Combating Cyber Attacks With Threat Intelligence

Uploaded on 2024-09-23 in TECHNOLOGY--Resilience, FREE TO VIEW

In today’s digitally driven world, organizations face an ever-evolving array of cyber threats. Ranging from sophisticated malware to targeted phishing attacks, the cybersecurity landscape is constantly changing, presenting significant challenges for businesses of all sizes.

In response, the demand for effective threat intelligence solutions has never been higher. As per analysis, on average, organizations invest $2.86 million in threat intelligence services.

The threat intelligence domain has emerged as a crucial component of cybersecurity strategies, offering organizations insights into potential threats and vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. But navigating this complex industry can be daunting, with the wide range of vendors offering varying solutions and services. Here we explore the dynamics of the threat intelligence market, its key players, and the factors driving its growth.

Understanding Threat Intelligence

At its core, threat intelligence involves the collection, analysis, and dissemination of information about potential cybersecurity threats. This information can come from a variety of sources, including security researchers, government agencies, and private sector organizations.

Threat intelligence is typically categorized into three main types: strategic, operational, and tactical.

Strategic intelligence provides high-level insights into long-term trends and emerging threats.

Operational intelligence focuses on current threats and vulnerabilities relevant to an organization’s specific environment.

Tactical intelligence offers granular details about specific threats, such as Indicators Of Compromise (IOCs) or malware signatures

How Is Threat Intelligence Effective ?

Threat intelligence provides valuable insights into potential cyber threats, enabling an individual to make informed decisions to protect their organization’s assets. By analyzing threat intelligence data, emerging threats can be identified, personnel can understand attack vectors, and prioritize security measures effectively. This proactive approach helps strengthen the organization’s security posture and mitigate risks before they escalate into major incidents.

Threat Intelligence Domain - Applications

The applications for threat intelligence are diverse and encompass a wide range of use cases across various industries. Some of the key applications present in the threat intelligence market are:

Proactive Threat Detection: Organizations are able to recognize and foresee possible cyber threats before they materialize into extensive attacks thanks to threat intelligence. Organizations can reduce the risk of data breaches and system compromises by proactively detecting and neutralizing threats in their early stages through continuous monitoring for indicators of compromise (IOCs) and developing threat trends.

Fraud Detection and Prevention: Threat intelligence is also helpful in identifying and stopping fraudulent activity, including identity theft, financial fraud, and phishing schemes. Organizations can spot suspicious activity suggestive of fraud and take preventative action to lessen the risk of monetary losses and reputational harm by examining trends and anomalies in user behaviour, transaction data, and communication channels.

Incident Response and Mitigation: Threat intelligence offers important insights that speed up incident reaction and mitigation actions in the case of a security incident or breach. Organizations can rapidly evaluate the extent and gravity of an assault, pinpoint the tactics, methods, and procedures (TTPs) employed by adversaries, and execute focused remedial actions to eliminate the threat by integrating incident data with threat intelligence feeds.

Regulatory Compliance: An organization's ability to comply with industry rules and data protection legislation is greatly aided by threat intelligence. Organizations can meet the strict criteria of industry standards bodies and regulatory agencies by demonstrating due diligence in recognizing and mitigating cyber threats through the integration of threat information into their security frameworks.

The Market Landscape

The Industry of threat intelligence is expected to reach USD 55 billion by the end of 2035, and it continues to grow at a constant 16% compound annual growth rate over the past several years. The threat intelligence industry was estimated at $11 billion by 2022. To prevent a growing number of cyber attacks on all levels, threat intelligence is mainly used. It was estimated that each day around 2,220 cyberattacks happen, equating to over 800,000 attacks each year.

In view of the increasing cyber conflict among attackers and defenders, most organizations focus on the integration of threat intelligence and other cybersecurity measures.

Consequently, enterprises are encouraged to make quicker and more effective security options and to work against breaches, given the deployment of threat intelligence.

Driving Forces Behind Market Growth

Growing penetration of Internet Services: Global digitization has led to the development of Internet services which increases the chance of cyber threats. Thus, secure control systems such as threat intelligence are being deployed in the industries. As of January 2023, there were almost 5 billion internet users worldwide.

Surging Data Breaches & Cloud Threats: The emergence of digital technologies has increased cloud threats and data breaches which subsequently require threat intelligence for the fight against data theft. In 45% of cases, the breach is cloud-based. A recent poll found that 27% of enterprises had encountered a public cloud security event, an increase of 10% from the previous year, and that 80% of businesses had experienced at least one cloud security incident in the year,2023.

Accretion of Industrial systems & digital technologies: The rapidly evolving technological landscape is causing a global transition in a number of industry verticals. Industrial transformation and the development of digital technologies have accelerated as a result. As a result, industrial systems and digital technologies have combined to form a unified ecosystem. This presents profitable potential for IIoT and M2M communication technology.

