an equally dynamic and adaptive approach to threat intelligence. It’s not just about having the right tools; it’s also about cultivating a mindset geared towards constant learning and evolution. As cyber threats evolve, so must the organisational strategies to combat them, ensuring a continuously up-to-date security posture.

In practical terms, threat intelligence uses indicators of compromise (IOCs) to inform organisations about cyber adversaries’ evolving tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). These IOCs employ a wide array of data sources, ranging from cryptographic hashes and network indicators to anomalous patterns in system behaviour, all of which are crucial for identifying potential security incidents.

Given these challenges, the effective use of IOCs in threat detection and response equips security teams with the capabilities for early threat identification, rapid investigative processes, and the ability to respond in real-time. Integrating these IOCs into security infrastructures helps security teams to intercept and block malicious activity before it can breach security. Taking this a stage further, sharing IOCs helps foster a collective defence strategy, enhancing visibility into attack patterns and enabling swift risk mitigation across different teams and communities.

The challenges of building a threat intelligence strategy

Optimising this approach is not without its challenges. For example, a common hurdle in implementing an effective threat intelligence strategy is the tendency of security teams to focus solely on indicator processing without the accompanying in-depth analysis. The problem is that this risks failing to deliver the insight necessary for prioritising and streamlining investigation and response strategies.

“IOCs employ a wide array of data sources, ranging from cryptographic hashes and network indicators to anomalous patterns in system behaviour”

In addition, intelligence fed into security operations centres, widely referred to as SOCs, often lacks contextual relevance, leading to overlooked insights that could be gleaned from existing monitoring and detection systems. This can result in missed opportunities to utilise important and diverse data sources, such as user behaviour analytics, system logs, and network traffic. These are pivotal in developing a holistic threat intelligence process with comprehensive risk visibility.

The complexity of managing multiple intelligence sources also poses a significant challenge for busy SOC teams. In contrast, a fully effective threat intelligence strategy extends beyond collecting and processing external IOCs to encompass an entire operational lifecycle, from data ingestion to actionable responses. In this context, automated threat intelligence platforms (TIPs) are crucial, enabling security professionals to deal with the vast volume of internal and external indicators with greater speed, efficiency and accuracy than would otherwise be possible with legacy approaches and technologies.

Automated threat intelligence platforms

Consider, for instance, the role of IOC correlation. IOC data is typically bogged down by significant false positives and irrelevant noise that security teams must work through. This only gets in the way of informed decision-making around threat prioritisation and resource allocation.

Automated correlation addresses this by discerning relationships among various indicators at scale while minimising human error. This process is further supported by the implementation confidence scoring, which evaluates the relevance, quality, and frequency of threat data. Automated TIPs can then leverage this scoring to implement preventative measures against potential breaches, ranging from IP address blocking to device quarantining or incident escalation where further investigation can be used.

Armed with this insight, OC teams can proactively manage risks and vulnerabilities, facilitating policy implementation without requiring constant human oversight. Additionally, integrating automated TIPs with orchestration technologies streamlines response workflows across various security tools, enhancing accuracy and efficiency in managing risks.

To successfully operationalise threat intelligence, security teams should also ensure they can disseminate relevant, timely insights to key stakeholders. This not only fosters a culture of collaboration and helps break down information silos, but it also helps ensure organisations can be better prepared to respond to evolving cybersecurity threats collectively and with greater efficiency.

In today’s increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity challenges, leveraging the power of threat intelligence is more crucial than ever. By embracing a holistic methodology encompassing thorough data collection, in-depth analysis, automation and collaboration, security teams can more effectively anticipate threats, strategically allocate resources and sustain a robust and resilient cybersecurity stance.