The discipline of threat intelligence began to be incorporated in cyber defense processes within private sector companies nearly a decade ago. Over the past few years, more and more organizations began to establish their own threat intelligence operations, building Security Operations Centers (SOCs), incident response (IR) capabilities and threat intelligence teams. In the process, they’ve acquired multiple data feeds from commercial sources, open source, industry and their existing security vendors – each in a different format. However, they soon realize they lack the manpower and technology to programmatically sift through mountains of disparate global data and actually use it. Without the proper resources, the data they’ve invested in fades into the background and becomes more noise, potentially generating significant false positives.

What’s more, when thinking of threat intelligence many organizations fail to include internal data — the telemetry, content and data created by each layer in their security architecture, on-premises and in the cloud. In addition to the SIEM, this includes data from modern security tools and technologies, like Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Network Detection and Response (NDR) and Cloud Detection and Response (CDR). Not only is this data high fidelity, it’s also free!

Security investments continue to rise
As threats continue to evolve, and the volume, variety and velocity of data grows exponentially, security teams increasingly struggle to know what threats they need to be concerned about. Security and risk management is a top priority and C-suites and boards are increasingly involved in security decision making. Studies show that they are doubling down on security investments, which are expected to grow from $262.4 billion in 2021 to $458.9 billion in 2025. As enterprises mature their security operations and invest in security infrastructure, many are evaluating threat intelligence platforms (TIPs) to help them use all their threat intelligence and data more productively. 

The foundational role of the TIP to security operations
Selecting a TIP is important as it will serve as the foundation for your entire security operations program, allowing you to understand and act upon the highest priority threats you face, while enabling you to get more from your existing resources — technology and people. From the boardroom to the SOC, executives and analysts alike can benefit from a TIP. As you consider your use cases and the gaps you need to fill to improve security operations efficiency, quality and efficacy, you may find that a TIP can also meet your security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) needs. And if you are looking to shift the mission of your SOC to include detection and response, a TIP can even enable a successful evolution to an Extended Detection and Response (XDR) architecture. 

However, evaluating TIPs can quickly become overwhelming as there are several criteria to consider. So, we’ve put together a guide to help you navigate the process and find the right TIP to meet your specific requirements and get the most value from your investment.

Learn how to:

• Identify the essential capabilities you need in a TIP now and in the future.
• Evaluate TIPs based on core technology and business considerations, including your top use cases and multiple users you need to support.
• Know what questions to ask vendors and how to uncover potential hidden risks so you can make a smart investment.

As you look to formalize your threat intelligence program and select a TIP, this guide can help you navigate the process successfully and make the best decision for your organization. Download it now to get started.