Threat Identification

Security teams that excel at threat identification have the means to prevent attacks, stop losses, and take pressure off security controls, tools, and staff. Alternatively, security teams that struggle with threat identification must deal with alert fatigue, rising losses, unmanageable risk, and demoralized teams. As the success or failure of cybersecurity increasingly comes down to identifying threats quickly, correctly, consistently, and comprehensively, security teams must seek new ways to enhance their efforts. 

Overview of Threat Identification

What is threat identification?

Threat identification refers to the process by which security teams locate, analyze, and contextualize threats that could compromise cybersecurity and put sensitive systems and data at risk. In many cases, threat identification happens proactively as part of the risk management strategy, with teams searching for threat intelligence data that could help them anticipate attacks before they start and prevent their initial point of access. In other cases, a threat has escalated into an attack and teams are relying on threat identification to understand what happened, what was affected, and how to stop the damage. In any case, threat identification gives teams the intelligence they need to make effective decisions while managing dynamic cyber risks on an ever-growing scale. 

What is the process for threat identification?

Since threats are always changing and they make a concerted effort to avoid quick detection or easy categorization, a systematic identification process must be followed. That begins by locating any and all potential sources of threat intelligence, which realistically includes the entire internet. Next comes a search for every detail that could indicate a rising risk or inbound attack. Security teams then need to contextualize each discovery to understand the likelihood, potential damage, and remediation requirements. Finally, identification leads to an action plan for eliminating threats starting with the highest-priority. 

What are the obstacles to threat identification? 

Beyond whatever obstacles the attackers put up, many issues inside of organizations also make threat identification difficult:

• Data Overload: As the attack surface, IT infrastructure, and threat landscape all expand rapidly, it becomes overwhelming to find, organize, and analyze all the data required for threat identification. 
• Intelligence Deficit: Without clear, complete, and contextualized insights into the threats facing an organization, it’s difficult or impossible to address them before they have consequences. 
• Staff Commitments: Identifying threats takes time, skills, experience, and expertise that exceed the capabilities of most teams, even at large organizations with ample resources. 
• Tirage Requirements: Identification only matters if it results in triage, but it’s a struggle to make that happen seamlessly, consistently, and robustly, resulting in treats that get found but never fixed. 

Why is Threat Identification More Important Than Ever?

Why is threat identification playing a bigger role in cybersecurity? 

Though security teams have always sought to identify threats before they could get exploited, that has become more important over time as part of a bigger shift in cybersecurity. As incident losses have mounted and detection and response become less reliable, there has been a paradigm shift in cybersecurity away from reacting to attacks toward addressing them proactively. Many see stopping attacks before they start as the only way to avoid unacceptable losses, and they are relying on threat identification to harden their attack surface and thwart attacks earlier. At the same time that threat identification has become more important, however, it has also become a bigger undertaking as the threat landscape grows vastly larger than before. 

How does threat identification affect cyber losses?

Cyber crime is on track to cost the world almost $14 trillion each year by 2028, up from less than $10 trillion in 2024. Threat identification has the ability to prevent attacks and whatever losses they may cause by taking away the advantages that attackers expected to exploit, causing their offensives to fall flat. Likewise, it can help keep losses in check by facilitating incident response, preserving compliance, and helping manage exposed information over the long-term. As cyber skirmishes increasingly come down to which side has the information advantage, threat identification helps keep targets from becoming victims. 

How will threat identification evolve? 

Probably the biggest force driving the evolution of threat identification is AI. It gives defenders the means to search for threat intelligence on a bigger scale, at a faster pace, on a continual basis, and with dogged determination. In that way, threat identification will improve with time, giving teams the intelligence and insights they need instantly and effortlessly. However, AI is a double-edged sword, and bad actors are already weaponizing it to find and exploit threats faster and in novel ways, making threat identification more difficult in some ways. What’s clear is that whether teams see threat identification as an opportunity, a challenge, or both, they need to be improving now rather than later. Yesterday’s threat identification won’t suffice tomorrow. 

How Flare Enables Threat Identification

How does Flare help with threat identification?

Security teams have numerous ways to monitor and manage their internal attacks surface for threats. Things are different with the external attack surface, where threats can exist anywhere in the digital world. Flare automatically and continuously scans the entire internet, clear, deep, and dark web all included, along with illicit Telegram channels and places where threat actors are known to congregate. After discovering threats according to user-defined criteria, Flare collects the results in real-time, enhances them with rich context for prioritization and remediation, and offers an automated takedown process in many cases. 

What kinds of threat identification can Flare support?

While Flare helps to discover and highlight almost any kind of threat intelligence that’s relevant to a company and available on the public-facing internet, most discoveries fall into one of two categories. The first is information that hackers could use to orchestrate attacks such as stolen credentials, infostealer logs, or exposed code. The second is evidence that bad actors are planning or preparing for an attack on a specific organization. In that way, Flare proves immensely helpful for threat identification by identifying where, when, why, and how bad actors plan to strike—all before it happens, when threat identification still has the opportunity to result in attack prevention. 

How do security teams use Flare for threat identification?

Flare supports a number of threat identification use cases by extending the scope of the search while expediting discovery through remediation. Security teams rely on Flare for dark web monitoring as well as illicit Telegram channel monitoring, going to the places where hackers congregate to mine this invaluable source of threat intelligence. They also rely on Flare to help with data leak monitoring and account takeover prevention, automating the search for exposed information to reveal the threats that pose the highest risk. More than just upgrading threat identification, Flare enables continuous threat exposure management, where teams have the ability to seamlessly manage threats at all stages, on any scale, around the clock. 

What are the benefits of using Flare for threat identification?

In practice, Flare transforms threat identification from a process that often feels ineffective, inaccessible, or incomplete into a core cybersecurity strength:

• Automate Threat Intelligence Collection: Replacing a manual search with automation finds more intelligence from more sources for better identification. 
• Maximize Staff Time & Resources: Security teams can focus on remediating and preventing threats rather than finding intelligence to identify them. 
• Accelerate Prevention & Response: Responders can put the right remediation measures in place faster once they can easily identify and contextualize threats. 
• Build Trust & Stay Compliant: Consistently identifying threats lowers cyber risk in ways that protect customer confidence and preserve regulatory compliance. 

Threat Identification and Flare

The Flare Threat Exposure Management (TEM) solution empowers organizations to proactively detect, prioritize, and mitigate the types of exposures commonly exploited by threat actors. Our platform automatically scans the clear & dark web and prominent threat actor communities 24/7 to discover unknown events, prioritize risks, and deliver actionable intelligence you can use instantly to improve security. From threat identification to data leak monitoring and account takeover prevention, Flare supplies real-time threat intelligence to make key defensive measures more accessible and more effective. 

Flare integrates into your security program in 30 minutes and often replaces several SaaS and open source tools. Learn more by signing up for our free trial.