In the same way, threat intelligence provides the vital insights that enrich threat hunting efforts, making them more effective and comprehensive. These two activities are inseparable; without one, the other falls flat. Together, they form an integral and highly effective cybersecurity strategy, akin to the essential role of Threat Intelligence in enhancing the effectiveness and precision of threat hunting processes.
Introduction
Threat hunting isn’t just a reactive exercise; it's a proactive, hypothesis-driven search for potential threats hiding within an organization's network. Imagine cyber sleuths meticulously combing through the digital haystack to find the needle before it strikes. It's not about running automated scans or relying solely on tools, but about actively seeking out threats by combining intuition, experience, and the strategic use of both tools and human expertise.
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In contrast, threat intelligence involves the collection, analysis, and dissemination of data to understand and counteract threats. It's akin to having a crystal ball that helps you anticipate cybercriminals' next moves and stay one step ahead. Just as threat hunting is more than merely scanning, threat intelligence is not just about using tools like VirusTotal or Hybrid Analysis; it involves gathering and analyzing a wide range of information to provide insights into potential threats and vulnerabilities.
This intelligence is then translated into a model that the threat hunting team can understand. The specifics of this process can vary by organization, as each team has its own unique processes, documentation and maturity.
For further learning, check out Introduction to OSINT (part of our free Blue Team Junior Analyst pathway).
Integral Partners: How Threat Hunting and Threat Intelligence Work Together
Threat Hunting and Threat Intelligence are inherently interconnected. Threat Intelligence provides the contextual data and insights that guide threat hunters in identifying potential threats within an organization’s network. The findings from threat hunts feed back into the intelligence cycle, refining and enriching the intelligence data.
For example, a Threat Intelligence report might identify a new malware strain targeting financial institutions. Guided by this report, threat hunters search for indicators of compromise (IoCs) related to this malware within their network. They successfully identify and neutralize an active threat, preventing a potential breach.
The intelligence gathered from such successful hunts provides valuable information that enhances future threat intelligence. To gain additional insight into what a Threat Intelligence report looks like, we have prepared a lab named Gothic Panda in our very own Blue Team Labs Online platform, where you can get a glimpse of how to draft a Threat Actor report that can be useful for creating intelligence tailored to your industry.
Intelligence Gathering: Pre-Breach and Post-Breach
Gathering Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and strategies, methods, and procedures (TTPs) prior to an event is known as pre-breach intelligence. In order to foresee such attacks, this proactive method makes use of open-source intelligence (OSINT), installs honeypots, and analyze threat intelligence platforms. Critical elements include documentation and reporting, which guarantee correct recording and communication of all acquired information.
The goal of post-breach intelligence is to acquire IoCs and TTPs by investigating breaches. As part of this procedure, post-incident assessments are carried out to identify fresh attack channels and comprehend the techniques employed by cybercriminals. For instance, a comprehensive post-event investigation may identify vulnerabilities that were previously undiscovered and used in an attack, offering vital information for averting such incidents in the future.
Maximizing Threat Hunting with Intelligence-Driven Approach
An intelligence-driven approach is critical because it improves focus and efficiency in threat hunting exercises. Leveraging Threat Intelligence enables companies to increase their detection skills and minimize the amount of time that attacks go undiscovered. For example, a firm used Threat Intelligence to identify a specific virus targeting its sector. Armed with this knowledge, their threat hunters swiftly identified and eliminated the malware on their network, avoiding a breach and mitigating possible harm. This example highlights the enormous benefits of intelligence-driven threat hunting.
The Devil is in the Details: The Role of Soft Skills in Effective Threat Hunting
Technical know-how is not enough to effectively pursue threats; soft skills are just as important, especially in documentation, communication, and teamwork. For some, the most boring aspect of the process may be the paperwork, but it is essential to developing a thorough and reliable cybersecurity plan. Threat hunters must become proficient in these soft skills in order to identify, evaluate, and neutralize such threats and be able to explain threats to different audiences, including technical teams, CISOs, and board members.
The specifics of documentation and reporting will be covered in the next sections, with an emphasis on the Pre-breach and Post-breach actions that are essential to preserving strong defenses.
Documentation and Reporting:
Pre-Breach Documentation:
- Threat Modeling: Developing detailed threat models to anticipate and identify potential attack vectors. This involves understanding the organization's assets, potential threats, and vulnerabilities.
- Threat Emulation Activities: Creating and simulating various attack scenarios to prepare for potential breaches and improve response strategies.
- Security Policies and Procedures: Comprehensive outlines of preventive measures.
Post-Breach Documentation:
- Incident Reports: Documenting the details of any breach, including timeline, impact, and resolution steps.
- Analysis Reports: Detailing the findings from post-incident analysis, including new Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs).
- Lessons Learned Reports: Summarizing the key takeaways from the breach and providing recommendations for future prevention.
- Continuous Improvement: Regularly updating documentation based on new intelligence and post-incident analyses to ensure the organization remains resilient against evolving threats.
Summary
This blog post emphasizes the important role that threat hunting and threat intelligence play in complementing each other. Using the analogy of pancakes and syrup, one can't be effective without the other. We explored intelligence sources, including pre-breach and post-breach intelligence, and discussed how an intelligence-driven approach can maximize threat hunting skills. Lastly, we highlighted the often-overlooked soft skills, such as documentation, communication, and collaboration, and explained why they are essential for threat hunters.
If you are interested in this topic but don't have any past expertise with digital forensics, malware analysis, incident response, reverse engineering, or threat intelligence creation, check out our gamified blue team training platform. We've created a lab named Gothic Panda, where you'll take on the role of a threat intelligence analyst, in addition to this blog. Here, you'll use the obtained intelligence to construct better educated hypotheses, driving successful threat-hunting process inside a SIEM environment.
