Cyber Threat Intelligence: Your Secret Weapon in Cloud Security Management

How do you transition to cloud computing without increasing your security risks? It’s a top-of-mind question as security challenges continue escalating with more organizations migrating to the cloud. From data loss and data breaches to malware and account hijacking, these security risks require reliable Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI). Without it you are flying blind, trusting to hope and good fortune, or that knowledge and practices from your prior ‘on-premise’ enterprise set-up will be ‘good enough’ for the cloud.

CTI is evidence-based knowledge about an existing or emerging menace or hazard to assets that can be used to inform decisions regarding the subject's response to that menace or hazard. This curated information is intended to help organizations make better decisions about how to defend their business from cyber-based threats — making it a pivotal solution for managing cloud security risks.

We’re breaking down the key to successful cloud security management. Spoiler: Anomali ThreatStream enhances SecOps capabilities for cloud security by empowering a cyber threat-informed defense to stop adversaries.

Elevating Cloud Security Management with CTI

Cyber Threat Intelligence marks a transition from reactive to proactive security strategies that drive two crucial strengths - preparedness and resilience. By understanding adversaries' tactics, techniques, and procedures, organizations can enhance the protection of their cloud environments. The main advantages of CTI include delivering specific, actionable intelligence, which allows your team to focus on and neutralize the most pressing threats. 

Anomali's ThreatStream amplifies these benefits through superior threat detection, immediate intelligence gathering, and smooth integration with existing security operations tools. By simplifying oversight of cloud infrastructure and streamlining response efforts, potential vulnerabilities can be transformed into solid defenses.

For example, Anomali customer Blackhawk Network Holdings needed a way to easily investigate potentially risky alerts without logging in to multiple security product dashboards. They wanted to reduce their manual overhead requirements and maximize their resources so their analysts could focus on critical issues better.

Anomali ThreatStream offered Blackhawk Network Holdings a way to sync actionable threat intelligence with their SIEM alerts, integrate disparate threat feeds into one single-view dashboard, and provide the context around IOCs necessary to understand their true importance.

By transitioning from several systems in their IT environment that provided outside threat intelligence (each with its portal and dashboards) to ThreatStream, the client could use a single dashboard and consolidate all threat intelligence feeds, seamlessly integrate SIEM, improve threat analysis and response times, and more. You can use this powerful CTI as your best defense in managing cloud security.

This approach delivers three key factors in defensive decision making - precision, velocity and impact - and, through the Anomali approach automates and optimizes processes, frees up analysts to look at the wider context of threats, significantly shifting from reactive to proactive and preemptive security.

Enhancing Proactive Security Posture

Anomali's Security Operations Platform automation capabilities are crucial in developing a proactive security posture. Automating detection and response processes, ThreatStream shortens the window of opportunity for attackers in cloud environments. It establishes and optimizes a set of overlapping and compensating security controls that significantly impede any attacker, minimizes the potential for harm and disruption to the business, and ultimately eliminates the success payout for the attacker. This automation extends to constant security monitoring, ensuring timely identification and resolution of new threats and keeping pace with the fast-changing nature of cloud computing and its associated threats.

Organizations have made the shift to the cloud to reduce cost and increase agility. To empower their business with the power to flex operational capacity and rapidly change to pursue new opportunities. It is the fuel for growth and prosperity. Aligning Cyber Threat Intelligence with the dynamic operation and growth strategy of the business drives out uncertainty and underpins a resilience-by-design as security gets intentionally built in. The security team is truly in partnership with the business assuring its growth and success.

Ensuring Compliance and Secure Cloud Migration

Migrating to the cloud introduces a series of regulatory and compliance challenges. Cyber Threat Intelligence is an essential tool for ensuring the security of data and applications during the migration process. ThreatStream provides insights into a wide range of external threats, supporting a secure transition. It is essential to constantly monitor your cloud infrastructure to ensure compliance and security within the larger cybersecurity threat ecosystem.

Anomali automatically connects global threat feeds with your unique attack surface to rapidly reveal intrusions.  Anomali Copilot, an AI-driven solution, ingests millions of IOCs daily from our industry-leading threat repository. It cross-references these against your environment in minutes to uncover hidden attacks and deliver immediate insight at the compliance, executive, and ops levels.

Here’s how ThreatStream can support you in securing data and applications throughout the migration process:

• Threat monitoring lets you know your adversaries' TTPs, leverage insights from peers via ISAC sharing, and plan your defense proactively.
• Intelligence lifecycle management automates intel workflows, collecting, curating, analyzing, prioritizing, publishing, and assessing.
• Enhanced security control efficacy automates intel distribution to current security controls to proactively stop breaches.
• Enriched SecOps workflows accelerate triage and response with attacker insights, TTPs, attack flows, and related observables.
• Accelerated incident response also provides insight into your adversaries, allowing you to predict their next steps and stop breach impacts.

Amplifying Defense with CTI Integration

Integrating Cyber Threat Intelligence with cloud-native security solutions strengthens your organization's defense. Beyond ThreatStream’s threat intelligence management, the Anomali Security Operations Platform enhances cloud security through exposure management, detection and response, and security automation. Cloud-native tools such as SIEMs, firewalls, and endpoint protection systems seamlessly integrate with these CTI tools.

Anomali’s unique features enable this integration and enhanced security operations, helping customers accelerate SOC performance. With Anomali, your organization can:

• Drive a cyber threat-informed defense with insights from your security landscape
• Identify breaches with high precision using insights into attacker indicators and behavior
• Prioritize, accelerate, and automate responses with adversary insights and breach context
• Access and improve the efficacy of your cyber stack through proactive indicator sharing
• Go from bulletins to hunting in minutes with attack patterns, indicators, and attacker context

This integration can empower your organization to construct a more formidable defense against complex and evolving cyber threats, using actionable intelligence for swift and effective responses.

Securing Tomorrow: The Path Forward with Anomali

Cyber Threat Intelligence continues to have a transformative impact on cloud security management. Whether you’re hoping to identify your adversaries and how they might attack you, want to understand better what your security operations team should be watching for, or intend to reduce your company’s cloud security risks, or ensuring security becomes the partner to your business’s growth and success — threat intelligence can help you achieve these goals.

At Anomali, we anticipate future challenges in cloud security. How are we poised to address those challenges? With our AI-powered Security Operations Platform: innovative AI that consolidates threat detection, investigation, and response into a single solution built on the largest repository of actionable intelligence. Learn more about strengthening your cloud security strategy today with Anomali’s ThreatStream and comprehensive platform capabilities.