Navigating the cybersecurity landscape, organizations today recognize Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) as a critical factor in reducing risks, boosting incident response, and fortifying overall security postures. However, operationalizing CTI feeds and seamlessly integrating them into an organization's security infrastructure pose important challenges. In this blog post, we explained the top challenges encountered during the operationalization of cyber threat intelligence and provide insights on how organizations can navigate these obstacles successfully.

1. Tackling Data Overload and Noise

Given the flood of data generated by CTI inputs, security teams may feel overwhelmed as they struggle to process and analyze the data in real-time. A typical threat intelligence feed provides millions of threat indicators every day [1]. Amid numerous threats, vulnerabilities, breaches, and threat actors, filtering out false positives and irrelevant information becomes a daunting task, delaying threat detection and response. According to the Cyber Threat Intelligence Survey of March 2023, the top challenge of CTI users (45%) is identifying relevant intelligence  across vast amounts of data [2]. 

To overcome this challenge, organizations should invest in threat prioritization based on potential impact and relevance to the organization's unique threat profile, resulting in more effective security strategies. This process often involves customizing intelligence to suit an organization's unique threat environment. However, effective customization can be resource-intensive and challenging to implement. By embracing solutions designed for tailoring CTI data to the organization's threat profiles and specific needs, enterprises can improve the relevance and actionability of the intelligence provided.

2. Streamlining Integration

Nearly 40% of CTI users utilize multiple threat intelligence solutions [2]. However, merging various CTI feeds from diverse vendors and sources can prove complex and time-consuming. Strikingly, a recent report revealed that only 17% of security professionals express satisfaction with their ability to correlate security data across all products and services [3].

For better decision-making and prompt incident response, security teams must strive to seamlessly integrate of CTI data into existing security toolsets, including SIEMs, vulnerability management, and security validation solutions. Organizations should invest in platforms supporting interoperability and compatibility with a wide array of security tools and solutions to enhance integration capabilities. Automation can reduce the time and effort required to integrate CTI data into existing security toolsets, allowing security teams to focus on more strategic tasks. Additionally, automation can decrease the risk of human error and ensure that CTI data is appropriately integrated into the security stack.

3. Maintaining Quality and Accuracy

CTI feeds can exhibit considerable differences in quality and accuracy, with some sources supplying outdated or incorrect information. Relying on low-quality feeds may prompt organizations to make security decisions based on inaccurate intelligence, thereby increasing risk exposure and vulnerability to breaches.

A high-quality CTI feed includes six properties: applicable, accurate, timely, machine-readable, consumable, and actionable [4]. To ensure access to high-quality CTI, organizations must invest in reputable, reliable  feeds andregularyly evaluate intelligence sources. These assessments aid in identifying data quality gaps and enable informed decisions to maintain effective CTI programs.

4. Addressing Resource Constraints

Comprehensive CTI programs demand appropriate tools with a robust infrastructure. Maintaining multiple CTI feed subscriptions could lead to organizations struggling to manage comprehensive CTI programs due to limited resources.

Organizations should prioritize investments in CTI based on their specific threat landscape and allocate budgets that align with strategic security goals. By leveraging technology, the optimization of limited resources can be achieved.

5. Bridging the Expertise Gap

Many organizations lack the in-house expertise required for a comprehensive understanding and analysis of CTI data. This skills gap could result in missed threats or delayed responses as security teams may fail to prioritize and act on relevant threat indicators effectively.

A whopping 63% of security professionals cite their organizations lacking the right staff or skills to manage an appropriate CTI program [5]. To address this issue, organizations should invest in ongoing training and development programs for their security teams, or consider partnering with third-party providers offering specialized CTI insights and expertise. When establishing an in-house CTI, organizations are most likely to draw members from the SOC and incident response teams [6].

6. Avoiding Overreliance on CTI Feeds

Although CTI feeds supply valuable information, organizations should not solely rely upon them to detect threats. Overdependence on CTI may lead to overlooking other vital sources of intelligence, such as network traffic analysis and behavioral threat detection.

