Selecting a Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP)

Do You Need a TIP?

Many organizations struggle with managing threat intelligence. There is too much data noise, reliance on manual processes that make it harder to correlate relevant intelligence, and difficulties in producing and distributing actionable reports to the right people.

Organizations turn to a Threat Intelligence Platform or TIP to help alleviate some of these problems.

A TIP is like a nerve center that pulls raw data and intelligence from multiple sources into a central repository. Using automation, it sifts through and correlates that data to find relevant intelligence through curation, normalization, enrichment, and risk scoring. A TIP can create a feedback loop that integrates with existing security systems by analyzing and sharing relevant, actionable threat intelligence across an organization.

Key benefits of a TIP are reducing time to detection, enabling collaboration, and producing actionable information for stakeholders.

Top Considerations When Selecting a TIP

Stakeholders

The search for a TIP should begin with a clear understanding of the audience it will be serving. The most frequent users of a TIP are threat intelligence analysts, SOC analysts, cyber threat hunters, IR analysts, and CISOs, each with different needs and expectations they hope to garner from the TIP. For example, threat intelligence analysts can use the curated information to create adversary dossiers, while CISOs can execute on strategic goals and keep costs down through time saved by automation.

Collaboration

Collaboration and threat intelligence sharing between groups is a core benefit of a TIP. In selecting a TIP, it is fundamental to understand organizational structure and how communications flow. Different teams should be able to share knowledge from anywhere at any time and with the ability to integrate the TIP into existing security systems. Choose your TIP based on the collaboration you require. Another factor in collaboration is the reporting capabilities of a TIP. Complete reports will be automated, including real-time alerts and summaries customized for different stakeholders and your specific industry.

Data Aggregation and Curation within Context

The ability of a TIP to ingest customized imports of data from internal and external sources is at the heart of its functionality. The flexibility of setting up customized data imports while also automatically pulling information from vendors or trusted third parties empowers security analysts to be more efficient. They will also have the ability to parse and index both structured (e.g., STIX/TAXII) and unstructured data (e.g., blogs, whitepapers, etc.).

Another critical function of a TIP is curating the information it takes in. Optimizing curated data is vital when clarifying the context within your platform. Malicious actors that directly affect your industry and organization will get targeted using the intelligence produced by your TIP. Therefore, how you import vendor data and modify it to your organization’s specific needs is critical. Machine learning algorithms should sort the information and weigh the individual indicators of compromise (IoCs) based on context and user-defined scoring and relevance.

Vulnerabilities native to the organization are the other side of the context equation. A TIP needs to match high-scoring IoCs with "crown jewels" and other essential assets. Patching is utilized to protect the most critical infrastructure. Determining the vulnerability context upfront will help determine the feedback loop that a TIP needs to facilitate.

Deployment

Off-premise architectures, such as cloud-based installations, are quick to turn on and offload management costs. However, firewall ports and integration with on-premise systems pose challenges. In addition, ownership rights of intelligence on the cloud should be considered and clarified with the vendor before purchase.

On-premise platforms require upfront time and costs to set up the infrastructure and local configurations. Once set up, on-site deployments provide easier integration with customer toolsets, constant access to data, and greater organizational control for those with specific requirements.

Whether on or off-premise, the TIP needs to integrate effectively with existing defense systems. One of the main functions of a TIP is to facilitate a feedback loop to improve threat intelligence continually. Bi-directional integrations with current solutions are ideal. A few use cases include interconnectivity with a security information event management (SIEM) or log repository, ticketing system, and attacker tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) overlaid with vulnerability data.

Anomali

Anomali provides intelligence-driven solutions with extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities to stop breaches and attackers. An expansive partner ecosystem helps provide enhanced context for more comprehensive intelligence. Anomali’s solution is made up of three core offerings: Anomali ThreatStream, Anomali Match, and Anomali Lens.

Anomali ThreatStream is a Threat Intelligence Platform that automates the collection and processing of raw data, filters out the noise, and transforms it into relevant, actionable threat intelligence for security teams.

Anomali Match is an extended detection and response (XDR) solution that helps organizations quickly detect and respond to threats in real-time to stop breaches and attackers.

Anomali Lens is a powerful extension that quickly operationalizes threat intelligence by automatically scanning web-based content to identify relevant threats and streamline researching and reporting on them.

In this constantly changing threat landscape, selecting the right TIP and deploying it effectively can save costs, make better use of expertise and provide the intelligence needed to address threats more rapidly and effectively.

Download the Managing Threat Intelligence Playbook for insights on how to build a solid threat intelligence plan to set your organization up for success.