If you are in the cybersecurity industry, chances are you have already heard of the terms “threat intelligence” and “threat hunting.” Threat intelligence and threat hunting are both crucial components of the defensive cybersecurity landscape. Each plays a vital role in strengthening an organisation’s security posture, ensuring vigorous protection against evolving cyber threats. By leveraging these elements, organisations can proactively identify and mitigate potential risks and enhance their overall resilience. The combination of threat intelligence and threat hunting essentially enables a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity, which fosters a proactive and informed defence strategy.

However, despite both being essential elements of defensive cybersecurity, threat intelligence and threat hunting are different in nature. Undergoing threat hunting or threat intelligence training will help you understand how these two differ from each other and which approach is better in any specific situation. To briefly give you an idea on their distinctions, read on as this article shares some key differences between threat intelligence and threat hunting.

What is Threat Intelligence?

Threat intelligence involves acquiring knowledge to prevent or minimise cyber threats. It entails understanding the enemies, their motivations, and their methods. By analysing different types of threat intelligence, organisations can develop proactive security measures and strategies in the digital realm. In a more technical term, threat intelligence basically encompasses gathering, analysing, and utilising data from various sources to avert and mitigate potential or existing cyber threats. Its primary objective is to offer actionable insights that assist security teams in comprehending the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of cyber attackers. Like network analysis training and incident response training, the goal of threat intelligence training is to help IT professionals become better prepared to confront cyberthreats as they come.

Critical Elements of Threat Intelligence

Several essential elements of threat intelligence are employed to gather data and insights into cybersecurity trends. These elements serve as a guide to make sure that the information obtained is both valuable and relevant to an organisation and the emerging threats it encounters. Here are some of the most critical elements of threat intelligence: 

• Data Collection: The initial step in threat intelligence involves researching and collecting raw data from various sources. These sources can range from open-source intelligence, such as online forums, public web searches, social media, and public online records, to more extensive sources like dark web marketplaces, threat feeds, and reviews of recent security incidents, CVEs, and internal system logs. The objective when gathering data for threat intelligence is to obtain relevant information to identify attack patterns, methods, and other threats.

• Data Analysis: Once the raw data has been collected, it must then be reviewed and analysed. The aim of this step is to filter out media noise about emerging threats, eliminate unnecessary information, and provide insights into active threats and discovered vulnerabilities, including zero-day threats. Luckily, AI has already facilitated this process by sifting through large data sets more quickly and effectively to identify suspicious activity and behaviour.

• Contextualisation: Threat intelligence data is only useful if it pertains to a specific organisation. The purpose of contextualisation is basically to align potential threats with an organisation’s digital infrastructure and assets. This involves identifying the types of threats and specific threats that are likely to target specific systems, along with assessing their impact.

• Actionable Insights: After data has been collected, analysed, and contextualised, it should offer insights into proactive measures that security teams can implement. For instance, these insights may help teams patch vulnerabilities, make adjustments to incident response procedures and plans, modify and reconfigure firewall rules, and update employee security awareness training based on the specific attack methods the organisation encounters.

What is Threat Hunting?

Threat hunting is a proactive cybersecurity practice where skilled professionals, known as “threat hunters,” actively seek out, identify, and isolate advanced threats that bypass existing security measures. Unlike threat intelligence, which is defensive in nature, threat hunting proactively searches for hidden threats within your system instead of merely waiting for an alert. In other words, threat hunting entails actively looking for signs of compromise, suspicious behaviour, or vulnerabilities. In doing so, it combines both manual and automated techniques, focusing on undetectable threats rather than relying on traditional passive alerting and defence measures like firewalls. 

Essential Characteristics of Threat Hunting

There are several crucial characteristics of threat hunting that enable security teams to obtain more visibility into potential threats and prevent them successfully. The following steps concentrate on proactive measures that seek to delve deeper into the unnoticed or hidden threats to an organisation:

• Skilled Analysis: Like threat intelligence, threat hunters need a thorough understanding of TTPs to comprehend the specific types of attacks the organisation encounters. They utilise a range of tools and techniques that depend on skilled human analysis and the ability to detect unusual user behaviour.

• Hypothesis-Centred: Threat hunting starts with a hypothesis based on intelligence, observed anomalies, and other threat analytics, which essentially allows threat hunters to carry out more focused investigations. For instance, they may examine unusual or excessive network traffic that could suggest a cyberattack. This phase also involves monitoring user behaviour for potential signs of compromise.

• Use of Data Analysis Tools: A lot of threat hunters employ a combination of manual and automated tools and techniques to detect patterns and correlations of emerging threats. This involves analysing system, network, and user logs, as well as utilising SIEM tools to investigate anomalies. 

• Concentration on Advanced Threats: The principal aim of threat hunting is to identify advanced persistent threats, sophisticated cyberattacks, and unique malware that traditional security measures may overlook. By concentrating on these more advanced threats, security teams can obtain deeper insights into the stealth tactics used by malicious attackers to avoid detection.

Conclusion

Overall, while threat intelligence and threat hunting are distinct in their approaches, both are indispensable to a strong defensive cybersecurity strategy. Their combined efforts provide a comprehensive shield against cyber threats, which helps to ensure that organisations remain vigilant and prepared. By integrating these two elements into your cybersecurity strategy, your organisation can effectively anticipate, identify, and neutralise potential risks, thereby safeguarding critical assets and maintaining operational integrity. This dual approach not only enhances your organisation’s resilience but also empowers it to stay ahead of challenges in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

If you want to learn more about threat intelligence and how it differs from threat hunting, do not hesitate to check out BridgingMinds’ training courses now! BridgingMinds is a reputable provider of different cybersecurity courses, such as ISC2, ISACA, and EC-Council, which will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in the cybersecurity industry. Besides cybersecurity, BridgingMinds offers reliable programmes in other areas like DevOps, Cloud, and Project Management. For more information on how our courses can help you, feel free to reach out to us anytime.