Threat intelligence platforms take cybersecurity beyond traditional defensive strategies. Actionable threat intelligence helps IT to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals and prevent information or financial loss. This makes it possible to warn organizations about potentially malicious activity inside the network. Unusual patterns or behavior are flagged so cybersecurity analysts can find out what is going on.
Threat intelligence platforms, then, deal with any threats or potential threats related to computer systems and web-based applications. This represents a way to collect relevant cyber threat data. Further, threat intelligence software applies analytics to that information, adding a predictive capability and risk estimation.
However, cyber threat intelligence is not just about signing up for one of the many threat indicator feeds. Threat intelligence tools work in conjunction with cybersecurity experts to apply indicators of risk intelligently and protect the environment.
Read more: Top Cyber Security Threats to Organizations
.
Top threat intelligence software
CIO Insight evaluated the various threat intelligence vendors. Here are our top picks in no particular order:
ZeroFox
ZeroFox acquired Cyveillance, a threat intel pioneer. It offers timely, relevant information tailored to organizational requirements. Instead of noise from endless feeds, it delivers what matters.
Actionable data allows IT to head off emerging threats before damage can occur. ZeroFox enables your team to execute unlimited takedowns and disrupt malicious actors at scale with fast action to immediately black list key indicator infrastructure across a global disruption partner network of social platforms, hosts, registrars, and ISPs.
Key Differentiators
- Threat data lake that includes attacker campaigns and infrastructure history
- Full spectrum intelligence tailored to the business
- Combines AI processing, deep learning tools, and dark ops operatives
- Combs through massive datasets across social media, the web, dark web, and other sources
- Identifies exposed or stolen credentials before they are weaponized
- 2.6 million disruptive actions per week
- Fast analysis, triage, contextualization, and correlation of potential threats
- Investigates relationships between various cyber attacks and threat indicators
Resecurity
Resecurity’s Context threat intelligence solution provides proactive alerts and comprehensive visibility of internal and external risks targeting the enterprise. It helps to reduce potential blind spots and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
This tactical threat intelligence tool identifies threats coming from outside based on data aggregated from over 20,000 public and closed sources.
Key Differentiators
- Massive repository of Dark Web data
- Can add your own threat intelligence feeds
- Integrates available security solutions to actualize the risk score of the enterprise footprint
- Round-the-clock security monitoring of cloud workloads in AWS to prevent data breaches
- Cloud-native integration, including integration with Amazon GuardDuty
Keysight Technologies
Keysight offers Threat Simulator and the Application and Threat Intelligence (ATI) Research Center. Threat Simulator is an element of Keysight’s Security Operations Suite. It leverages the output of ATI, allowing enterprises to safely conduct offensive operations against their infrastructure, pinpointing gaps in coverage and blind spots by using the tactics leveraged by threat actors.
Key Differentiators
- Immediately identifies hostile activity on the network
- Detects open cybersecurity holes hackers can exploit
- Gives cybersecurity teams experience with recognizing and classifying attacks in real time
- SaaS solution that delivers results in a few minutes
- Continuously validates email, endpoint, cloud, and perimeter defenses against the latest threats
LogRhythm
LogRhythm incorporates threat intelligence from STIX/TAXII-compliant providers, commercial and open source feeds, and internal honeypots — all via an integrated threat intelligence ecosystem. The platform uses this data to reduce false positives, detect hidden threats, and prioritize the most concerning alarms.
Key Differentiators
- Incorporates Structured Threat Information Expression (STIX) and Trusted Automated Exchange of Indicator Information (TAXII)
- Part of an open, community-driven effort that offers free specifications to help automate the exchange of cyber threat information
- Provides the ability to add custom STIX/TAXII compliant providers, such as Soltra Edge
- Rapidly incorporate threat intelligence from open source providers like Abuse.ch, AlienVault, AutoShun, and TOR Network
Red Canary
Red Canary Security Operations Platform is a SaaS cybersecurity solution for detecting, hunting, and responding to threats. It helps organizations gain threat detection, hunting, and response capabilities. It’s driven by human expert analysis and guidance across endpoints, cloud deployments, and network devices.
Key Differentiators
- Improves threat coverage, reduces dwell time, and eliminates alert fatigue
- Purpose-built software removes the need to integrate third party products
- Security engineering as a service enables SOC teams to focus on protecting the business
- Threat and behavioral intelligence curated from thousands of incident response engagements
FireEye
FireEye Helix is a SaaS platform that allows organizations to take control of any incident from detection to response, including threat intelligence. Available with any FireEye solution, FireEye Helix integrates your cybersecurity tools and augments them with next-generation SIEM, orchestration, and threat intelligence capabilities.
