Real-Time CTI Executive Summaries

Cybersecurity is no longer a secondary concern nor limited exclusively to the IT department — it’s something that affects everything a company does, making cybersecurity a top priority for everyone in the C-suite. In order to help executives take this risk and responsibility seriously and make timely and impactful decisions for the better, proactive companies are relying on real-time CTI executive summaries to get the right information in front of the right people at the right time and bolster business prospects in the process.

An Overview of Real-Time CTI Executive Summaries

What are real-time CTI executive summaries?

They collect cyber threat intelligence (CTI) into a summarized report with the clarity and context to help executives make informed decisions about the company’s cyber risk exposure and the best course of action. These executive summaries then update in real-time, as new threat intelligence becomes available, so that executives have the most recent information at their disposal rather than an outdated or incomplete perspective on threats.

What are the key features of real-time CTI news?

Real-time CTI news shares actionable threat data as incidents unfold. Unlike traditional threat intelligence, which often relies on historical data and periodic updates, real-time CTI provides nonstop surveillance of the latest security incidents.

Some key features include:

Continuous monitoring: Automated tools can scan sources 24/7 for evolving threats. They track live activities on threat databases, the dark web, and social media.
Immediate insights: Artificial intelligence (AI) can provide actionable intelligence based on attack patterns and contextual analysis of the raw data.
Rapid response: Reduce response times with a faster understanding of emerging threats.

By monitoring multiple sources, real-time CTI news enables organizations to build barriers against threats before they escalate. It’s a shift away from reactive responses to proactive threat hunting.

What gets included in real-time CTI executive summaries?

That will be determined either by the vendor or team that creates the summaries or by the executive who consumes them. Ideally, the summaries will highlight the most clear, present, and urgent cyber threats facing an organization, from those that are most likely to happen to those that could cause the worst damage. While executives should have some latitude to decide what they want to track, they aren’t experts in this domain, so security and threat experts should also guide what goes into the summaries, including:

Strategic Intelligence: Insight into the identities, capabilities, and intent of attackers to guide long-term planning and priority setting.
Operational Intelligence: Specialized intelligence relevant to a specific incident, investigation, or attack vector for proactive defense.
Technical Intelligence: Learning about the technical specifications of future attacks and the technical aspects of the IT infrastructure they plan to target.
Tactical Intelligence: Looking for evidence like indicators of compromise that reveal when attacks are underway and what tactics they’re using.

What is the importance of real-time CTI?

The digital threat landscape can change in the blink of an eye. Threat actors are constantly finding new vulnerabilities, and their methods are becoming more sophisticated. In this fast-paced environment, having real-time intelligence is crucial for effective defense. Real-time CTI summaries allow organizations to:

Identify emerging threats: By providing immediate updates on new and evolving threats, real-time CTI summaries help security teams stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.
Improve response times: With access to real-time data, security professionals can respond more quickly to threats, minimizing potential damage and reducing response costs.
Enhance situational awareness: Organizations gain a clearer and more comprehensive view of their threat landscape, allowing them to allocate resources more effectively and prioritize threats based on potential impact.
Facilitate proactive defense: Instead of merely reacting to threats, real-time CTI summaries enable organizations to adopt a proactive approach, fortifying their defenses against anticipated attacks.

What are the benefits of following real-time CTI news?

Real-time CTI news notifies organizations of emerging trends which enables them to build better cybersecurity defenses. Let’s break down the main benefits of following real-time CTI news:

Faster incident response

CTI operates around the clock which ensures threats are detected within minutes, or even seconds. Continuous monitoring can provide organizations with immediate alerts for risk mitigation and rapid containment.

Proactive defense

Up-to-date intelligence means security teams can actively search for and address cyber threats before they can cause harm. The proactive approach enhances threat hunting and helps organizations stay ahead of threat actors.

Actionable insights

Security teams can make informed decisions based on real-time information. It can help streamline incident management and lead to more efficient responses.

Reduce the impact of attacks

Early detection and response minimize downtime, data loss, and reputational damage. This correlates to lower costs and less operational disruption.

Improve security posture and threat awareness

Organizations use CTI news to understand the risks facing their company and industry. Stakeholders use the data to prioritize security investments accordingly.

What makes it difficult to supply real-time CTI executive summaries?

Despite the fact that most security teams would like company executives to be more aware of cyber threats, and executives largely feel the same way, many leaders rarely or never receive summaries for two main reasons. First, collecting, prioritizing, and summarizing all relevant threat intelligence takes a massive discovery effort that spans across the entire internet, deep and dark web included. Second, updating those summaries, whether in real-time or not, means repeating the discovery process over and over and updating summaries ad nauseam. As a result, many executives get briefed on cyber threats if and when it’s absolutely necessary but otherwise have no visibility into an issue that could potentially have a massive impact.

How can organizations access real-time CTI news?

A variety of platforms provide continuous and real-time CTI news. Some platforms to consider include:

Flare Academy Discord Community: Continuously scans dark web forums, marketplaces, and illicit messaging channels for signs of leaked credentials or data breaches.
Curated GitHub repositories: GitHub hosts many repositories for threat intelligence like this one. They can contain near real-time threat detection.
Cybersecurity news platforms: Many publications deliver constant updates and reports on emerging threats, breaches, and vulnerabilities.
Open-source and community platforms: Sources like AlienVault OTX, MISP, and the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, can provide a real-time look at current threats.

Why More Companies are Using Real-time CTI Executive Summaries

Are real-time CTI executive summaries becoming more common?

