Threat Precursor Intelligence
The term Threat Precursor Intelligence refers to the proactive collection and analysis of external data points that indicate an adversary is currently planning, preparing, or initiating an attack against a specific organization or industry segment, well before any malicious payload is delivered or internal alarms are triggered.
It shifts the focus from traditional threat intelligence (which often tracks completed attacks or established Indicators of Compromise, or IOCs) to reconnaissance-level activities that occur outside the victim's network.
Key Characteristics
Temporal Foresight: It is characterized by its high temporal value, aiming to provide a warning window of days, weeks, or even months—enough time for a defender to implement compensatory controls or preemptively eliminate the attack vector.
External Sources: Precursors are found in the digital periphery, often residing in public forums, underground marketplaces, external code repositories, or within the DNS/TLD system. Examples include:
Impersonation Setup: The registration of a typosquatted or homoglyph domain designed to impersonate a brand for a future phishing campaign.
Credential Staging: The appearance of an organization’s stolen credentials or API keys on the Dark Web or in a public code dump.
Target List Reconnaissance: The sudden, systematic scanning of network perimeters (e.g., exposed VPNs or firewalls) associated with a target industry, signaling an impending, organized attack surge.
Low-Fidelity Alone, High-Fidelity in Context: Individually, these data points (e.g., a domain registration or a code snippet) may appear benign. However, when correlated and viewed against the target's existing attack surface, they become high-fidelity signals that reveal the adversary’s intent and chosen attack path.
ThreatNG is specifically designed to deliver Threat Precursor Intelligence, focusing on the external, reconnaissance-level activities that indicate an attack is being planned before a malicious payload is delivered. This is achieved by combining unauthenticated discovery with a continuous, forensic analysis of the digital perimeter for "staging" activities.
ThreatNG's Strategy for Delivering Precursor Intelligence
ThreatNG's capabilities are strategically aligned to detect the subtle, low-fidelity signals that evolve into high-impact threats.
1. External Discovery and Mapping the Reconnaissance Surface:
The core of precursor intelligence is External Discovery, which is performed purely externally and without credentials. This process is essential for spotting an attacker's initial reconnaissance efforts.
How it Helps: It uncovers all internet-facing assets that an attacker might be mapping for a future campaign, such as exposed APIs, forgotten subdomains, and unsanctioned Cloud and SaaS Exposure. Identifying these targets is the first step toward temporal foresight, as it indicates the attacker's initial focus.
2. Detailed External Assessment of Attack Staging:
ThreatNG’s assessments specifically look for the precursors to a breach, focusing on compromised identity and exposed secrets:
Data Leak Susceptibility: This capability is a direct early warning system. It detects if an organization's Compromised Credentials or sensitive data are exposed on the Dark Web or public platforms. The appearance of an organization's credentials for sale is a high-fidelity precursor signal of an imminent targeted attack.
Vulnerabilities (DarCache): The Vulnerabilities assessment is crucial for flagging precursors related to attack path planning. It integrates intelligence from Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) and Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS) to identify flaws that are actively being weaponized or are most likely to be exploited. This provides temporal foresight by highlighting vulnerabilities attackers are currently targeting, well before a patch is available.
3. Investigation Modules and Granular Forensics:
The Investigation Modules provide the granular, forensic intelligence needed to disrupt attack staging:
Domain Intelligence: This module is critical for detecting the setup of an attack. It actively discovers and flags typosquatted domains (e.g., Homoglyphs) and impersonations used for upcoming phishing campaigns, providing a warning window before the malicious email is sent.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This module hunts for the critical IAV precursor: hardcoded credentials. By identifying these exposed keys in public code repositories, ThreatNG eliminates the credential-staging that attackers rely on for swift initial access.
Archived Web Pages: This module serves as a forensic tool, uncovering historical misconfigurations or leaked data that may have been removed from the live site but still exist in web archives. An attacker performing historical reconnaissance could use this data to build a profile, and ThreatNG finds it first.
4. Continuous Monitoring and Reporting:
ThreatNG’s Continuous Monitoring ensures the organization has a perpetual state of surveillance over its external attack surface. This allows the platform to detect subtle changes (like a new typosquatted domain being registered) as they occur. The Knowledgebase & Comprehensive Reporting then translates these low-fidelity signals into actionable intelligence, ensuring that precursors are addressed quickly before they escalate into a breach.
5. Cooperation with Complementary Solutions:
ThreatNG’s external intelligence creates powerful cooperation with internal security tools by providing the initial warning:
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Solutions: ThreatNG can flag a compromised credential on the Dark Web. This precursor intelligence can be used to enrich the SIEM, enabling it to monitor internal authentication logs for login attempts using that specific, now-compromised credential, creating a high-fidelity alert.
Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Solutions: If ThreatNG detects the registration of a typosquatted domain or an exposed API key, this intelligence can be fed directly to a SOAR platform. The SOAR system can then automate a preemptive response, such as instantly updating perimeter firewalls to block traffic from the malicious domain or forcing a rotation of the exposed API key.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG’s structured intelligence from the DarCache repositories (including KEV, EPSS, and ransomware events) can be ingested by a TIP. This process enriches the organization's overall threat intelligence picture with verified, external-facing vulnerability data that directly informs strategic decision-making.
