Learn how to collect, analyze, and apply cyber threat intelligence to identify and track the sources, motivations, and tactics of malicious actors.

Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is a vital aspect of cybersecurity, allowing organizations to identify potential threats and track malicious actors proactively. This intelligence can help organizations anticipate and mitigate cyber threats. I.Identifying Malicious Actors: - Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Groups & Threat Actors - DNS Threat Actors - Living-off-the-land Tactics II.Tracking Malicious Actors: - Long-term Tracking - Open Source Data-Open source intelligence (OSINT) tools - Dark Web Intelligence - Microsoft Threat Intelligence Leveraging cyber threat intelligence to identify and track malicious actors involves combining techniques, including monitoring DNS threat actors, using OSINT tools, and tracking activity on the dark web.

How can you use Cyber threat intelligence to identify and track malicious actors?

Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is the process of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information about the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of malicious actors who target your organization, industry, or sector. CTI can help you identify and track the sources, motivations, capabilities, and intentions of your adversaries, and provide actionable insights to improve your security posture and response. In this article, you will learn how to use CTI to identify and track malicious actors in four steps.

1 Step 1: Define your intelligence requirements

Before you start collecting and analyzing CTI, you need to define your intelligence requirements, which are the specific questions or problems that you want to solve with CTI. For example, you may want to know who is behind a certain attack campaign, what are their objectives, how do they operate, what are their indicators of compromise (IOCs), and how can you mitigate or prevent their attacks. Your intelligence requirements should be aligned with your business goals, risk appetite, and threat landscape, and prioritized according to their urgency and relevance.

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Dr. Rahid Alekberli, Ph.D., MPhil, MSc

Researcher, Technology Business Leader, Technology adviser-ADA University, IEEE member, ACM Professional Member
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Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is a vital aspect of cybersecurity, allowing organizations to identify potential threats and track malicious actors proactively. This intelligence can help organizations anticipate and mitigate cyber threats. I.Identifying Malicious Actors: - Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Groups & Threat Actors - DNS Threat Actors - Living-off-the-land Tactics II.Tracking Malicious Actors: - Long-term Tracking - Open Source Data-Open source intelligence (OSINT) tools - Dark Web Intelligence - Microsoft Threat Intelligence Leveraging cyber threat intelligence to identify and track malicious actors involves combining techniques, including monitoring DNS threat actors, using OSINT tools, and tracking activity on the dark web.

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Qudus Ayandeji

Information Technology System Network Administrator @ Multiforte Resources | ISO/IEC 27001 Associate | Microsoft Certified, Google Certified
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Some questions of who, what, when and how the incident happened is quite important in tackling security incidence. This will enable you collect and analyze the CTI correctly

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2 Step 2: Collect and process data from multiple sources

To identify and track malicious actors, you need to collect and process data from multiple sources, both internal and external. Internal sources include your own network logs, security tools, incident reports, and threat hunting activities, which can provide you with valuable information about the attacks that target your organization. External sources include open-source intelligence (OSINT), commercial intelligence providers, industry peers, law enforcement, and government agencies, which can provide you with contextual information about the threat actors, their TTPs, their targets, and their trends. You need to process the data from these sources to filter out the noise, validate the reliability, and extract the relevant information.

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Qudus Ayandeji

Information Technology System Network Administrator @ Multiforte Resources | ISO/IEC 27001 Associate | Microsoft Certified, Google Certified
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Research about the incident form communities and lates CVEs platform and get tips from different sources on the existence of the incidence and how it can be tackled. L

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3 Step 3: Analyze and enrich the data to produce intelligence

To produce intelligence from the data, you need to analyze and enrich the data using various methods and tools. Analysis methods include technical analysis, which focuses on the technical details of the attacks, such as malware samples, network traffic, and IOCs; and strategic analysis, which focuses on the strategic aspects of the attacks, such as the threat actors' profiles, motivations, capabilities, and intentions. Enrichment tools include threat intelligence platforms (TIPs), which can help you aggregate, correlate, and visualize the data; and threat intelligence feeds, which can provide you with additional data from various sources. The output of this step is intelligence, which is the actionable knowledge that answers your intelligence requirements.

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4 Step 4: Disseminate and apply the intelligence to your security operations

To use the intelligence to identify and track malicious actors, you need to disseminate and apply the intelligence to your security operations. Dissemination means sharing the intelligence with the relevant stakeholders, such as your security team, management, and partners, using appropriate formats, such as reports, dashboards, alerts, and indicators. Application means using the intelligence to enhance your security capabilities, such as detection, prevention, response, and remediation, using appropriate tools, such as security information and event management (SIEM), endpoint detection and response (EDR), and firewall. The goal of this step is to use the intelligence to improve your security posture and response, and to reduce the impact and likelihood of future attacks.

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5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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George B.

Account Provisioning Engineer | Information Security Analyst | Identity Access Management | Systems Architect | Enterprise SaaS Security | INFOSEC | ISC² CC
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Combining AI and ServiceNow enhances threat detection and response. AI analyzes data for anomalies and integrates threat intelligence. ServiceNow automates workflows, streamlining incident response. It centralizes incident management, categorizes, and prioritizes incidents. Predictive analytics and UBA with AI anticipate and detect potential threats. ChatOps facilitates real-time collaboration. AI-driven continuous improvement analyzes response data for enhanced security over time. Integrating both creates an efficient, collaborative, and proactive cybersecurity ecosystem.

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How can you use Cyber threat intelligence to identify and track malicious actors?

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1 Step 1: Define your intelligence requirements

2 Step 2: Collect and process data from multiple sources

3 Step 3: Analyze and enrich the data to produce intelligence

4 Step 4: Disseminate and apply the intelligence to your security operations

5 Here’s what else to consider

Information Technology

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How can you use Cyber threat intelligence to identify and track malicious actors?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Step 1: Define your intelligence requirements

2 Step 2: Collect and process data from multiple sources

3 Step 3: Analyze and enrich the data to produce intelligence

4 Step 4: Disseminate and apply the intelligence to your security operations

5 Here’s what else to consider

Information Technology

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