Actionable Intelligence
In the context of cybersecurity, actionable intelligence refers to threat intelligence that is not only relevant and timely but also presented in a format that enables security teams to make informed decisions and take specific, effective defensive measures. It goes beyond raw data or general information by providing the necessary context, analysis, and recommendations for immediate application.
The journey from raw data to actionable intelligence typically involves several steps:
Data Collection: Gathering vast amounts of raw data from various sources, such as security logs, network traffic, vulnerability databases, dark web forums, open-source intelligence (OSINT), and threat feeds.
Processing and Normalization: Transforming the raw, disparate data into a standardized and consistent format that can be easily analyzed. This involves parsing, enriching, and deduplicating information.
Analysis and Contextualization: This is the critical step where data is transformed into intelligence. Analysts assess the processed data to identify patterns, trends, and relationships. They add context by answering key questions:
Who: The threat actor or group.
What: The tools, tactics, and procedures (TTPs) being used, or the specific vulnerabilities being exploited.
When: The timing of attacks or campaigns.
Where: The targets or geographic locations involved.
Why: The motivations behind the attacks (e.g., financial gain, espionage, disruption).
How: The specific attack vectors and methods.
Prioritization and Recommendation: Based on the analysis, intelligence is prioritized according to its relevance and potential impact on the organization. Crucially, actionable intelligence includes clear, concise recommendations for defensive actions. These recommendations are specific and practical, guiding security teams on what steps to take.
Characteristics of Actionable Intelligence:
Timely: It is delivered quickly enough to be relevant to current or emerging threats, allowing defenses to be adjusted before or during an attack. Stale intelligence is rarely actionable.
Relevant: It directly pertains to the organization's specific assets, industry, threat landscape, and risk tolerance. Generic threat data may not be particularly helpful for a specific organization.
Accurate: The information is reliable and validated, minimizing false positives and ensuring confidence in the intelligence.
Contextualized: It provides the "why" and "how" behind the threat, not just the "what." This context helps security teams understand the nature of the risk.
Specific and Prescriptive: It provides clear recommendations for the actions that need to be taken (e.g., "Block IP address X," "Patch vulnerability Y on server Z by [date]," "Train employees on phishing technique A").
Digestible and Deliverable: It is presented in an easy-to-understand format, tailored to the audience (e.g., technical details for analysts, executive summaries for leadership). It can also be integrated directly into security tools for automated action.
Predictive (Ideally): While often reactive, the most valuable actionable intelligence can anticipate future threats or attacker movements, enabling proactive defense.
Examples of Actionable Intelligence:
Indicator of Compromise (IoC) List: A list of known malicious IP addresses, domain names, and file hashes, along with the recommendation to block them at the firewall or endpoint.
Vulnerability Alert: A notification about a newly discovered critical vulnerability in a software used by the organization, including details on its exploitability, potential impact, and an explicit instruction to apply a specific patch within a defined timeframe.
Phishing Campaign Alert: Information about a current phishing campaign targeting the organization's employees, including the subject lines, sender patterns, and malicious URLs used, with the recommendation to alert employees and update email filters.
Threat Actor Profile: A detailed report on a specific threat actor group known to target the organization's industry, outlining their TTPs, tools, and typical targets, allowing the security team to configure defenses specific to those attack patterns.
Actionable intelligence transforms raw security data into strategic and tactical advantages, allowing organizations to move from a reactive posture to a more proactive and effective defense against cyber threats.
ThreatNG delivers "Intelligence You Can Act On. Immediately." by providing "Total External Visibility. Zero Blind Spots." and "Frictionless Security. Seamless Integration (into your workflow, not your network)." It transforms raw external data into actionable intelligence through its comprehensive external discovery, detailed assessments, reporting, continuous monitoring, in-depth investigation modules, and rich intelligence repositories.
Here's a detailed explanation of how ThreatNG helps provide actionable intelligence:
External Discovery
ThreatNG's purely external, unauthenticated discovery is the foundation for generating "Intelligence You Can Act On. Immediately.". By operating without connectors, agents, network changes, or shared credentials, ThreatNG eliminates deployment friction. It proactively uncovers unknown or forgotten assets and shadow IT by viewing the attack surface from the perspective of an attacker. For example, if an unsanctioned development server is exposed to the internet, ThreatNG's external discovery will identify it. This discovery is inherently actionable because it surfaces previously unknown risks that require immediate attention.
