4 Important Facts About Threat Intelligence

Gathering information about the potential dangers threatening your network security is a complex process. To execute threat intelligence, it’s necessary to examine a traffic data and lists of known indicators to leverage this information and detect suspicious behavior. Leveraging this information is crucial to protecting your network and your enterprise.

Too smart for their own good - There is a new class of data created by the non-traditional devices we are using. The Internet of Things (IoT) has created a new space for attackers to exploit. We can get a lot of benefits from wired devices. These advances offer important contributions to society like improved medical care and disability services as well as more trivial matters of convenience like shopping apps. Now your network defenses must extend to your security cameras, smart medical devices, and of course your mobile phone. As more and more data is contributed to the greater web, more opportunities exist for criminals.

Insecure smart objects allow for the network they are using to be hacked. Hackable devices sending and receiving data from the Wi-Fi signal creates a portal to your server. These devices themselves contain personal data such as user account info (email address, name, date of birth) which can be exploited for identity theft or used to attempt to login to other entities. These devices can be tampered with as a nuisance prank or to create serious disruptions.

Hackers for hire - The skillset required to find and exploit network weaknesses is no longer a barrier to cyber-criminals. A more recent development is the commercialization of tools for cyber-crime. Malware is now being marketed to criminals by criminals. Hackers for hire offer use of their botnets, networks of computers which have been infected with malware, usually a Trojan virus. Custom spam campaigns can be launched using the processing power of the botnet. They can assail a network with enough traffic to create a denial of service (DOS) to users. A DOS attack is expensive in terms of lost business and reputation damage.

Threat intelligence must rise to the occasion and anticipate threats from a new type of criminal. The tools being purchased will certainly be continually included in the virus definition updates for detection software. Once so many identical bots are in operation, experts are going to be tasked with learning who employed the hacker’s services.

Threat intelligence is a rapidly expanding field - Protection from cyber-criminals is becoming an increasingly important priority for corporate executives, not for profit directors, small and medium enterprises and security minded individuals. The Employment outlook for network security professionals reports protecting online security analysis is a lucrative occupation requiring less college than other comparable salaries. Job prospects are growing rapidly compared to other occupations.

Getting Return on Investment - The trust of your stakeholders and your most competitive innovations should be regarded as priceless. Still, with proper execution, threat intelligence can also yield results on the bottom line. Preventing attacks can eliminate day to day nuisances of network malware or low scale employee data theft. More importantly, securing your companies data can protect its future. Corporate secrets, digital media, and databases full of personal information could create immeasurable damage.

Many solutions are open source and therefore have an inherently lower cost to pilot. A user-friendly threat detection platform produces reports that work for your needs. Accurate and reliable threat reports will in time eliminate unnecessary personnel costs. Examining blocked attacks and estimating their potential damage can quickly justify the cost of investing in a threat intelligence platform.

Taking a proactive approach and do all you can to protect your network. Threat intelligence is our greatest weapon against the shifting landscape of online attacks. Ransomware attacks, targeted espionage, and theft of intellectual property are too devastating to go unchecked.

Want to make sure your data is secure and cannot get in the hands of a criminal? You need a cybersecurity system that protect your business. Try us out today.

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