Annex A 5.7 - Threat Intelligence

Description

Title of Control: Threat Intelligence

Introduction (what is it?): This control underscores the importance of collecting, analyzing, and utilizing threat intelligence to improve an organization's awareness of information security threats. Threat intelligence helps inform actions that prevent or mitigate potential threats.

What is the purpose of it? The purpose of this control is to provide the organization with awareness of its threat environment, enabling it to take appropriate actions to prevent and mitigate threats. By collecting and analyzing threat information, organizations can enhance their defenses and responses.

What are the benefits of meeting these requirements? Meeting these requirements offers several benefits:

  • Proactive Defense: Threat intelligence enables organizations to proactively defend against potential threats.

  • Reduced Impact: Insights from threat intelligence help reduce the impact of threats by facilitating timely and informed responses.

  • Informed Decision-Making: Analyzed threat intelligence provides accurate and contextual understanding of the threat landscape.

  • Situational Awareness: Contextual threat intelligence offers situational awareness and helps organizations understand threats within a broader context.

  • Effective Controls: Threat intelligence enhances the effectiveness of technical controls and risk management processes.

How difficult is this control to meet? The difficulty of meeting this control depends on the organization's resources, access to threat intelligence sources, and analytical capabilities. Organizations may need to invest in technologies and expertise for effective threat intelligence collection and analysis.

What are the sub-requirements?

  1. Collect and analyze information about existing and emerging information security threats.

  2. Use threat intelligence to facilitate actions that prevent harm and mitigate threats' impact.

  3. Consider three layers of threat intelligence: strategic, tactical, and operational.

  4. Ensure threat intelligence is relevant, insightful, contextual, and actionable.

  5. Establish objectives for threat intelligence production.

  6. Identify, vet, and select appropriate internal and external information sources for threat intelligence.

  7. Collect information from selected sources.

  8. Process collected information for analysis by translating, formatting, or corroborating it.

  9. Analyze information to understand its relevance to the organization.

  10. Communicate and share threat intelligence with relevant individuals in an understandable format.

  11. Incorporate threat intelligence into information security risk management processes.

  12. Use threat intelligence as input for technical preventive and detective controls.

  13. Utilize threat intelligence in information security testing processes and techniques.

  14. Share threat intelligence with other organizations on a mutual basis to improve overall awareness.

Other information:

  • Threat intelligence can be produced by the organization or obtained from independent providers, advisors, government agencies, or collaborative threat intelligence groups.

  • The quality of available threat intelligence impacts the effectiveness of related controls.

In conclusion, this control emphasizes the critical role of threat intelligence in enhancing an organization's security posture. By collecting, analyzing, and utilizing threat information, organizations can proactively defend against threats, reduce their impact, and make informed security decisions.

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