Contextual Threat Intelligence

Threat intelligence may be the single most valuable asset for cybersecurity—but it’s not all created equal. Contextual threat intelligence rises above other variants by supplying extra insights and actionable details, both of which make it simpler to turn intelligence into reduced cyber risk.

Overview of Contextual Threat Intelligence

What is contextual threat intelligence?

Unlike traditional threat intelligence data, which alerts security teams to any possible threat, contextual threat intelligence goes deeper in an attempt to qualify the threat. While all threat intelligence is valuable, much of it is too basic or broad to be actionable, and the volume is so large that analyzing it becomes a distraction and diversion. Contextual threat intelligence adds details to traditional threat intelligence that help security teams understand how to prioritize and respond to those threats, essentially turning a sea of identical looking alerts into something where it’s fast to identify the most dangerous threats and easy to assess the right response.

What are some examples of contextual threat intelligence?

Knowing what group is behind a threat, where they are based, what their motives are, and what their modus operandi looks like.
Learning what kinds of threats face businesses in certain industries or regions, both historically and over the recent past.
Linking a specific threat to a larger adversary campaign or known malware family.
Exploring how quickly, easily, and effectively a threat can be remediated, and how.
Discovering if credentials have been exposed and which ones.
Finding out if threat actors are discussing a particular company and what they are saying.

Why is contextual threat intelligence more valuable?

Threat intelligence only matters to the extent that it drives results in the form of preventing attacks, minimizing damage, and building a stronger security posture and strategy. Contextual threat intelligence takes raw threat data and enhances it with the context necessary to make it insightful and actionable.

Basic threat intelligence often raises questions rather than answering them and slows down security measures instead of accelerating response. Actionable threat intelligence does the opposite, giving security teams the means to steal an advantage away from attackers and use it for their own agenda. What could be more valuable than that?

Why is contextual threat intelligence more elusive?

The more context around a piece of threat intelligence the better, yet discovering even the most basic details can be arduous in some cases or impossible in others for any security team. Typically, context comes from collecting massive amounts of data, enough that trends, patterns, and probabilities start to become both visible and verifiable. Most teams don’t have adequate data at their disposal, nor the time and resources to collect it manually. Even with adequate data, however, threats often move faster than the time and energy it would take to make connections within the data. In terms of both quality and quantity, most security teams wish they had more when it comes to contextual threat intelligence.

What Makes Contextual Threat Intelligence Increasingly Important?

Why are security teams seeking more contextual threat intelligence?

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Today’s attackers have tremendous resources at their disposal, from funding and technology supplied by the world’s biggest governments to artificial intelligence that makes hacking easier than ever. They also have massive attack surfaces to target as companies undergo digital transformation at speed and scale. Faced with a widening disadvantage, security teams are relying less on defensive security controls to stop attacks and more on offensive measures like gathering contextual threat intelligence to undermine the attacks and prevent threats from doing damage. Security teams will increasingly rely on contextual threat intelligence because it looks like their best (and to a certain extent their only) advantage.

How does contextual threat intelligence factor into the future of cybersecurity?

Following from the previous point, contextual threat intelligence will increasingly be the difference-maker in cybersecurity, determining whether security teams see and stop attacks early enough to avoid damage or whether those same attacks bypass security controls and breach sensitive data. The amount of context will be important, but so will the ability to act upon that context quickly and confidently. Just as physical battles are often won by intelligence and strategy rather than size and strength, contextual threat intelligence will be something both sides focus on intensely.

How will the challenges of acquiring contextual threat intelligence evolve?

Attackers are well aware that they’re under increased scrutiny and that spies are in their midst. In order to protect the intelligence they have and preserve their advantage, attackers will retreat into more secretive communities and go to greater lengths to avoid scrutiny. That will make contextual threat intelligence, which is already elusive, feel like even more of a moving target.

How Flare Meets the Need for Contextual Threat Intelligence

Can Flare supply contextual threat intelligence?

Flare continuously monitors thousands of sources across the clear, deep, and dark web to collect threat intelligence, which has accumulated into a database of billions of data points. With that massive data set and the aid of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Flare develops rich context around each piece of threat intelligence, making links and reaching conclusions that would be impossible otherwise. In addition to supplying unparalleled levels of context around threat intelligence, Flare presents the information in the most digestible and actionable way possible, eliminating unnecessary alerts, adding clear context, and even automating remediation in some cases.

How does Flare source contextual threat intelligence?

Contextual threat intelligence requires two things: time and scale. Flare has been collecting threat intelligence for over a decade, allowing us to observe the evolution of the threat landscape and make expert decisions about how to assess threats and interpret context. Flare has also been monitoring the largest, most active, and newest communities where cyber criminals share intelligence, sell secrets, and scheme collaboratively. With expansive coverage maintained for years, Flare can source contextual threat intelligence that’s not available from other feeds.

What are the benefits of Flare’s contextual threat intelligence solution?

Automated Collection – Eliminate the need to collect threat intelligence manually while massively expanding the breadth and depth of evidence collection using the sophisticated search capabilities of Flare’s always-hunting automation.
Valuable Context- Learn as much as possible about threat intelligence from Flare’s proprietary database, equipped with the automated ability to make connections, conduct analysis, and supply context.
Transparent Sources – Act confidently on contextual threat intelligence by knowing where the context came from, since Flare includes sources for all intelligence.
Actionable Guidance – Say goodbye to alert fatigue and start neutralizing the threats that matter with Flare’s ability to accurately prioritize threats, diagnose the most effective course of action, and even automate the next steps.