While generic Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) serves a purpose, it has limitations, particularly in the dynamic landscape of rapidly evolving cyber threats. Many security teams rely heavily on generic CTI from various commercial providers in their quest to protect their organizations from cyberattacks. However, depending solely on such generic intelligence can expose organizations to emerging and sophisticated threats.

Illustrating the need for Tailored Threat Intelligence – A Case Study

To illustrate the challenges associated with the reliance on generic CTI, let's examine a real-life case study of a large Enterprise in the Telecom industry. This organization places utmost importance on the security of its digital assets and sensitive data. When alerted to emerging threats from their CTI providers, they diligently follow protocols, making updates and adjustments to mitigate potential risks, often involving updates to security software and implementing firewall rules or optimizing security controls to mitigate potential risks.

The pivotal moment occurred when the Security team received a notification regarding an emerging threat of malware infiltration and its propagation, specifically relevant to their industry, as per the CTI feed. They promptly investigated the indicators of compromise (IOCs) provided by their CTI provider, following their standard operating procedures to address the issue.

However, frustration ensued as the team discovered that, despite their diligence, the malware managed to breach their perimeter security controls. Upon closer examination, it became apparent that the malware employed a novel technique that lay beyond the scope of their generic CTI.

This incident revealed the limitations of generic CTI—They realized that generic CTI often needs more specificity for effective threat mitigation. Moreover, it can quickly become outdated, leading to inaccuracies and an overwhelming influx of irrelevant information, creating a noisy environment with false positives.

The Power of Tailored Threat Intelligence

NST Assure Continuous Threat Exposure Management platform helps enterprises with practical and validated Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) that is dynamically tailor-made for their external attack surface and instrumental for proactively preventing cyber threats.

Some of the notable NST Assure platform CTI capabilities include:

Comprehensive CTI Data Collection Across Diverse Channels

NST Assure gathers and verifies CTI data from multiple channels, including the deep web, dark web, and clearnet. This extensive coverage includes sensitive credentials, exploit kits, and malicious infrastructure, ensuring holistic threat intelligence acquisition.

Leveraging Multiple CTI Providers

NST Assure maximizes its cyber threat intelligence (CTI) capabilities by harnessing data from multiple commercial CTI providers. This strategic approach grants NST Assure access to an extensive repository of CTI data from diverse sources. By drawing upon the collective intelligence of these providers, NST Assure is equipped with a wealth of information crucial for effectively identifying and mitigating cyber threats. This collaborative and multi-sourced approach empowers our customers to stay ahead in the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape.

Transforming Insights into Actionable Security Intelligence

NST Assure generates Cyber Threat Informed Defense Intelligence (CTID) as Machine-Readable Threat Intelligence (MRTI) by synthesizing insights from threat surface observations and security control validation outcomes. This dynamic process equips NST Assure with the capacity to deliver highly actionable intelligence to organizations, enabling them to enhance their security posture effectively.

Use cases:

Depending on the types of CTI data, the use cases vary from validating whether attackers can use sensitive credentials for gaining initial access, safe and controlled exploitation of direct or chained vulnerabilities to contextualization of security observations.

Strengthening Security Through Proactive Credential Assessment

NST Assure engines identify sensitive credentials exposed on the dark web or deep web. Furthermore, they employ their validation capabilities to determine whether attackers can effectively leverage these compromised credentials to gain initial access to an organization's networks, directly or indirectly. This proactive approach to credential assessment enhances security by pre-emptively addressing potential vulnerabilities and threats.

Safe and Controlled Vulnerability Exploitation

NST Assure engines conduct secure and controlled exploitation of direct and chained vulnerabilities. They meticulously validate whether the CTI data can be harnessed to exploit vulnerabilities within the organization's external attack surface, safeguarding against significant harm to the organization.

Augmenting Security Insights through Contextualization

NST Assure leverages CTI data to elevate the contextualization of security observations across the threat surface. This strategic approach enhances the depth and relevance of security insights, facilitating a more comprehensive understanding of potential threats and vulnerabilities.

Fortifying Cybersecurity through CTID in Machine-Readable Threat Intelligence

NST Assure's advanced capabilities extend to the generation of Cyber Threat Informed Defense Intelligence (CTID) presented as Machine-Readable Threat Intelligence (MRTI). Derived from meticulous scrutiny of threat surface observations and security control validation results, this CTID intelligence serves as a cornerstone for reinforcing defensive security solutions and continuous security monitoring platforms. The result is a heightened defense posture and proactive security monitoring to counter emerging threats effectively.

NST Assure's CTI capabilities can help organizations improve their security posture by providing the information they need to identify, prevent, and respond to cyberattacks.