Creating a comprehensive threat detection strategy that diversifies intelligence sources and incorporates other threat monitoring techniques can ensure a holistic approach to cybersecurity, reducing the chances of vulnerabilities being exploited.

7. Developing Metrics and Evaluation-Methods

23% of security experts agree that clearly defined goals, objectives, and metrics are essential in a mature CTI program [7].  However, establishing meaningful metrics to gauge the effectiveness of CTI programs and support informed decision-making can prove challenging for organizations. To address this issue, organizations should refine their key performance indicators (KPIs), aligning them with their security objectives and enabling continuous evaluation and improvement of their CTI programs.

8. Adapting to the Evolving Threat Landscape

The top objective of all CTI users is to expose imminent threats to their organization preemptively  [2]. However, the dynamic nature of the cybersecurity landscape poses challenges for CTI analysts seeking to keep pace with emerging tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) deployed by threat actors. 

To adapt their analysis and strategies effectively, organizations must invest in continuous monitoring, threat assessment, and security validation capabilities to stay ahead of evolving threat landscapes.

Conclusion

Effective operationalization of cyber threat intelligence poses significant challenges for organizations in today's rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape. By tackling issues such as data overload, integration, and prioritization, security teams can harness the full potential of CTI to strengthen their defense against a dynamic threat environment. Investing in the right tools, expertise, and strategies enables organizations to overcome these hurdles, bolstering their overall security posture.

Integrating CTI Feeds and Security Validation as a Solution 

About a quarter of security professionals believe that a mature CTI program must incorporate continuous security controls testing against new threats [6]. As Picus, we assist our customers in effectively operationalizing CTI by seamlessly integrating real-time threat intelligence feeds with simulated threats within our The Complete Security Validation Platform. This unique integration empowers our customers with a range of valuable benefits. Firstly, they gain access to prioritized threat intelligence. By combining TI feeds with simulated threats specific to the organization's environment, the BAS platform can provide contextually relevant insights. This integration allows organizations to prioritize threats that align with their assets, infrastructure, and industry, reducing information overload and improving the accuracy of threat identification. This timely and relevant information allows them to focus their resources on addressing the most critical risks to their systems. 

Additionally, by correlating the threats collected from CTI feeds with the simulated threats within our platform, we provide our customers with an unparalleled understanding of the security landscape. This correlation enhances their situational awareness and enables them to make well-informed decisions regarding their security posture. As a result, our users can implement targeted and effective security measures, ensuring a robust defense against evolving threats.

References

[1] “A survey on technical threat intelligence in the age of sophisticated cyber attacks,” Comput. Secur., vol. 72, pp. 212–233, Jan. 2018.

[2] “Cybersixgill - Threat Intelligence Solutions.”: https://cybersixgill.com/resources/cyber-threat-intelligence-survey-2023/#report-form-section

[3] “CRA Study: XDR Poised to Become a Force Multiplier for Threat Detection,” SC Media, May 05, 2022. https://www.scmagazine.com/whitepaper/cra-study-xdr-poised-to-become-a-force-multiplier-for-threat-detection

[4] “Cybersecurity Automation and Threat Intelligence Sharing Best Practices.” https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Assessing%20Cyber%20Threat%20Intelligence%20Threat%20Feeds_508c.pdf.

[5] “Cyber-threat Intelligence Programs: Ubiquitous and Immature,” ReliaQuest, Feb. 28, 2023. https://www.reliaquest.com/resources/ebooks/cyber-threat-intelligence-prgram-esg-ebook/.

[6] SANS Security Insights, SANS Institute, and M. Petersen, “2020 SANS Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) Survey.” https://www.sans.org/white-papers/39395/. 

[7] J. Oltsik, “Attributes of a mature cyber-threat intelligence program,” CSO Online, May 25, 2023 https://www.csoonline.com/article/575385/attributes-of-a-mature-cyber-threat-intelligence-program.html.