Integrated Threat Intelligence Ecosystem
An Integrated Threat Intelligence Ecosystem (ITIE) in cybersecurity refers to a cohesive framework where various threat intelligence sources, tools, and processes are interconnected and work together seamlessly. It's about breaking down silos and fostering collaboration between different security solutions to achieve a unified and comprehensive understanding of the threat landscape.
Here's a breakdown of the critical components and characteristics of an ITIE:
1. Diverse Threat Intelligence Sources:
Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT): Leveraging publicly available information, such as security blogs, news articles, and social media, to gather insights into emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
Commercial Threat Intelligence: Subscribing to commercial threat intelligence feeds that provide curated and analyzed threat data from various sources.
Internal Threat Intelligence: Gathering threat intelligence from internal sources, such as security logs, incident reports, and vulnerability assessments.
Sharing Communities: Participating in threat intelligence sharing communities and collaborating with other organizations to gain insights into shared threats and vulnerabilities.
2. Integrated Security Technologies:
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): Integrating threat intelligence feeds into SIEM solutions enriches security alerts with contextual information and improves threat detection.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): Utilizing TIPs to aggregate, analyze, and manage threat intelligence from multiple sources.
Vulnerability Scanners: Integrating threat intelligence with vulnerability scanners to prioritize remediation efforts based on the likelihood of exploitation.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): Enhancing EDR solutions with threat intelligence to improve detection and response capabilities for endpoint threats.
Network Security Tools: Integrating threat intelligence with firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and other network security tools to block malicious traffic and prevent attacks.
3. Collaborative Processes:
Threat Intelligence Sharing: Establishing processes for sharing threat intelligence with internal teams, external partners, and industry peers.
Incident Response Collaboration: Integrating threat intelligence into incident response processes to improve the speed and effectiveness of incident handling.
Automated Workflows: Automating threat intelligence analysis and response workflows to improve efficiency and reduce human error.
Benefits of an ITIE:
Enhanced Threat Visibility: Gaining a more comprehensive and contextualized view of the threat landscape.
Improved Threat Detection and Response: Detecting and responding to threats more quickly and effectively.
Proactive Security: Anticipating and mitigating threats before they can impact the organization.
Optimized Security Operations: Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of security operations.
Better Decision-Making: Making more informed security decisions based on a unified understanding of the threat landscape.
By integrating threat intelligence sources, tools, and processes, organizations can build a robust ITIE that empowers them to proactively defend against cyber threats, strengthen their security posture, and stay ahead of the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape.
ThreatNG is a powerful solution for Integrated Threat Intelligence due to its comprehensive external discovery and assessment capabilities and ability to collect and analyze threat intelligence from various sources. This allows organizations to gain a holistic view of the threat landscape and prioritize vulnerabilities based on exploitation's likelihood and potential impact.
External Discovery and Assessment
ThreatNG's external discovery engine performs unauthenticated discovery to identify all internet-facing assets associated with an organization, providing a comprehensive view of the attack surface from an external perspective. The platform then conducts assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities and security risks.
Examples of ThreatNG's External Assessment Capabilities:
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes various factors, such as domain intelligence, dark web presence, and sentiment and financials, to determine an organization's susceptibility to business email compromise (BEC) and phishing attacks. This allows organizations to prioritize implementing security controls to protect against these threats.
Brand Damage Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses the potential for brand damage by analyzing various factors, including sentiment analysis of media coverage, financial analysis, and dark web presence. This helps organizations prioritize addressing issues that could negatively impact their brand reputation.
Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure: ThreatNG assesses the security posture of an organization's supply chain and third-party vendors by analyzing their domain intelligence, technology stack, and cloud and SaaS exposure. This helps organizations prioritize mitigating risks associated with their external partners.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: ThreatNG evaluates the likelihood of a breach or ransomware attack by analyzing domain intelligence, dark web presence, sentiment, and financials. This allows organizations to prioritize patching vulnerabilities and implementing security controls to reduce risk.
Integrating Threat Intelligence from Various Sources
ThreatNG collects and analyzes threat intelligence from a variety of sources, including:
Dark web: ThreatNG monitors the dark web for mentions of the organization, associated ransomware events, and compromised credentials.
Known vulnerabilities: ThreatNG maintains a database of known vulnerabilities and their associated CVSS scores.
ESG violations: ThreatNG tracks environmental, social, and governance (ESG) violations that could negatively impact an organization's reputation.
SEC filings: ThreatNG analyzes SEC filings of publicly traded US companies to identify potential risks and red flags.
Social media: ThreatNG monitors social media for mentions of the organization and potential threats.
News articles and blogs: ThreatNG analyzes news articles and blogs for relevant threat information.
This comprehensive threat intelligence is integrated into ThreatNG's assessments and reports, providing organizations with a holistic view of the threat landscape.
Prioritizing Threats Based on Risk Profile
ThreatNG allows organizations to define risk profiles by specifying their risk tolerance, critical assets, and business objectives. This information prioritizes vulnerabilities based on the likelihood and potential impact of exploitation.
For example, an organization in the financial industry may prioritize patching vulnerabilities that could lead to fraud. In contrast, healthcare organizations may prioritize patching vulnerabilities that could expose protected health information (PHI).
Reporting, Continuous Monitoring, and Investigation Modules
ThreatNG provides detailed reports, continuous monitoring, and powerful investigation modules to help organizations understand and respond to potential threats.
Reporting: ThreatNG offers a variety of reports, including executive summaries, technical reports, prioritized reports, security ratings, inventory reports, ransomware susceptibility reports, and U.S. SEC filings. These reports provide valuable insights into an organization's security posture and help prioritize remediation efforts.
Continuous Monitoring: ThreatNG monitors an organization's external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings. This allows organizations to stay ahead of emerging threats and respond quickly to any changes in their security environment.
Investigation Modules: ThreatNG provides in-depth investigation modules that allow security teams to drill down into specific threats and vulnerabilities. These modules include:
Domain Intelligence: Provides comprehensive information about a domain, including DNS records, email security, WHOIS data, subdomain analysis, and associated technologies.
Sensitive Code Exposure: Identifies exposed code repositories and analyzes their contents for sensitive data, such as API keys, access tokens, and database credentials.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Evaluate the security of cloud services and SaaS applications, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and various SaaS providers.
Dark Web Presence: Monitors the dark web for mentions of the organization, associated ransomware events, and compromised credentials.
Intelligence Repositories and Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG maintains extensive intelligence repositories, including information on dark web activities, compromised credentials, ransomware events, known vulnerabilities, ESG violations, etc. This rich data helps ThreatNG provide tailored intelligence and prioritize critical threats.
ThreatNG also integrates with complementary solutions to enhance its capabilities and provide a more comprehensive security solution. For example, ThreatNG can integrate with security information and event management (SIEM) systems, threat intelligence platforms (TIPs), and vulnerability scanners to provide a more holistic view of an organization's security posture.
Examples of ThreatNG Helping and Working with Complementary Solutions:
ThreatNG can identify a vulnerable web application and provide detailed information about the vulnerability to a SIEM system, which can then generate an alert and trigger automated response actions.
ThreatNG can identify a compromised credential on the dark web and share this information with a TIP, which can then correlate it with other threat intelligence and provide context for security analysts.
ThreatNG can identify an exposed cloud bucket and provide this information to a vulnerability scanner, which can assess the bucket's security configuration and identify any misconfigurations.
By integrating threat intelligence from various sources and prioritizing threats based on the organization's risk profile, ThreatNG enables organizations to take a proactive and intelligence-driven approach to cybersecurity, ensuring that their resources are focused on mitigating the most critical threats.