External Assessment
ThreatNG's external assessment capabilities provide granular insights that translate directly into actionable intelligence, offering "Intelligence You Can Act On. Immediately.". It includes various assessments:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes parts of a web application accessible from the outside world to identify potential entry points for attackers. For instance, if it identifies misconfigured server headers or an exposed administrative interface, the immediate action would be to secure those specific configurations.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: This evaluation incorporates Domain Intelligence, including analysis of subdomains, DNS records, and SSL certificate statuses. If ThreatNG detects a subdomain pointing to a non-existent service, the actionable intelligence is to remove or reconfigure the DNS record to prevent takeover.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: Derived from factors like Domain Intelligence and Dark Web Presence (Compromised Credentials). ThreatNG provides actionable insights by revealing, for example, if an organization's domain is prone to typosquatting, leading to immediate recommendations for monitoring or acquiring similar domains.
Cyber Risk Exposure: This considers parameters from the Domain Intelligence module, like certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports. It also factors in Code Secret Exposure, which discovers exposed code repositories and sensitive data within them. Suppose ThreatNG identifies an exposed sensitive port (e.g., RDP) or an AWS API Key accidentally committed to a public GitHub repository. In that case, the intelligence is immediately actionable: close the port, revoke the key, and remove it from the repository. ThreatNG's assessment also evaluates Cloud and SaaS Exposure, providing actionable intelligence on misconfigured cloud services or exposed SaaS solutions.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: Derived from external attack surface and digital risk intelligence, including domain intelligence (exposed sensitive ports, private IPs, and known vulnerabilities), dark web presence (compromised credentials and ransomware events and gang activity), and sentiment and financials. If ThreatNG detects compromised credentials or exposed private IP addresses, the immediate action is to force password resets and reconfigure network access controls.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates the exposure of an organization’s mobile apps through their discovery in marketplaces and the presence of sensitive content, such as access credentials and Security Credentials. If an exposed API key or private SSH key is found within a public mobile app, the actionable intelligence is to revoke those credentials immediately and update the app accordingly.
Positive Security Indicators
ThreatNG identifies and highlights an organization's security strengths, detecting the presence of beneficial security controls, such as Web Application Firewalls or multi-factor authentication. It validates these positive measures from the perspective of an external attacker. This intelligence is actionable because it confirms the effectiveness of existing defenses, allowing organizations to confidently rely on them and potentially reallocate resources from areas of confirmed strength to areas of weakness.
Reporting
ThreatNG's reporting capabilities are designed to provide "Intelligence You Can Act On. Immediately.". Reports include Executive, Technical, and Prioritized assessments (High, Medium, Low, and Informational). Crucially, the embedded Knowledgebase provides:
Risk levels: To help organizations prioritize their security efforts and allocate resources effectively by focusing on the most critical risks.
Reasoning: To provide context and insights into the identified risks, helping organizations better understand their security posture and make informed decisions about risk mitigation.
Recommendations: To offer practical advice and guidance on reducing risk, enabling organizations to take proactive measures to improve their security posture.
Reference links: To provide additional information and resources, organizations can use to investigate and understand a specific risk.
This structured information directly translates into actionable steps for remediation.
Continuous Monitoring
ThreatNG provides continuous monitoring of the external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings of all organizations. This constant vigilance ensures that as new vulnerabilities emerge or an organization's digital footprint changes, the intelligence is updated in real-time, allowing for immediate action to mitigate new threats. This continuous flow of timely data is essential for "Intelligence You Can Act On. Immediately."
