Your security team needs to improve its threat intelligence. What tools should you use?

This is very important aspect on how do you select sources for your Threat Intelligence. Your threat intelligence should depend on the kind of product portfolio you have. Suppose you have product portfolio of compliance benchmarks, then you should be using CIS as your input source. Consider yours is a website based interface , you should use OWASP which provides specific threat information on web based applications. In many scenarios , where you use lot of third party products which keeps changing on time to time basis, CVE database can be used to identify vulnerabilities in your system by using vulnerability scanners such as openVAS

Para aprimorar a inteligência sobre amea?as, é crucial investir em ferramentas de Threat Intelligence. Plataformas dedicadas a coletar, analisar e correlacionar dados de amea?as, como feeds de inteligência, s?o essenciais. Além disso, a integra??o de solu??es de SIEM e Threat Intelligence proporciona uma vis?o abrangente e proativa, permitindo uma resposta mais rápida a amea?as emergentes. O uso de tecnologias avan?adas, como machine learning, também pode potencializar a capacidade de detec??o e preven??o contra amea?as cibernéticas.

Data Sources for Threat Intelligence: Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): Publicly available information from online platforms. Includes blogs, forums, social media, news outlets, and reports. Helps detect emerging threats, trends, and incidents. Commercial Intelligence: Paid or subscription-based services. Provides curated and analyzed data from multiple sources. Offers comprehensive and reliable data to complement OSINT. Internal Intelligence: Data generated from an organization's own systems and networks. Includes logs, alerts, incidents, and feedback. Enhances understanding of the internal environment, assets, and vulnerabilities. Enables correlation with external data for a holistic threat intelligence approach.

Leveraging diverse data sources is crucial for developing comprehensive threat intelligence that empowers organizations to proactively identify, mitigate, and respond to evolving cyber threats. By combining OSINT, commercial intelligence, and internal data, security teams can gain a holistic understanding of the threat landscape and make informed decisions to safeguard their organizations' critical assets.

I would say at a higher level below are top 6 data sources . 1. OSINT:Publicly available information from the internet, news, and social media. 2. Closed Source Intelligence:Private, proprietary information accessible through subscriptions or permissions. 3. HUMINT:Information gathered directly from human contacts or insiders. 4. Technical Intelligence:Data from malware and network analysis revealing cyber threats. 5.IoC Feeds: Lists of known malicious IPs, URLs, and file hashes for threat detection. 6. CTIPs:Tools that aggregate and analyze threat data from multiple sources.

Some of the widely used TIPs are: 1. IBM Security X-Force Exchange 2. ThreatConnect 3. Recorded Future 4. FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence 5. Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR 6. CrowdStrike Falcon X 7. McAfee Threat Intelligence Exchange

In my experience, I'd suggest to include automation and ML models to make it easier to handle massive data from sources. Automated Data Normalization: Implementing automated tools to normalize data from different formats and sources to reduce manual effort. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence: Leveraging machine learning algorithms and AI can help in identifying patterns, detecting anomalies, and prioritizing threats more efficiently.

Threat intelligence platforms are essential tools for organizations seeking to gain a comprehensive understanding of the threat landscape and make informed decisions to protect their assets. By aggregating, enriching, analyzing, and sharing threat data, TIPs empower organizations to proactively identify, mitigate, and respond to cyber threats, safeguarding their critical systems and data.

A Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) is simply a technology solution that collects, aggregates and organizes threat intel data from multiple sources and formats. A TIP provides security teams with information on known malware and other threats, powering efficient and accurate threat identification, investigation and response. This organized information will furnish the relevant authorities with up to date information on the attack vectors and possible solutions.

Microsoft Defender Threat intelligence and Microsoft Sentinel are powerful threat intelligence platform. Microsoft Sentinel is a SIEM solution which can pull threat intelligence from multiple sources.

Potenciar el Team de ciberinteligencia, incorporar tareas de inteligencia y cazeria de amenazas con plataformas como TIP con IoCs relevantes, analisis en fuentes abiertas deep web dark web, incorporar plataformas de deception qpermita montar un ambiente altamente real e incorporar una alta telemetría de esta forma analizar a la ciberdelincuencia con las TTPs asociadas a la matriz de mitre atack y a la matriz de defensa capaz de mejorar los controles en producción potenciando procesos de bastionado, parcheado de servidores y demostrando a través de las campa?as q se necesita un proceso automático y efectivo de gestión de vulnerabilidades,estas integraciones se debe realizar de manera automatizada a través de API e integración al SIEM.

To enhance threat intelligence capabilities, consider integrating Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs) with security tools like SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) systems, intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS), endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions, and firewalls. This integration enables timely detection, analysis, and response to potential threats by leveraging up-to-date indicators of compromise (IOCs) and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

Componentes indispensables que deben estar incluídos en nuestras herramientas de control de seguridad son los módulos de Inteligencia Artificial (IA) y aprendizaje automático (ML) debido a que los ataques cada vez son más sofisticados y los equipos de monitoreo necesitan contar con herramientas que reciban feeds actualizados (IOCs, TTPs, Vulnerabilidades) con el objetivo de tener actualizadas nuestras herramientas de control de seguridad para así poder contener posibles ataques.

I believe when we talk about security tools , it has to be very simple tools like Vulnerability scanners e.g. openVAS which point out vulnerabilities. Then use Threat modelling tools like MS Threat Modelling tool for getting attack surfaces listed. Tools like CVE would help you understand severity of issues. So it has to be combination of such small small tools which you need to use as per your environment.

SIEM tools are a crucial component in an organization’s security arsenal. By correlating events from different sources, SIEM tools can identify complex attack patterns that might not be obvious if you were looking at each log individually. They are vital in prioritizing and managing incident response efforts. It’s like piecing together a complex jigsaw puzzle, where each piece is a different log or event, and the completed picture shows you the full scope of a security threat.

It is recommended to follow a cycle of steps similar to the ones below when initiating the threat intelligence process in your organization. 1. Ensure that you understand the requirements and plan the goals for collecting TI (Threat Intelligence). 2. Collection and processing (Transform all the data into a standardized format) 3. Analysis - Can utilize AI, ML, and automated analysis depending on the goals in the planning phase. 4. Disseminating analytical data with relevant parties to help them make informed decisions based on the insights obtained. 5. By reviewing the current inputs and outputs of TI data, continuously improve the collection, analysis, and dissemination process.

There are a lot of TIPs platform on the market, a lot of them are very good, but is useless to collect all this data if you don't have a team able to understand and improve the security posture. Often there is the idea that since there is the platform you are safe. Awareness of the problems, a precise action plan must be deployed to be able to respond to the threats.

Think about your threat intelligence program as your own CIA agent in the dark web. Now think again about the cost it takes for the CIA to operate their agents. This is the cost of operating an effective agent in the dark web. Therefore, building an effective TI program is extremely costly and the owner should consider closely about the goals of such program so the ROI will be effective. Like any type of intelligence, CTI should provide the CISO or his delgates responsible for the organizational cyber defense with eyes to where and when their defense resources should be pointed. Unfortunately, therefore, when building your CTI program, consider your threat landscape and invest your CTI resources in the highest risk area.

A multifaceted approach to threat intelligence, encompassing human expertise, continuous learning, clear governance, regular validation, and a security-conscious culture, is essential for organizations to effectively combat the ever-evolving threat landscape. By prioritizing these factors, organizations can transform threat intelligence into a powerful tool for proactive protection and resilience.

Threat intelligence data needs to be validated based on three of these crucial parameters: timeliness, relevancy, and accuracy, regardless of the approach or platform you adopt.