The nature of cybersecurity has changed over time and for this reason, Top Threat Intelligence Platforms are introduced. Cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated nowadays. Phishing attacks and fraudulent emails are quite common to get people to share sensitive information. There is a huge chance of getting targeted by threats over the internet. Clicking on a malicious link can make your organization end up in a huge problem. Threat intelligence is the information that is used to prevent, identify, and prepare for the cyber threats that may take advantage of the valuable elements. Hence, the invention of threat intelligence platforms is very useful and helps to provide enough security.

Why do companies need threat intelligence platforms?

Earlier, the threat intelligence teams used various tools and processes to gather information and review those data from a variety of sources. They also responded to the possible security threats manually and shared threat intelligence reports with the other stakeholders. Today, threat intelligence platforms are very much needed by the company because they need to respond to the potential threats much faster than they had to earlier. A threat intelligence team benefits all types of organizations by helping to process the threat data to understand their attackers and get ahead of the attacker’s move. There are four main types of threat intelligence which include tactical, operational, technical, and strategic.

The threat intelligence platforms assimilate the threat information from various sources of the organizations and arm the security team with some knowledge on the threats. Information comes from a lot of sources and hence it takes a lot of time to complete the task. This is the reason, companies need automation in threat intelligence. There are many security operations centers (SOCs) where threat intelligence is just a function but large enterprises work with a dedicated team towards this.

Factors to consider while choosing threat intelligence platform

While choosing the Top Threat Intelligence Platforms, the factors that must be considered are mentioned below.

  • Data Collection

No matter what the format and the means of data collection are, all the threat intelligence platforms must collect data from all kinds of sources. The information must consist of operational, strategic, and tactical intelligence from both external as well as internal sources. The volume of the data must not be a concern.

  • Data Processing 

Threat intelligence platforms must be able to support the authentication of strong end-user and also provide a human interface. The application programming interface (API) should be easy to modify and also configure if it is needed. The analysts must be able to make customized workflows on the platform. Another important thing is that the platform must have an inbuilt workflow for stakeholder collaboration. Therefore, in short, the platforms need to help the analysts prioritize the threats and IoCs.

  • Dissemination of Solution 

It is the responsibility of every threat intelligence platform to allow the users to share information easily with both internal as well as external stakeholders. No matter what is the standard and model, it should be able to exchange the data. It is very important for all its users to receive reports and notifications periodically from it. Hence, the platform must be able to support standard transfer protocols.

  • Setting for planning and direction

A threat intelligence platform must always be able to manage and collect the identified intelligence, data collection requirements, and production. For each intelligence cycle, they must know the process of identification of the key performance indicators (KPIs) and the knowledge gaps in each threat intelligence cycle stage. This can help to provide the necessary threat information to the stakeholder effectively.

SOAR as a threat intelligence platform

SOAR can act as an open-source threat intelligence platform that helps an organization in collecting data about security threats and also react to the security events without any human assistance. The main goal of using a SOAR platform is to increase the efficiency of SOC operations. Threat intelligence pricing is the subscription to many kinds of data feeds. The data fees may vary in cost from $1500 to $15,000 per month as it depends on the number of feeds and quality of data. The three main components of SOAR are:

  • Security orchestration

Security orchestration not only connects but also integrates different external and internal tools through an application programming interface (API) and built-in or custom integration. The connected systems include endpoint protection products, firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, event management platforms, firewalls, and many more.

  • Security response

Security response is responsible for offering a single view for the analysts into the managing, monitoring, reporting, and planning of all the actions. These are carried out when the threat is been detected. This also includes activities that happen after the incident such as threat intelligence sharing and case management.

  • Security automation

Security automation is usually fed by the alerts and data which are collected from the security orchestration. The SOAR platforms standardize and execute automatically the tasks that are already performed by the analysts which includes log analysis, auditing capabilities, vulnerability scanning, and ticket checking. The SOAR solutions can automate future responses and make recommendations with the help of using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

Conclusion

There are various free threat intelligence platforms that help in being secure in various fields in the organization. While investing in a proper threat intelligence platform, always look for SOAR solutions as it has the capability to weave the threat intelligence data into an automated and unified workflow.

If you are looking for the best threat intelligence platform, visit https://www.securaa.io/ where skilled professionals operationalize threat intelligence. Threat intelligence report consists of security intelligence from 20+ sources, organized across various indicator categories. With the help of this data, it becomes easier for the experts to build better defenses. Securaa also provides an investigation workbench for analysts to manage, analyze, and collect data. Hence, to get the best outcome, choose Securaa.