Investigation Modules
ThreatNG's investigation modules are built to provide deep, actionable insights:
Domain Intelligence: This includes DNS Intelligence (Domain Record Analysis, Domain Name Permutations, Web3 Domains), Email Intelligence (Security Presence, Format Predictions, Harvested Emails), and Subdomain Intelligence. If ThreatNG identifies a subdomain susceptible to takeover, the actionable intelligence is a direct recommendation to remove or update the corresponding DNS record.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This module discovers public code repositories and exposes digital risks such as various Access Credentials (e.g., AWS Access Key ID, API Keys like Stripe, Google OAuth), Security Credentials (e.g., PGP private key block, RSA Private Key, SSH DSA Private Key), and Configuration Files (e.g., Azure service configuration, potential Linux shadow file). Each identified exposure comes with clear, actionable intelligence: revoke the exposed keys and credentials, remove sensitive files from public repositories, or secure configurations. The presence of Verified Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Exploits directly linked to known vulnerabilities (DarCache eXploit) significantly accelerates understanding of how a vulnerability can be exploited. This direct link provides invaluable actionable intelligence for security teams to reproduce the vulnerability, assess its real-world impact, and develop effective mitigation strategies immediately.
Search Engine Exploitation: ThreatNG identifies robots.txt and security.txt files, helping to investigate potential vulnerabilities that expose errors, sensitive information, privileged folders, and public passwords via search engines. If sensitive directories or emails are found via
robots.txt or if security.txt is missing critical contact info, the actionable intelligence is to update these files or enhance visibility for researchers.Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Identifies Sanctioned Cloud Services, Unsanctioned Cloud Services, Cloud Service Impersonations, and Open Exposed Cloud Buckets (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform). If an open AWS S3 Bucket is detected, the immediate actionable intelligence is to secure the bucket's permissions.
Intelligence Repositories (DarCache)
ThreatNG's continuously updated intelligence repositories (DarCache) provide "Intelligence You Can Act On. Immediately.":
Dark Web (DarCache Dark Web): Includes Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture) and Ransomware Groups and Activities (DarCache Ransomware). If employee credentials appear in DarCache Rupture, the actionable intelligence is to force password resets for those users immediately.
Vulnerabilities (DarCache Vulnerability): This comprehensive repository includes NVD data, EPSS data, KEV data, and Verified Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Exploits (DarCache eXploit). KEV data highlights vulnerabilities actively exploited in the wild, providing critical context for prioritizing remediation efforts on vulnerabilities that pose an immediate and proven threat. The "EPSS" score and "Percentile" allow for forward-looking prioritization. This directly actionable intelligence tells organizations which vulnerabilities are most likely to be weaponized and provides direct links to PoC exploits to understand how to fix them efficiently.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's "Intelligence You Can Act On. Immediately." is amplified when combined with complementary solutions:
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) / Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Systems: ThreatNG's actionable intelligence on external threats can directly feed into SIEMs for enriched alerting and into SOAR platforms for automated response. For example, if ThreatNG identifies a critical vulnerability with a high EPSS score on an external web application, a SOAR playbook could automatically trigger an emergency patch deployment request or isolate the affected asset, based on ThreatNG's precise recommendations.
Vulnerability Management (VM) Solutions: ThreatNG's identification of external, high-impact vulnerabilities (especially from KEV) and direct links to PoC exploits provides highly actionable intelligence that VM solutions can use to prioritize remediation efforts. This ensures that the most critical external risks are addressed first, moving beyond just discovery to immediate mitigation planning.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG's DarCache, rich in compromised credentials, ransomware activity, and verified exploits, provides a unique external perspective that can augment existing TIPs. This enables organizations to correlate ThreatNG's highly actionable external intelligence with their internal threat landscape, allowing for more proactive and precise defense strategies.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) Solutions: ThreatNG's discovery of compromised credentials from the Dark Web (DarCache Rupture) provides immediate actionable intelligence. This can seamlessly trigger automated processes within IAM systems, such as forcing password resets or implementing stricter multi-factor authentication policies for affected users, directly mitigating identity-related external risks.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP): ThreatNG's Cloud and SaaS Exposure module provides actionable intelligence on external cloud misconfigurations (e.g., open S3 buckets). This intelligence can be fed into CSPM tools, which can then enforce remediation based on the specific recommendations provided by ThreatNG, ensuring immediate correction of public-facing cloud risks.
Digital Risk Protection (DRP) Platforms: As an all-in-one external attack surface management, digital risk protection, and security ratings solution, ThreatNG can enhance other DRP platforms by providing concrete and actionable intelligence. Its detailed assessments on brand damage susceptibility, mobile app exposure, and sensitive code exposure, combined with clear recommendations, empower organizations to take immediate steps to protect their digital brand and assets.posture.
