Threat Intelligence Data

Security teams need to be agile, dynamic, and able to prepare for any foreseeable attack. Threat intelligence data is a tool that allows them to do just that. When analysts have access to strong and well contextualized threat intelligence data, they’re able to proactively prepare for incidents, rather than playing catch-up or simply responding to cyber attacks. 

How Does Flare Manage Threat Intelligence Data? 

How does Flare gather threat intelligence data?

Threat actors talk to each other using dark web forums and social media, and (understandably) they don’t want anyone else to know what they are saying. However, Flare is able to collect information from the clear & web and prominent threat actor communities. Flare monitors 16 billion leaked credentials, and maintains a database of over 2 million threat actors. This unmatched collection of threat intelligence allows Flare’s platform to quickly surface threat information about risks to your organization so your team can take action quickly, before an incident can take place. 

How does Flare help your team monitor threat intelligence data? 

Security teams can get burned out, thanks to the noise from so many alerts — many of which aren’t relevant to your organization. Flare’s platform automates the process of scanning for threat intelligence data by continuously monitoring the clear & dark web for information that targets your organization. If the platform detects your organization, employees’ names, domains, IP, or any other key information in a place where it should not be, Flare immediately alerts your team so they can proactively prevent an attack. 

What do you get with Flare’s threat intelligence data solution? 

• Automated monitoring of the clear & dark web: Flare gives your organization 24/7 coverage, with constant monitoring to seek out threats. 
• Unmatched data collection: Flare uses billions of data points to provide your team with information about your organization’s security stance, relevant threats, and the movement of threat actors between platforms. 
• Transparency: Flare lists every source so you know exactly where your threat intelligence data is coming from. 
• A proactive security stance: By actively seeking out potential threats, you can catch breaches early and take steps to protect your data, systems, and networks.
• Translation: Not all threat actor conversations are in English. Flare’s AI assistant translates alerts so that your team can see threats, no matter where in the world they come from.

Threat Intelligence Data: An Overview

What is threat intelligence data? 

Threat intelligence data refers to a collection of information about potential or current threats to an organization’s digital resources. This information is gathered from many sources, providing a comprehensive understanding of the potential cyber threat landscape. The goal of threat intelligence data is to help security teams and leadership to  make informed decisions about their cybersecurity. This process involves collecting, parsing, and analyzing vast amounts of data to provide insights into potential cyber threats, threat actors, and their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

What are the four types of threat intelligence?

• Strategic: Strategic threat intelligence provides high-level overviews of a threat so senior leadership can make decisions based on the threat landscape. Strategic threat intelligence focuses on non-technical information.
• Tactical: Tactical threat intelligence focuses on malicious actor tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), providing insight into potential attacks and an attack’s possible impact. 
• Technical: Technical threat intelligence is the information that security teams usually get from their open-source intelligence feeds. Security teams use technical threat intelligence to monitor new threats or investigate  security incidents.
• Operational: Operational threat intelligence gives security teams actionable information relating to threat actors’ natures, motives, timing, and methods.

Why is Threat Intelligence Data Important in Today’s Digital Landscape? 

Cyber threats are dynamic, and so is threat intelligence data

Cyber threats are rapidly evolving, so your security posture can’t simply react to incidents. It’s important to adopt a position of proactive defense, and threat intelligence data plays a pivotal role in a proactive strategy. 

Strong threat intelligence data gives your team an opportunity to preemptively identify and counteract threats, rather than waiting for an attack to respond. Threat intelligence empowers your team to close security gaps, mitigate vulnerabilities, and hunt threats before an attack even occurs.

How can threat intelligence data prevent an incident?

Threat intelligence data gives your team an understanding of the current threat landscape. Properly normalized and analyzed data goes beyond the raw intelligence data by giving your team context: explaining the characteristics and behaviors of threat actors, their motivations, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). This information gives your organization insight into threat actors’ potential targets, attack vectors, and the potential impact of an attack, allowing your organization to  implement targeted defense strategies to mitigate identified risks.

What are some challenges when it comes to threat intelligence data? 

Parsing raw threat intelligence data can be an overwhelming task for a security team. Not only is there a lot of raw threat intelligence, but it can be difficult to manually sift through the data to find a pattern that indicates a relevant threat. Additionally, security teams use a variety of tools, each with its own set of alerts.  When an organization is inundated with irrelevant or repetitive alerts, this can cause teams to waste time, become overwhelmed, or focus on the wrong threats. To reduce the noise and volume of alerts, intelligence needs to be prioritized and contextualized. 

Threat Intelligence Data and Flare

Flare provides the leading Threat Exposure Management (TEM) solution for organizations. Our technology constantly scans the online world, including the clear & dark web, to discover unknown events, automatically prioritize risks, and deliver actionable intelligence you can use instantly to improve security. Flare’s platform cuts through the noise to deliver the best, most actionable threat intelligence data to your team. 
Multiple enterprise companies’ security teams have stated Flare has the strongest data collection they’ve seen. See it yourself with our free trial.