Threat Intelligence: A Critical Defense Tool for Your Security Operations

As attack methods continue to evolve and multiply, the only chance of staying a step ahead is enabling your security operations center (SOC) with the most powerful toolset possible. As the complexity of security has increased, a wide array of products have come to the forefront in an effort to prevent the battle for safety from becoming a losing one.

Recently, though, one tactic in particular has proven extremely effective, primarily because it does its job before an impactful security event actually takes place: threat intelligence.

It’s no secret that SOC analysts are becoming buried in more security data on a daily basis, and without the right tools, identifying critical security insights and making the right recommendations in an efficient or effective manner is next to impossible. Threat intelligence allows businesses to both avert and mitigate developing security threats before they actually make a negative impact.

The concept of threat intelligence has been on the rise in recent years. As TechCrunch reported, the practice area has brought forth a number of initiatives led by researchers and security vendors who are working together to collaborate, share security information, and protect customers, such as the Cyber Threat Alliance.

The government is getting involved, too. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), was enacted in 2015 as a way to make threat intelligence sharing easily accessible to businesses.

Ultimately, the development of threat intelligence is resulting in a multitude of platforms and standards that are aimed at helping businesses and federal organizations collect, aggregate, and use cyber threat intelligence in common with others. The results are reducing the lifespans of new attacks and putting pressure on malicious actors, making it more difficult to continue operating.

Threat intelligence and information sharing is raising a new kind of proactive awareness around new methods of attack, as well as in-progress data breaches as they happen, providing a way to avoid significant security events from affecting more targets.

The Preemptive Power of Recorded Future, Combined With Splunk

So, what kinds of tools are available for harnessing the power of threat intelligence to put organizations in a better position of defense and assist security operations personnel?

There are quite a few, each with their own benefits, but this post will focus on using threat intelligence in combination with your security information and event management (SIEM) solution. In this case, Recorded Future for Splunk.

By integrating Recorded Future with Splunk, security teams can visualize the content generated by Recorded Future, enhancing their overall understanding of the security posture of the environment. Let’s look at some examples.

Make fast, informed security determinations.

Security teams are tasked with parsing through a myriad of events and alerts on a daily basis. When Recorded Future and Splunk work together, the significance of potential security events becomes remarkably clearer via rich context. Armed with threat intelligence, analysts are able to more quickly identify irrelevant or false events and gain greater insight into legitimate incidents.

Identify critical incidents that could be easily overlooked.

Recorded Future provides the means to apply specific indicators consistent with security needs to generate accurate event correlation and detection. Indicators are identified with increased risks through web reporting, threat lists, and proprietary methods unique to Recorded Future.

Access threat insights beyond what you can see on your network.

Recorded Future for Splunk also delivers the capacity to detect incidents proactively as they’re originated or reported beyond a network. Risks can be monitored and alerted on according to IP address ranges, domains, and companies. As alerts are triggered, SOC analysts will receive detailed notifications that include origin, source links, and cached access to content.

The August Schell Take on Using Machine Learning for Threat Intelligence

August Schell Enterprises is a big proponent of using machine data to generate threat intelligence and enable sharing, and frequently works with both federal and commercial customers to help them reap its value. Recorded Future has been proven a highly effective product for real-time threat intelligence security, particularly when paired with Splunk, and August Schell has made a concerted effort to closely partner with both vendors in an effort to maximize the positive impacts of their solutions for its customers.

Machine learning brings great potential in enhancing security defenses, but it also requires a powerful solution set for revealing insights and giving rise to action; this is what Recorded Future for Splunk is able to achieve.

If your organization is interested in learning more about how Recorded Future for Splunk can enhance your security program, request a demo or reach out to an August Schell specialist.