Cyber Threat Intelligence: What It Is and Why It Matters

Cyber threat intelligence is the process of gathering, analysing, and sharing information about digital threats that may impact your organisation. More than just data points, effective CTI explains:

• Who the threat actors are
• What techniques and tools they use
• Which vulnerabilities they exploit
• Why they target specific industries or regions

Key takeaway: CTI adds context, enabling security teams to defend smarter, not just faster.

CTI operates at three distinct but complementary levels. Each supports different roles within an organisation:

Strategic CTI

Focuses on the big picture. It helps executives and senior leaders understand:

• Geopolitical influences and long-term threat trends
• Motivations behind threat actor behaviour
• How to align investments and policies to future risks

Operational CTI

Supports planning and defence posture. It informs security managers about:

• Adversary campaigns targeting their sector
• Known attack methods and objectives
• Gaps in current defences

Tactical CTI

Provides technical indicators that analysts can act on immediately, such as:

• IP addresses, file hashes, domain names
• Network or host-based artifacts (evidence left by attackers)

Key takeaway: When used together, these levels of CTI deliver comprehensive visibility, from boardroom strategy to SOC operations.

MITRE ATT&CK® is a globally adopted framework that categorises how threat actors operate across the entire attack lifecycle. It standardises adversary behaviours into Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs).

CTI teams use ATT&CK to:

• Speak a common language when describing threats
• Map real-world activity to known behaviours
• Identify gaps in detection and response capabilities

Key takeaway: ATT&CK turns behavioural patterns into a roadmap for proactive defence.

The Pyramid of Pain, developed by David Bianco, illustrates which types of threat indicators are easiest or hardest for adversaries to change.

From hardest to easiest to adapt:

• TTPs (core behavioural patterns)
• Tools
• Host/network artifacts (traces left in systems or logs)
• Domain names
• IP addresses
• Hash values (e.g., file fingerprints)

The lower you are on that list, the quicker attackers can pivot. The higher you go, the more disruption you cause.

Key takeaway: Targeting TTPs and tools creates lasting friction for attackers and strengthens long-term defence.

Threat-informed defence is a proactive strategy that focuses on real threats, not theoretical ones. It aligns your defences with the specific methods and goals of active adversaries.

With CTI at its core, this approach helps security teams:

• Prioritise mitigations based on actual risks
• Develop detections around known attacker behaviour
• Simulate realistic threats to test resilience

Key takeaway: When defences mirror real-world threats, you respond with confidence and purpose.

Risk management often relies on historical data or theoretical scenarios. CTI brings in current, threat-based evidence.

With CTI, organisations can:

• Assess risk likelihood and impact based on current campaigns
• Tailor risk treatments to adversary behaviour
• Justify investments with up-to-date intelligence
• Monitor risk continuously as threats evolve

Key takeaway: CTI makes risk models more responsive, relevant, and resilient.

Traditional incident response (IR) follows a reactive playbook. Intelligence-driven IR anticipates and adapts.

With CTI integrated, IR teams can:

Detect and Investigate:

• Spot threats faster by matching known TTPs
• Use threat actor profiles to predict next steps

Contain and Eradicate:

• Deploy countermeasures suited to known adversary tools
• Identify persistence mechanisms (methods attackers use to remain undetected after compromise)

Recover and Learn:

• Refine detection rules post-incident
• Feed new insights back into CTI programs

Key takeaway: Every incident becomes an opportunity to improve defences and outpace adversaries.

Effective CTI isn’t just timely, it’s:

• Relevant to your sector and infrastructure
• Credible, backed by evidence
• Clear, for both technical teams and executives
• Action-ready, informing real decisions

It helps:

• Strengthen controls
• Accelerate patching
• Shape strategy

Key takeaway: CTI is only as good as its clarity, accuracy, and applicability.

If you’re beginning your CTI journey, start with tools and data that are accessible and purpose-driven.

Open-source platforms:

• MISP: Enables collaborative sharing of threat indicators
• TheHive: Supports incident response workflows with CTI integration

Commercial options:

Arachne Digital offers:

• Mapped intelligence aligned to MITRE ATT&CK and other frameworks
• Human-reviewed, context-rich reporting
• API and machine-readable formats
• Open-source tools for transparency and custom workflows

Key takeaway: You don’t need more data. You need intelligence that drives action.

Cyber threat intelligence isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity.

When CTI is timely, tailored, and tied to real-world threats, it empowers teams to defend proactively, respond confidently, and invest wisely.

Start small. Stay focused. Let intelligence lead.