Additionally, the use of digital technologies has expanded even more as a result of COVID-19. According to projections, the global expenditure on digital transformation is expected to reach around USD 3.4 trillion by 2026. Additionally, The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2025, digital transformation will bring $100 trillion to the global economy. Furthermore, it is poised that by 2025, platform-driven interactions will facilitate almost two-thirds of the $100 trillion in value that digitization holds.

Segmentation Analysis

Component

• Solutions • Services

The solution segment holds the largest market share. With real-time insight from threat intelligence solutions, operational security teams can save time and increase efficiency, thus driving segment growth.

Type

• Strategic • Tactical • Operational

The operational segment held the largest industry share. This is due to an increase in the demand for information about specific incoming attacks by hackers.

Deployment

• Cloud • On-premises

The cloud segment is analyzed to garner the highest market value. In the face of increasing cyber threats, cloud services play an important role. This has led to a tremendous increase in the use of cloud threat intelligence tools over the past several years.

Organization Size

• SMEs • Large Enterprise

The SMEs segment is slated to have great opportunities. Globally, SMEs become targets for new types of cyber attacks and thus are in favour of using threat intelligence services. For instance, in 2021, 61% were targets for cyberattacks.

End-User

• BFSI • Government & Defence • Education • IT & Telecoms • Manufacturing • Healthcare

• Energy & Utilities • Retail

The IT & Telecom segment is estimated to gain significant market share, owing to the trend of digitalization. Also, the adoption of technologies such as a 5G and cloud services in the IT sector brings the need to use threat intelligence.

Regional Analysis

The regional analysis for the threat intelligence market typically highlights key trends and factors affecting the sector’s growth in different geopraphical areas. Here’s a breakdown of some common regions and their significance:

North America:
- Leading market due to the presence of major cybersecurity companies and early adoption of advanced security technologies.
- Strong government initiatives to combat cyber threats contribute to the market’s growth.
- High investment in research and development activities driving innovation in threat intelligence solutions.

Europe:
- Growing concern over cybersecurity threats fuels the market demand. For instance, Germany largely suffered from ransomware attacks (52%) and denial-of-service attacks(43%).
- Stringent regulations such as GDPR(General Data Protection Regulation) drive organizations to invest in threat intelligence solutions for compliance.
- Increasing collaborations between government and private sector entities to enhance cyber resilience.

Asia Pacific :
- Rapid digitization and expanding IT infrastructure lead to increased vulnerability to cyber threats, driving demand for threat intelligence solutions.
- Growing awareness among enterprises about the importance of cybersecurity amplifies market growth.
- Rising investments in cybersecurity by governments and organizations to address evolving threats.

Key Players

IBM Corporation
Check Point Software Technologies
CrowdStrike
Kaspersky Lab
Anomali

Latest Innovations

Oct 2023: Aiming to expedite security response timelines for clients, IBM revealed the next evolution of its managed detection and response service offerings with new AI technologies. These technologies include the capacity to autonomously escalate or close up to 85% of alerts. The brand-new Threat Detection and Response Services (TDR) offer automatic security alarm remediation, monitoring, and investigation around the clock for all pertinent technologies in clients' hybrid cloud environments.

Feb,2024: A leading provider of cloud-delivered, AI-powered cyber security platforms, Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd., is pleased to present the Check Point Quantum Force series, an inventive range of ten high-performance firewalls built to meet and surpass the demanding security requirements of enterprise data centers, network perimeters, campuses, and businesses of all sizes.

Sept 2023: In a staggered rollout, Symantec, a division of Broadcom Inc., and Google Cloud will integrate generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) into the Symantec Security platform, offering customers a major technological advantage in identifying, comprehending, and mitigating sophisticated cyberattacks.

March 2024: A strategic alliance between CrowdStrike and Rubrik was announced to accelerate data security transformation and prevent compromises of vital data. Organizations can quickly identify, look into, and stop attacks targeting sensitive data by combining the industry-leading AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon® XDR platform with a comprehensive, data-centric attack context from the Rubrik Security Cloud.

Conclusion

One of the most crucial elements of the rapidly expanding digital world is threat intelligence. As far as cyber-attacks are concerned, threat intelligence allows organizations to act proactively instead of reactively. It is not possible to protect successfully against cyber attacks unless we understand security vulnerabilities, threat indicators, and how threats are made.

Threat intelligence can assist lower the risk of cyber attacks, strengthen security posture, and facilitate the team's ability to respond to situations more skillfuly as cyber attackers become more sophisticated.

Contributed by Researchnester

Image: Ideogram

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