Book Image

Operationalizing Threat Intelligence

By : Kyle Wilhoit, Joseph Opacki
Book Image

Operationalizing Threat Intelligence

By: Kyle Wilhoit, Joseph Opacki

Overview of this book

We’re living in an era where cyber threat intelligence is becoming more important. Cyber threat intelligence routinely informs tactical and strategic decision-making throughout organizational operations. However, finding the right resources on the fundamentals of operationalizing a threat intelligence function can be challenging, and that’s where this book helps. In Operationalizing Threat Intelligence, you’ll explore cyber threat intelligence in five fundamental areas: defining threat intelligence, developing threat intelligence, collecting threat intelligence, enrichment and analysis, and finally production of threat intelligence. You’ll start by finding out what threat intelligence is and where it can be applied. Next, you’ll discover techniques for performing cyber threat intelligence collection and analysis using open source tools. The book also examines commonly used frameworks and policies as well as fundamental operational security concepts. Later, you’ll focus on enriching and analyzing threat intelligence through pivoting and threat hunting. Finally, you’ll examine detailed mechanisms for the production of intelligence. By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with the right tools and understand what it takes to operationalize your own threat intelligence function, from collection to production.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Section 1: What Is Threat Intelligence?
6
Section 2: How to Collect Threat Intelligence
12
Section 3: What to Do with Threat Intelligence

Actor motivations

The first question most people ask when approaching cyber threat intelligence as an industry for employment or as a means for security posture improvement is, why do threat actors do what they do? What motivates them to perform these malicious acts? Well, the answer varies from individual to individual but ideally, it can be broken down into some very basic categories. No matter what motivation, it's important to understand that all these individuals are opportunistic, meaning they take what they can and are looking for the simplest methods to achieve results. That's it – no magic here.

As we move through this section, we'll explore several motivations that drive threat actors while providing examples of each along the way. Whether it be financially motivated or some form of ideological belief system, you'll find that the foundation of each threat actor's actions varies.

Bragging rights or for fun

Now, this is going to sound...