In cybersecurity, Actionable Threat Intelligence is more than just knowing about threats—it's about having intelligence that empowers you to take action. It's the information that enables you to make informed decisions and take concrete steps to improve your security posture.

Here's what makes threat intelligence "actionable":

1. Relevance and Context:

• Targeted to your needs: It's not just general threat data but information specific to your industry, organization size, technology stack, and potential vulnerabilities.

• Provides context: It explains how the threat works, who is behind it, their motivations, and your specific risks.

2. Specificity and Detail:

• Includes Indicators of Compromise (IOCs): These are specific pieces of evidence that can be used to detect and respond to threats, such as malicious IP addresses, domain names, file hashes, or email addresses.

• Details Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs): This describes how attackers operate, enabling you to predict their next moves and proactively defend against them.

3. Clarity and Usability:

• Easy to understand: Presented in a clear and concise format that security teams can easily consume and act upon.

• Prioritized information: Highlights the most critical threats and vulnerabilities, allowing you to focus your efforts where they matter most.

• Provides clear recommendations: Outlines specific steps you can take to mitigate threats and improve your security posture.

Examples of Actionable Threat Intelligence:

• A report detailing a new phishing campaign targeting your industry, including examples of phishing emails and IOCs to watch out for.

• An alert that a vulnerability in a software you use is being actively exploited, along with instructions on patching it.

• Intelligence indicates that a known ransomware group is targeting organizations like yours, and it offers recommendations on how to strengthen your defenses.

Benefits of Actionable Threat Intelligence:

• Proactive threat detection and response: Identify and mitigate threats before they cause damage.

• Improved security posture: Strengthen your defenses and reduce your overall risk.

• More efficient security operations: Focus your resources on the most critical threats.

• Enhanced decision-making: Make informed security decisions based on reliable intelligence.

In essence, Actionable Threat Intelligence is the key to moving from a reactive to a proactive security approach. It allows you to stay ahead of the curve and protect your organization from evolving cyber threats.

ThreatNG's extensive capabilities are crucial in generating actionable threat intelligence. Here's how it contributes, collaborates with other solutions, and provides specific examples:

1. Gathering Targeted and Contextual Data:

• ThreatNG's Role: It acts as a customized intelligence engine, collecting data relevant to your specific needs and providing valuable context:

• Domain Intelligence: Identifies exposed APIs, vulnerable web applications, misconfigured DNS, and outdated SSL certificates, providing context by linking these weaknesses to potential attack vectors and exploits.

• Social Media: Detects negative sentiment, data leaks, and brand impersonations, providing context by analyzing the source and intent behind these activities.

• Sensitive Code Exposure: Uncovers exposed credentials, API keys, and configuration files in public code repositories, providing context by identifying the potential impact of these exposures on your systems and data.

• Dark Web Presence: Monitors mentions of the organization, its employees, or its assets in dark web forums, providing context by analyzing the credibility of the source and the potential motives of the actors involved.

• Complementary Solutions:

• Threat intelligence platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG feeds its targeted data into TIPs, enhancing its ability to provide relevant and contextualized threat intelligence.

• Vulnerability scanners: ThreatNG's findings guide vulnerability scanning efforts, focusing on specific weaknesses relevant to your environment.

2. Delivering Specific and Detailed Intelligence:

• ThreatNG's Role: It goes beyond general observations to provide specific, actionable details:

• Search Engine Exploitation: Identifies exposed sensitive information, vulnerable servers, and susceptible files through search engine queries, providing specific IOCs like URLs, file names, and directory paths.

• Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Analyzes cloud and SaaS usage, providing specific details on misconfigurations, shadow IT instances, and vulnerable third-party services.

• Archived Web Pages: Examines historical website data, providing specific examples of past vulnerabilities and coding errors that could be exploited again.

• Complementary Solutions:

• Security information and event management (SIEM) systems: ThreatNG's detailed alerts integrate with SIEMs, enabling correlation with internal security events and facilitating rapid response.

• Penetration testing tools: ThreatNG's findings inform penetration testing scenarios, allowing security teams to simulate realistic attack paths based on specific vulnerabilities.

3. Providing Clear and Usable Intelligence:

• ThreatNG's Role: It presents intelligence in a clear, concise, and actionable format:

• Prioritized alerts: Alerts security teams to critical threats and vulnerabilities, ranked by severity and potential impact.

• Risk scoring: This system assigns risk scores to identified vulnerabilities, allowing prioritization of mitigation efforts based on the likelihood and impact of exploitation.

• Remediation guidance: Provides specific, step-by-step recommendations for addressing vulnerabilities and strengthening security controls.

• Complementary Solutions:
  Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platforms: ThreatNG integrates with SOAR platforms to automate incident response workflows based on actionable intelligence.

• Threat intelligence sharing platforms: ThreatNG contributes detailed findings to threat intelligence sharing communities, enhancing collective defense efforts.

Examples:

• Phishing Campaign Alert: ThreatNG assesses an organization as susceptible to a phishing campaign targeting your employees, providing specific examples of exposed and compromised email accounts and recommendations for user training and email security measures.

• Vulnerability Alert with Remediation Guidance: ThreatNG discovers a critical vulnerability in a web application you use, providing detailed information on the vulnerability, its potential impact, and step-by-step instructions for patching or mitigating the issue.

• Ransomware Threat Assessment: ThreatNG identifies that a known ransomware group is targeting organizations in your industry, providing details on their TTPs, IOCs associated with their attacks, and recommendations for strengthening your defenses against ransomware.

By combining targeted data collection, detailed analysis, and transparent, actionable reporting, ThreatNG empowers organizations to utilize threat intelligence for proactive defense effectively. It allows security teams to make informed decisions, prioritize efforts, and take concrete steps to mitigate risks and improve their security posture.