How threat intelligence can assist in identifying vulnerabilities

Threat intelligence involves data collection, processing, and analysis to identify the security threats an organization might possibly be facing. Threat intelligence, also called “cyber threat intelligence” or “threat intel,” is vital to understanding the motives of bad actors and potential targets.

The outcome of threat intelligence isn’t a list of threats but intel that enables organizations to make informed data-backed decisions. Although defensive measures can be taken once the potential targets of bad actors are identified, threat intelligence is categorized as a proactive measure instead of a reactive one.

Identifying vulnerabilities

Before diving into the details of how threat intelligence can help us identify vulnerabilities, we should understand the lifecycle of cyber threat intelligence, as shown in the diagram below:

This structured process helps identify vulnerabilities along the way, particularly in the following ways:

• Discover new vulnerabilities: The practice of data collection in the second phase above can help discover new vulnerabilities, including zero-day vulnerabilities. Although no patches are available for zero-day vulnerabilities, the organization will be prepared to install defensive strategies.

• Recognizing outdated elements: One outcome of threat intelligence is determining outdated libraries, frameworks, models, and policies. For example, this might involve detecting the use of outdated kernel versions of data center servers or unpatched old SSL/TLS library versions. Not only will this practice help recognize vulnerabilities, but will allow us to update policies that may lead to data exposure.

• Indicators of compromise (IoC): IoCs are pieces of information that can be used for malicious activities by bad actors, such as domain names, URLs, IP addresses, email addresses, hashes of files, etc. Depending on the organization, IoCs specific to their data can be analyzed by security teams to discover vulnerabilities commonly exploited.

• Patterns, techniques, and context: Threat intelligence provides the opportunity to learn various things from the past, such as patterns used in cyber attacks, techniques employed to exploit vulnerabilities, and the overall context of targets aimed at by bad actors within an industry. This intel not only fills security gaps but can also provide priorities to set up mitigating controls.

Threat intelligence plays a vital role in converting insights into actionable items, patching security loopholes, prioritizing remedies, and setting up long-lasting, foolproof security mechanisms. Although threat intelligence is not a silver bullet, it’s known to decrease vulnerability detection costs and reduce the impact of data breaches.