Cyber threat intelligence is about knowing the enemy so you can out-maneuver them.
If we equate cybersecurity to policing your system against a threat, cyber threat intelligence would be the intelligence service of this defensive setup. Cyber threat intelligence, or CTI, predicts potential attacks, prepares for them, and protects against them before they even happen.
You can organize all cyber threat intelligence into 4 groups:
- Technical
- Tactical
- Operational
- Strategic
Good cyber threat intelligence should protect against zero-day attacks and advanced persistent threats (APTs). It also protects your system against various other vulnerabilities.
Cyber threat intelligence aims to understand the cybersecurity landscape and how it relates to your company. That way, it can presume attack vector origins, capabilities, and reasoning. In addition, it can presume indicators of an attack and ways to prevent any intrusions.
First, let’s go through the principles of cyber threat intelligence and its importance. Then discuss its lifecycle, use cases, and categories.