What is Cyber Threat Intelligence and Why is it Important for Companies?

All companies that collect and store data are susceptible to cybercrime. This is where cyber threat intelligence comes in, serving as a plan for preventing and responding to cyberattacks, and helping companies make decisions to implement the best defense strategies. Therefore, it should be a constant presence in the corporate world.

With the inevitable advancement of digitalization and process automation, it is natural that exposure to data by malicious minds becomes an increasingly common reality for any company. So, it's better to be well-prepared!

Want to understand better what cyber threat intelligence is and how it is important for companies' cybersecurity? Continue reading this article. Enjoy your reading!

What is Cyber Threat Intelligence?

Cyber threat intelligence involves a comprehensive analysis of the threats and vulnerabilities a company may face—or is already facing. Its function is to collect data, including market research, technological advancements, and updates on new trends, techniques, and methods of cybercriminal practices that involve data exposure potentially compromising information security.

Recognition and understanding of the scenario are essential for cyber threat intelligence, as it uses collected information to prepare companies, identifying which sectors are more vulnerable, where security needs to be reinforced, and what potential threats the company may face.

As a preventive measure, cyber threat intelligence aims to promote proactive and informed behavior in the business environment, avoiding a desperate reaction that could cause even more damage in a threat situation.

What is the Importance of Threat Intelligence?

Cyber threat intelligence contributes to creating a secure and robust cybersecurity environment for a company or institution. While it is not the only method for ensuring information security, it is undoubtedly one of the most effective due to its strategic and analytical nature.

Like any good strategy, it is divided into stages, allowing for a clear visualization of vulnerabilities and facilitating the resolution process, as we will see next.

Stages of Intelligence Analysis

Collecting and organizing data is essential for threat intelligence processes. The richness of this data is crucial for understanding the situation presented in the company and for defining which strategies are applicable and effective for creating cybersecurity. This can be divided into three stages:

• Stage 1: Gathering relevant data on vulnerabilities and potential threats, as well as an in-depth understanding of the company, identifying where it is most vulnerable or strongest and how to optimize it.
• Stage 2: Analyzing and processing data to better understand the problems found and how they might affect the institution (considering both internal and external factors). At this stage, threats are categorized by their criticality for better crisis management.
• Stage 3: Direct response to attacks in an organized and strategic manner, determining what type of cyber intelligence is appropriate for the situation and applying it. Communication between all internal teams is also essential to ensure that preventive actions are constantly functioning correctly and to provide feedback on how these actions are impacting different sectors.

Types of Threat Intelligence

Given that it is a complex process encompassing various areas of a company, it is important to have different approaches for each sector where intelligence is active. See below.

• Strategic Threat Intelligence: These analyses are conducted for high-level positions within companies. The results provide a broad view and are considered during critical decision-making affecting the entire company dynamic. As these are presented to managers, they have a less technical focus and are more oriented toward economic and market factors.
• Tactical Threat Intelligence: This model is aimed at information security professionals who have the expertise to implement threat response measures. It involves strategies that identify compromise indicators like suspicious IP addresses, unusual traffic flow, and login attempts. The tactical approach is the fastest in a real cyberattack situation.
• Operational Threat Intelligence: This provides a slower and more thorough analysis involving studying past cases to identify behavior patterns and trends that contributed to or enabled the cyberattack. Although attacks can be unpredictable, the methods used are often well-known, making it important to recognize the modus operandi of these cybercriminals and anticipate future vulnerabilities based on past situations.