What is Crowdsourced Threat Intelligence?

Threat intelligence is essential for cybersecurity, as it provides organizations with a clear view of the current threat landscape and enables them to adapt their defenses accordingly. While there are many ways to gather threat intelligence, crowdsourcing stands as one of the most effective and cost-effective.

What is Threat Intelligence?

Threat intelligence refers to the data that is collected, processed, and analyzed to understand cyber threats’ characteristics, targets, and behaviors. It can include information about known, emerging, and potential attacks.

Threat intelligence is an invaluable solution for identifying and mitigating threats, developing new security solutions, and improving organizations’ overall defense.

For example, organizations can use threat intelligence to learn about new phishing campaigns targeting their industry. They can then use this information to create new email security detection rules and educate employees on the appropriate cybersecurity strategy.

What is Crowdsourced Threat Intelligence?

Crowdsourced threat intelligence is a type of threat intelligence that is gathered and analyzed from various sources, including individual security researchers, organizations, and ordinary users. It is often collected through online platforms where users share samples of malicious software and links they have encountered.

Advantages of Crowdsourced Threat Intelligence

The general rule of thumb for organizations is to have as many threat intelligence channels as possible, as each possesses a unique set of challenges. Crowdsourced threat intelligence provides the following benefits. 

Wider Coverage at a Lower Cost

Crowdsourcing makes use of a much wider range of contributors’ expertise and resources than does threat intelligence gathered internally by organizations. As a result, it provides a more comprehensive view of the threat landscape, including attacks that in-house teams may miss.

New threats emerge almost daily and keeping up with them is virtually impossible unless you have a large team dedicated solely to threat hunting. Therefore, investing in a solid crowdsourced threat intelligence solution can not only enhance your awareness of the latest threats but also save your resources.

Faster Remediation

Crowdsourced threat intelligence can help businesses find and fix threats faster by giving analysts access to a stream of information in real time and more information about any sign of malicious activity seen on their network. Additional context allows analysts to understand the nature of the threat better and respond to it properly.

For example, suppose an analyst identifies a malicious IP address. In that case, crowdsourced threat intelligence may provide information about the address’s affiliation with known threat actors or its involvement in previous attacks, making developing a remediation plan much easier and faster.

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Deeper Insights

Crowdsourced threat intelligence can provide organizations with deeper insights into the capabilities and tactics of different threats because it is enriched by the analysis of specialists from a variety of backgrounds. 

Security experts use centralized platforms to share their fresh malware finds. This intelligence is then analyzed and refined by other professionals, resulting in a more comprehensive and actionable understanding of the threat landscape.

Threat Intelligence from ANY.RUN

ANY.RUN is an interactive malware sandbox that allows users to analyze an unlimited number of malicious files and links for free. It also has a dedicated team of analysts who continuously expand the service’s detection and analysis capabilities.

As a result, the platform has an extensive database of over 50 million malware samples, each with a detailed report on its tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs). This database grows by 14,000 new samples daily. Organizations can access ANY.RUN’s Threat Intelligence repository via the company’s products. 

One of them is Threat Intelligence Feeds, which offers a stream of up-to-date information on the latest threats, that can be easily integrated with any security information and event management (SIEM) systems to automate detection. The solution is updated every two hours and not only enables organizations to have better threat coverage, but also provides expanded context on any threat from its database.

Implementing ANY.RUN’s Threat Intelligence products is simple. Contact the company’s sales team to learn more.

Conclusion

Threat intelligence is a crucial part of the cybersecurity strategy of any organization. By gathering threat intelligence from different sources, including crowdsourced ones, organizations can improve their understanding of the threat landscape and strengthen their ability to protect against cyberattacks.