Emerging Threat Intelligence
Emerging threat intelligence in cybersecurity refers to the early identification and analysis of new and evolving cyber threats. It's about staying ahead of the curve, recognizing potential risks that are not yet widely known or understood, but could pose significant dangers in the near future.
Here's what makes emerging threat intelligence unique:
Novelty: It focuses on threats that are new, haven't been widely seen, or are evolving rapidly. This could include new malware strains, zero-day exploits, novel attack techniques, or changes in attacker behavior.
Proactive: It's about anticipating future threats, not just reacting to current ones. This allows organizations to prepare and implement defenses before attacks become widespread.
Uncertainty: Emerging threats often have limited information available. Analysis requires connecting the dots, identifying patterns, and assessing potential risks.
Time-Sensitivity: The window of opportunity to act on emerging threat intelligence is often short. Information must be gathered, analyzed, and disseminated quickly to be effective.
Sources of Emerging Threat Intelligence:
Security researchers and vendors: They often publish reports on new vulnerabilities, malware analyses, and observed attack trends.
Threat intelligence platforms: These platforms aggregate and analyze threat data from various sources, including open-source intelligence (OSINT), dark web monitoring, and honeypots.
Government agencies and CERTs: Organizations like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provide alerts and advisories on emerging threats.
Industry communities and forums: Information sharing among security professionals can reveal early indicators of new threats.
Academic research: Researchers often explore cutting-edge attack techniques and vulnerabilities.
Why is Emerging Threat Intelligence Important?
Proactive defense: Prepare for and mitigate threats before they become widespread.
Reduced risk: Minimize the likelihood and impact of attacks by addressing vulnerabilities early on.
Improved security posture: Stay ahead of the curve and adapt to the evolving threat landscape.
Informed decision-making: Make data-driven decisions about security investments and risk mitigation.
Emerging threat intelligence is a critical component of a mature cybersecurity strategy. It enables organizations to be proactive, anticipate future risks, and protect their critical assets from new and evolving cyber threats.
ThreatNG provides a strong foundation for helping organizations gather and utilize emerging threat intelligence. Here's how:
1. Extensive Data Collection and Monitoring:
Dark Web Presence: ThreatNG actively monitors the dark web for mentions of the organization, leaked credentials, and discussions of potential attacks. This provides valuable insights into emerging threats and attacker activity that may not be publicly known.
Social Media Monitoring: ThreatNG analyzes social media for mentions of the organization, identifying potential brand damage, negative sentiment, or early signs of social engineering campaigns. This can reveal emerging trends in social engineering tactics and disinformation campaigns.
Sensitive Code Exposure: ThreatNG scans code repositories for exposed secrets, credentials, and vulnerabilities. This can help identify emerging coding flaws or insecure practices that attackers could exploit.
2. Correlation and Analysis:
Domain Intelligence: ThreatNG's Domain Intelligence module provides deep insights into the organization's domain and subdomains, identifying potential vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. This can reveal emerging attack vectors and weaknesses in the organization's security posture.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: ThreatNG analyzes cloud and SaaS usage, identifying shadow IT, unauthorized access, and misconfigurations. This can help uncover emerging risks associated with cloud adoption and third-party services.
Technology Stack Analysis: By understanding the organization's technology stack, ThreatNG can identify potential vulnerabilities associated with specific technologies and assess the risk of emerging threats targeting those technologies.
3. Collaboration and Intelligence Sharing:
Dynamically Generated Correlation Evidence Questionnaires: These questionnaires facilitate cross-functional collaboration and information sharing, helping to identify and assess emerging threats more effectively.
Reporting: ThreatNG's flexible reporting capabilities allow security teams to generate reports on emerging threats, vulnerabilities, and risk trends, enabling informed decision-making and proactive mitigation strategies.
Examples of Using ThreatNG for Emerging Threat Intelligence:
Identifying New Malware Strains: ThreatNG can identify discussions or code samples related to new malware strains by monitoring dark web forums and analyzing code repositories. This allows organizations to implement defenses proactively before these strains become widespread.
Detecting Zero-Day Exploits: ThreatNG's vulnerability scanning and attack surface monitoring capabilities can help identify potential zero-day exploits in the wild. This enables organizations to mitigate the risk before a patch is available immediately.
Uncovering New Attack Techniques: ThreatNG can identify emerging attack techniques and social engineering tactics by analyzing social media trends and dark web chatter. This allows organizations to update their security awareness training and implement proactive security controls to defend against these new threats.
By leveraging ThreatNG's comprehensive data collection, analysis, and collaboration capabilities, organizations can effectively gather and utilize emerging threat intelligence to stay ahead of the curve and proactively defend against new and evolving cyber threats.
