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

Chapter 7: Technical Threat Analysis – Enrichment

Collecting data and intelligence is vastly different than analyzing it. While many organizations don't leverage collection in a formalized way, many organizations do perform analysis on cyber threat intelligence and data in some capacity. Data without context is just that – data. However, with proper context and analysis applied, that data can then become intelligence.

In Chapter 1, Why You Need a Threat Program, we explained that the third stage of the intelligence life cycle is analysis. One of the most important phases, the analysis phase, involves exploiting data that is received as part of the collection phase to perform analysis or enrichment on that data, ultimately refining it and establishing value to prepare for the next phase – production. Analysis and enrichment are very closely related, with analysis being a detailed examination of threat intelligence data and enrichment being the act of improving...