Key Differentiators
- Designed by cybersecurity experts, for cybersecurity experts
- Empowers teams to conduct primary functions, such as alert management, search, analysis, investigations, and reporting
- Integrates over 600 FireEye and non-FireEye security tools, overlaying contextual threat intelligence and behavioral analytics
- Accelerates response with cybersecurity orchestration and workflow automation informed by frontline experience
- Grants visibility across all threat vectors and deployment types, whether on-premises or in the cloud
- Centralizes security data and infrastructure with SIEM
New Net Technologies
New Net Technologies (NNT), now part of Netwrix, offers FAST (File Approved-Safe Technology) cloud threat intelligence. It helps IT determine if the change that is happening to an asset in the infrastructure or cloud service is good or bad. In other words, FAST determines whether a change is intended and desirable, or related to malicious activity or a breach.
Key Differentiators
- Happening in real-time, FAST checks any file change and classifies it as good, safe, or bad
- Enables the SOC team to focus on unwanted alterations of a system’s status
- Automatically assesses and approves changes confirmed on the whitelist
- Includes system integrity monitoring
CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence solution is known as Falcon X. It helps organizations consume intelligence and take action. Falcon X automates the threat investigation process and delivers actionable intelligence reporting and custom IOCs specifically tailored to the threats encountered on endpoints.
Key Differentiators
- Automation eliminates the need to pick and choose which threats to analyze
- Combines the tools used by cyber threat investigators into one solution that performs investigations automatically
- The integrated tool set includes malware analysis, malware search, and CrowdStrike’s global IOC feed
- Falcon X Premium intelligence reporting includes expertise from CrowdStrike’s Global Intelligence team
Netenrich
Netenrich threat intelligence platform leverages natural language processing and machine learning to enhance data collection, aggregation, and contextualization.
To enhance operational efficiencies, the platform adds insights and scoring techniques to make decisions faster. KNOW is easy to use with threat intelligence and analytics functionality built into customizable dashboards.
Key Differentiators
- KNOW provides global insights on the overall threat landscape
- Encompasses ransomware, vulnerabilities, threat actors, and other areas
- Aggregates real-time threat intelligence on a continuous basis
- Analysts eliminate time-consuming and laborious threat research to speed up analysis
- Near real-time data collection and automated context building
- Detailed and contextual drill down into any cyber threat entity
- Supported by the Netenrich threat research team and analysts
RSA
RSA’s NetWitness Platform encompasses threat intelligence, threat detection and response, and a lot more. It provides pervasive visibility across IT infrastructures, enabling better and faster detection of cybersecurity incidents, with automation and orchestration capabilities to investigate and respond efficiently.
Key Differentiators
- Provides visibility into threats and incorporates threat intelligence and business context
- Automated capabilities for incident response
- Extended detection and response (XDR) to detect and automatically respond to intrusions that have bypassed preventative controls
- Quickly halts the progress of threats and minimizes their impact
- Centrally manages and monitors log data from cloud-based and on-premises infrastructure
- Real-time visibility into network traffic with full packet capture
- Detects unknown threats by applying behavior analytics and machine learning
What is threat intelligence?
Threat intelligence, also known as cyber threat intelligence, is the process of collecting, analyzing, and organizing data across an organization’s systems to identify credible cyber threats. Threat detection is a crucial element in successfully preventing zero-day attacks, advanced persistent threats (APTs), malware attacks, and other sophisticated cybersecurity concerns.
By employing cyber threat intelligence tools, IT security administrators can understand more details about who the biggest threat actors are, where and how they exploit vulnerabilities, and their indicators of compromise (IOCs). Common IOCs include IP addresses, domain names, email addresses, hashes, and other known threat information that pinpoints cybercriminals who reuse the same attack vectors.
Ultimately, this information helps organizations proactively manage threat data and response efforts rather than waiting to respond to a cyber attack after it’s already wreaked havoc.
Learn more on TechRepublic: The 3 elements of a sound threat intelligence program
What are the key features of threat intelligence software?
Vendor offerings vary markedly. In general, the following are some of the key functions that most threat intelligence software covers:
- Threat intelligence feeds of common IOCs
- Extracting content from chats, publications, and data repositories
- Machine learning and filtering capabilities to sift through millions of pieces of data simultaneously
- Removal of false positives
- Ability to rapidly engage, verify, and clarify a detected threat via automation
- Integration with other security platforms, such as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Cyber threat intelligence is about automation and information analysis. It is particularly useful for advanced persistent threats (APTs), and less useful when it comes to individual ransomware incidents, which tend to strike fast.
Read next: What Is a 3-2-1 Backup Strategy?
