What is Cyber Threat Intelligence? Let’s explore a fundamental discipline in cybersecurity.

Redazione RHC : 26 July 2025 19:40

Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) is the practice of collecting, analyzing, and using cyber threat information to protect organizations from malicious activity. CTI has become a key element of cybersecurity, helping organizations identify and mitigate threats before they cause real damage.

In this article, we’ll explore Cyber Threat Intelligence in detail, explaining how it works, its main benefits, and how organizations can implement this practice to improve their cybersecurity.

What is Cyber Threat Intelligence

Cyber Threat Intelligence involves analyzing cyber threat data to identify attackers’ intentions and capabilities. This practice is essential for understanding risk and taking preventative measures against cyber attacks.

CTI relies on a wide range of information sources, including:

• Feeds on cybersecurity alerts;
• Reports of vulnerabilities and patches released by software vendors;
• Security log analysis;
• Analysis of malicious websites;
• Collective intelligence, such as cybersecurity groups and online forums.

The primary goal of CTI is to help organizations understand the cyber threats around them and prepare to address them.

Good Cyber Threat Intelligence should provide detailed information about the types of threats that can affect an organization, as well as the system vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers.

In addition to the feeds we’ve seen, there is also another type of feed that comes directly from cybercriminals’ activities, called “dark feeds.”

What are “dark feeds”

The term “dark feed” can be used in a variety of contexts, but in relation to cyber threat intelligence, it generally refers to a source of information about criminal activity gathered from the internet that is not accessible to the general public.

Dark feeds are therefore sources of information on cyber threats that come directly from the cybercrime ecosystem and are not easily accessible. These sources may include online forums and communities frequented by cybercriminals, botnet logs, encrypted chat groups, the dark web, and similar sources.

Information collected from dark feeds can be used to generate intelligence on ongoing cyber threats, improve understanding of attacker tactics and techniques, and help develop more effective defense strategies.

However, because dark feeds can be unofficial sources, it is important to consider the quality and reliability of the information collected and verify the sources to reduce the risk of false positives or incorrect information. It goes without saying that the closer you get to the activities of cybercriminals, as in the case of dark feeds, the greater the strategic advantage.

How a Cyber Threat Intelligence Process Works

Cyber Threat Intelligence works through a series of fundamental steps:

1. Data Collection: Organizations collect data from a wide range of sources, including news reports, vulnerability reports, security log analysis, and collective intelligence.
2. Data Analysis: Once the data has been collected, it is analyzed to identify cyber threats, their intentions, and their capabilities.
3. Creating Profiles of Threats: Based on data analysis, detailed profiles of cyber threats that may affect the organization are created.
4. Information Distribution: Threat profiles are distributed to stakeholders within the organization, including cybersecurity teams, software developers, and risk management managers.
5. Prevention and Mitigation: Threat profile information is used to take preventative measures and mitigate threats.

What are the benefits of Cyber Threat Intelligence

Cyber Threat Intelligence, as we’ve said, helps organizations better understand the cyber threats surrounding their systems and protect themselves against them. This practice allows organizations to identify areas of their systems that may be vulnerable to cyber threats and take preventative measures to protect their data and information.

Furthermore, Cyber Threat Intelligence allows organizations to predict future cyber threat trends, meaning they can be prepared to address any new threats.

Another benefit of Cyber Threat Intelligence is that it allows organizations to collaborate with each other to address cyber threats. Indeed, sharing cyber threat intelligence between different organizations can be beneficial for all parties involved, allowing them to learn from each other’s experiences and identify broader cyber threat trends.

CTI can be used in various contexts, including government, military, and commercial. Government organizations, for example, can use CTI to identify cyber threats to national security, while commercial organizations can use it to protect their systems and data.

However, implementing Cyber Threat Intelligence is not an easy task and requires specialized skills and significant resources. Organizations intending to implement CTI must be prepared to invest resources and qualified personnel to create and maintain effective CTI programs.

Practical examples of using information from CTI

Below, we’d like to provide some practical examples to help our readers understand how CTI can support corporate intelligence activities.

1. Identifying System Vulnerabilities: Using CTI, organizations can proactively identify vulnerabilities in their systems and take measures to mitigate risks. For example, they can install security patches or update software to prevent the exploitation of known vulnerabilities.
2. Monitoring Malicious Activity: CTI allows organizations to monitor malicious activity on their systems. Organizations can use this information to prevent cyber attacks and mitigate damage in the event of an attack.
3. Predicting future cyber threat trends: CTI can be used to predict future cyber threat trends and take preventative measures in advance. For example, organizations can take preventative measures to protect themselves from new attack techniques or cyber threats before they become a full-blown threat.
4. Sharing cyber threat information:Organizations can use CTI to share cyber threat information with other similar organizations. This information sharing can help all involved organizations better understand cyber threats and identify broader cyber threat trends.
5. Protection of sensitive data: Using CTI, organizations can protect their sensitive data from potential cyberattacks. For example, they can take preventative measures to protect the personally identifiable information of their employees or customers.

CTI can therefore offer numerous benefits to organizations, including protecting their systems and data, preventing cyberattacks, and collaborating between organizations to address cyber threats.

Systems and tools to support CTI

Analysts working in the Cyber Threat Intelligence field can benefit from using a series of tools that automate a series of repetitive and manual actions, allowing them to focus on data analysis.

The types of tools made available for the CTI world are:

1. Data Collection Tools: These tools are used to collect cyber threat data from a wide range of sources, including RSS feeds, cybersecurity news feeds, vulnerability reports, and security log analysis. These tools can automate the data collection process and help organizations gather information more quickly and efficiently.
2. Data Analysis Tools: These tools are used to analyze data collected from information sources. They can be used to identify cyber threat trends, attacker intentions, and system vulnerabilities. These tools often use artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze large amounts of data more effectively.
3. Data visualization tools: These tools are used to visualize collected and analyzed data in a more intuitive and understandable way. They can use graphs, maps, and charts to represent information in a more visual and easy-to-understand way.
4. Information sharing tools: These tools are used to share information about cyber threats between different organizations. They can be used to create a cybersecurity community, where organizations can share information about cyber threats and collaborate to address them.
5. Risk management tools: These tools are used to manage cyber threat risk and take preventative measures. They can be used to assess the likelihood of a cyber attack and identify actions that can be taken to mitigate risks.

Additionally, there are also free and open-source CTI tools that organizations can use. Some examples of open source CTI tools include MISP (Malware Information Sharing Platform), OpenCTI, and ThreatPinch, as well as Shodan.io, zoomeye.io, and others.

Therefore, we hope you actively study the world of CTI, as it is one of the most useful and necessary cybersecurity subjects in the threat landscape today.