Cyber threats are escalating in scale, speed and sophistication. From ransomware and supply chain disruptions to multi-million dollar losses, adversaries are more targeted, better resourced and harder to detect than ever.
Traditional security controls – firewalls, endpoint protection, and access controls – is no longer enough. Organizations need intelligence that not only detects potential attacks, but anticipates them.
This is where the role of Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) comes in. Using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), CTI involves gathering, processing and analyzing data to uncover attacker motives, behaviors and targets, and provide actionable insights to prevent and combat cyber crime.
CTI is becoming more urgent as governments lift their expectations. In 2024, Singapore, Japan and Australia implemented new or updated policies regarding threat prevention and data protection.
At Recorded Future, we’ve helped leading organizations to integrate CTI into their security program. From Canva’s alignment of threat intelligence with strategic and operational goals, to ANZ Bank and PEXA’s adoption of proactive threat-lead security strategies.
Think of it like building a fortress – carefully designed, strategically resourced and constantly evolving. Here’s an 8-step guide to getting it right.
1. Define Your Mission
Start with a clear mission that aligns with your business goals – whether it’s protecting patient data, ensuring uptime, or safeguarding customer assets. Define the ultimate goal (commander’s intent) and set success metrics such as time to detect, time to respond, vulnerability patching or credential reset.
2. Know Your Stakeholders
Successful intelligence programs can provide insights across almost all stakeholders needs. It starts by mapping out key stakeholders, including executive leadership, business units, and functional teams. Then, determine what each group values, their risk priorities, and what successful intelligence looks like from their perspective. Finally, align your CTI program to deliver insights that matter to each individual securing buy-in and ongoing support.
3. Know Your Intelligence Requirements
Define your Priority Intelligence Requirements (PIRs) based on business risks — ransomware, DDoS, or supply chain compromise. PIRs provide clarity, helping analysts prioritize threats and ensuring leadership understands what intelligence efforts are addressing and why they matter.
4. Assess Your Resources and Establish Your Operating Model
Take stock of your people, products, and capabilities — your defenders. Define roles, from security operations center (SOC) analysts and threat hunters to architects and third-party risk analysts. Identify skill gaps, technical proficiencies, and whether to rely on internal staff, outsourced support, or a hybrid model. From there, build an operating model and hierarchy.
5. Map Your Kingdom
Identify your “crown jewels” — sensitive data, IP, critical infrastructure, and business processes. Map out and understand your entire attack surface, including digital, physical, and human components. This understanding helps prioritize defenses and ensures threat intelligence is focused on high-value targets.
6. Assess the Threat Landscape
It’s all about understanding the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ about your adversaries. Identify the top threats to your organization by actor type, motivation, tactics, and targets. Consider attack methods such as malware, phishing, insider threats, and supply chain attacks. This assessment enables tailored defenses and helps allocate resources efficiently.
7. Collect and Activate Intelligence
Develop workflows to gather and operationalize intelligence that actively helps your stakeholders. This is about enabling intel and tools to be shared in an efficient manner, whether that be SOAR, EDR, WAF or other controls.
8. Communicate Achievements and Deliver Situational Reports
Create tactical bulletins, operational threat patterns, and strategic industry reports for regular reporting to stakeholders. Measure and share program success using defined metrics, and implement feedback loops to continuously improve. Effective communication builds trust, proves value, and secures ongoing support for the CTI program.
An effective CTI program brings together people, processes, and technology into a cohesive defense strategy. It requires vision, discipline, and the agility to adapt to new threats.
If you want to know more about threat intelligence before you buy any products or solutions for your business, check out the Recorded Future Threat Intelligence Buyer’s Guide.