Even though real-time CTI executive summaries are still not the norm, they’re much more common than they were before. That’s because cybersecurity, over that same period, has become more challenging and consequential in every way. Cyber attacks can cause major losses and deal lasting damage that can be hard to recover from. Attacks throw IT into chaos but cause just as much legal, compliance, and reputational turmoil—and they’re something that every department, and therefore every executive leader, needs to be actively monitoring and managing. With cybersecurity now a primary responsibility for the C-suite, leaders increasingly want, need, and expect to be kept aware of the cyber threats putting their agendas and expectations at risk.

What are the benefits of real-time CTI executive summaries?

While these summaries may seem like a minor cybersecurity resource, they result in significantly lower cyber risk by helping decision-makers think about risk and resilience in a practical, mature, and updated fashion. Some of the benefits include:

Stronger Security Buy-In – Executives who track threat intelligence are more likely to authorize cybersecurity spending, enact stronger security policies, and shift the culture around staying secure. Companies inevitably get more secure when executives consider it a priority.
Faster Incident Response – Fewer obstacles stand in the way of incident response when executives (and security teams) have a clear, current, and comprehensive supply of threat intelligence combined with context to help prioritize and strategize the response effort.
Proactive Security Posture – Tracking where and how attackers plan to strike helps leadership understand how the company is vulnerable, what’s at risk, and what must be done to the security posture in order to stop attacks proactively rather than reactively.

How can teams use real-time CTI news effectively?

Organizations need to choose tools and platforms that provide real-time CTI feeds. Besides external threat feeds, using security information and event management (SIEM) solutions and threat intelligence platforms can add contextual insights. They enable faster responses and actionable intelligence.

It’s also important to avoid communication silos about the CTI. Share intelligence across departments to ensure all stakeholders understand the current security risks the organization faces.

Here are a few best practices for implementing real-time CTI:

Integrate real-time monitoring and analysis: Deploy tools that scan networks, endpoints, and external sources for malicious activity. Real-time monitoring is crucial to respond quickly to threats.
Automate threat intelligence workflows: Using threat intelligence platforms and automation can help process vast amounts of data, flag high-priority activity, and enhance incident triage.
Regularly update response plans: Make CTI actionable by updating your incident response plans to match the current threats facing your organization. It helps you stay prepared for new vulnerabilities and emerging TTPs.
Participate in industry sharing: Share threat intelligence with peers. Options include industry groups or government initiatives. Creating a collective hive of historical data can help strengthen defenses and improve early warning capabilities.

How can you implement real-time threat intelligence in your organization?

For organizations to truly benefit from real-time CTI summaries, they must ensure seamless integration with their existing security infrastructure. Here are some steps to consider:

Choose the right tools: Select tools and platforms that not only provide real-time updates but also integrate smoothly with your existing security systems. Automation and AI-based analysis can further enhance the effectiveness of these tools.
Train the team: Ensure that your security team is well-versed in interpreting CTI summaries and using them to make informed decisions. Regular training sessions and workshops can help keep the team updated on best practices.
Establish clear protocols: Define clear processes for how the information from real-time CTI summaries will be used within the organization. This includes setting priorities, escalation procedures, and coordinated response strategies.
Collaborate and share: Engage in threat intelligence sharing with other organizations and relevant industry groups. Collaboration can provide additional context and enhance the value of your real-time CTI data.

How will real-time CTI executive summaries evolve over time?

One can easily imagine a near-future scenario where C-suites are supplied with CTI executive summaries as part of their most basic intelligence gathering and due diligence efforts, and tracking cybersecurity metrics becomes as standard as tracking other fundamental data. In addition to being ubiquitous, these summaries are also likely to be richer, more useful documents complete with context, insights, and actionable recommendations, all designed for easy comprehension and efficient consumption. While they will be truly real-time, updating automatically and continuously as new intelligence emerges, they will also be highly customizable to reflect different executive priorities.

Using Flare for Real-Time CTI Executive Summaries

How does Flare meet the need for real-time CTI executive summaries?

The most important threat intelligence is, not surprisingly, the hardest to acquire. Flare goes to the deep web, the dark web, and even to illicit Telegram channels to learn what hackers are selling, sharing, and planning. Flare goes threat hunting across the entire external attack surface, including its darkest corners, then collects the results on one platform. Flare makes the search for threat intelligence easy to the point of automatic, and reports can be generated on demand, complete with context to help inform and expedite decision making. The most important part of real-time CTI executive summaries is the intelligence, and Flare elevates the quality and quantity of that intelligence while streamlining distribution to decision makers.

Does Flare have a tool for real-time CTI executive summaries?

Flare offers a real-time CTI feed for security teams, executives, or both. Cyber professionals of all levels are welcome to join the Flare Academy Discord Community, where we provide tools, playbooks, and other resources for free, including the CTI feed. Threat intelligence, especially about things like stolen credentials, leaked passwords, or exposed code, has never mattered more, and Flare is committed to making that intelligence accessible to all, including security teams that don’t have enough time for threat hunting and executives who don’t have enough insight into cyber resilience.

How can Flare make real-time CTI executive summaries more valuable?

Threat intelligence only becomes valuable when put into action to prevent attacks or fortify security. Executive summaries have to inspire action rather than get ignored. Flare Academy has featured several training sessions focused on learning more from threat intelligence and adjusting cybersecurity strategies based on the intelligence that emerges. The Flare platform finds much of this context automatically, and will even independently remediate issues when possible, turning active threats into past problems. Executive summaries are merely a means to an end, which is stronger, simpler, more streamlined cybersecurity—Flare assists at every step along the way.