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Best Threat Intelligence Platforms & Tools for 2021

Threat intelligence platforms take security beyond traditional defensive strategies. Threat intelligence helps IT to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals and prevent information or financial loss. This makes it possible to warn organizations about potentially malicious activity inside the network. Unusual patterns or behavior are flagged so security analysts can find out what is going on.

Threat intelligence platforms, then, deal with any threats or potential threats related to computer systems and web-based applications. This represents a way to collect relevant information relating to cyber threats. Further, threat intelligence software applies analytics to that information, adding a predictive capability and risk estimation.

However, threat intelligence is not just about signing up for one of the many threat indicator feeds. Threat intelligence tools work in conjunction with security experts to apply indicators of risk intelligently and protect the environment.

Core Elements of Threat Intelligence

Vendor offerings vary markedly. In general, the following are some of the key functions that most threat intelligence platforms cover:

Threat indicator feeds of malicious IP addresses, domains, file hashes, etc.
Extracting content from chats, publications, and data repositories
Machine learning and filtering capabilities to sift through millions of pieces of data simultaneously
Removal of false positives
Ability to rapidly engage, verify, and clarify a detected threat via automation
Integration with other security platforms, such as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Cyber threat intelligence is about automation and information analysis. It is particularly useful for advanced persistent threats (APTs), and less useful when it comes to individual ransomware incidents, which tend to strike fast.

Best Threat Intelligence Platforms & Tools

CIO Insight evaluated the various threat intelligence vendors. Here are our top picks in no particular order:

ZeroFox

Value Proposition

ZeroFox acquired Cyveillance, a threat intelligence pioneer. It offers timely, relevant intelligence tailored to organizational requirements. Instead of noise from endless feeds, it delivers what matters. Actionable data allows IT to head off threats before damage can occur. ZeroFox enables your team to execute unlimited takedowns and disrupt malicious actors at scale with fast action to immediately black list key indicator infrastructure across a global disruption partner network of social platforms, hosts, registrars, and ISPs.

Key Differentiators

Threat data lake that includes attacker campaigns and infrastructure history
Full spectrum intelligence tailored to the business
Combines AI processing, deep learning tools, and dark ops operatives
Combs through massive datasets across social media, the web, dark web, and other sources
Identifies exposed or stolen credentials before they are weaponized
2.6 million disruptive actions per week
Fast analysis, triage, contextualization, and correlation of potential threats
Investigates relationships between various attack and threat indicators

Resecurity

Value Proposition

Resecurity by Massive Alliance provides proactive alerts and comprehensive visibility of internal and external risks targeting the enterprise. It helps to reduce potential blind spots and security gaps. This tool identifies threats coming from outside based on threat intelligence data aggregated from over 20,000 public and closed sources.

Key Differentiators

Massive repository of Dark Web data
Can add your own threat intelligence feeds
Integrates available security solutions to actualize the risk score of the enterprise footprint
Round-the-clock security monitoring of cloud workloads in AWS to prevent data breaches
Cloud-native integration, including integration with Amazon GuardDuty

Keysight Technologies

Value Proposition

Keysight offers Threat Simulator and the Keysight Application and Threat Intelligence (ATI) Research Center. Threat Simulator is an element of Keysight’s Security Operations Suite. It leverages the output of ATI, allowing enterprises to safely conduct offensive operations against their infrastructure, pinpointing gaps in coverage and blind spots by using the tactics leveraged by threat actors.

Key Differentiators

Immediately identifies hostile activity on the network
Detects open security holes hackers can exploit
Gives security teams experience with recognizing and classifying attacks in real time
SaaS solution that delivers results in a few minutes
Continuously validates email, endpoint, cloud, and perimeter defenses against the latest threats

LogRhythm

Value Proposition

LogRhythm incorporates threat intelligence from STIX/TAXII-compliant providers, commercial and open source feeds, and internal honeypots — all via an integrated threat intelligence ecosystem. The platform uses this data to reduce false positives, detect hidden threats, and prioritize the most concerning alarms.

Key Differentiators

Incorporates Structured Threat Information Expression (STIX) and Trusted Automated Exchange of Indicator Information (TAXII)
Part of an open, community-driven effort that offers free specifications to help automate the exchange of cyber threat information
Provides the ability to add custom STIX/TAXII compliant providers, such as Soltra Edge
Rapidly incorporate threat intelligence from open source providers like Abuse.ch, AlienVault, AutoShun, and TOR Network

Red Canary

Key Differentiators

Red Canary Security Operations Platform is a SaaS security solution for detecting, hunting, and responding to threats. It helps organizations to gain threat detection, hunting, and response capabilities. It’s driven by human expert analysis and guidance across endpoints, cloud deployments, and network devices.

Key Differentiators

Improves threat coverage, reduces dwell time, and eliminates alert fatigue
Purpose-built software removes the need to integrate third party products
Security engineering as a service enables SOC teams to focus on protecting the business
Threat and behavioral intelligence curated from thousands of incident response engagements

FireEye

Value Proposition

FireEye Helix is a SaaS security operations platform that allows organizations to take control of any incident from detection to response. Available with any FireEye solution, FireEye Helix integrates your security tools and augments them with next-generation SIEM, orchestration, and threat intelligence capabilities.

Key Differentiators

Designed by security experts, for security experts
Empowers teams to conduct primary functions, such as alert management, search, analysis, investigations, and reporting
Integrates over 600 FireEye and non-FireEye security tools, overlaying contextual threat intelligence and behavioral analytics
Accelerates response with security orchestration and workflow automation informed by frontline experience
Grants visibility across all threat vectors and deployment types, whether on premise or in the cloud
Centralizes security data and infrastructure with SIEM

New Net Technologies

Value Proposition

New Net Technologies (NNT), now part of Netwrix, offers FAST (File Approved-Safe Technology) cloud threat intelligence. It helps IT determine if the change that is happening to an asset in the infrastructure or cloud service is good or bad. In other words, FAST determines whether a change is intended and desirable, or related to malicious activity or a breach.

Key Differentiators

Happening in real time, FAST checks any file change and classifies it as good, safe, or bad
Enables the SOC team to focus on unwanted alterations of a system’s status
Automatically assesses and approves changes confirmed on the whitelist
Includes system integrity monitoring

CrowdStrike

Value Proposition

CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence solution is known as Falcon X. It helps organizations consume intelligence and take action. Falcon X automates the threat investigation process and delivers actionable intelligence reporting and custom IOCs specifically tailored to the threats encountered on endpoints.

Key Differentiators

Automation eliminates the need to pick and choose which threats to analyze
Combines the tools used by cyber threat investigators into one solution that performs investigations automatically
The integrated tool set includes malware analysis, malware search, and CrowdStrike’s global IOC feed
Falcon X Premium intelligence reporting includes expertise from CrowdStrike’s Global Intelligence team

Netenrich

Value Proposition

Netenrich threat intelligence platform leverages natural language processing and machine learning to enhance data collection, aggregation, and contextualization. To enhance operational efficiencies, the platform adds insights and scoring techniques to make decisions faster. KNOW is easy-to-use with threat intelligence and analytics functionality built into customizable dashboards.

Key Differentiators

KNOW provides global insights on the overall threat landscape
Encompasses ransomware, vulnerabilities, threat actors, and other areas
Aggregates real-time threat intelligence on a continuous basis
Analysts eliminate time-consuming and laborious threat research to speed up analysis
Near real-time data collection and automated context building
Detailed and contextual drill down into any cyber threat entity
Supported by the Netenrich threat research team and analysts

RSA

Value Proposition

The NetWitness Platform encompasses threat intelligence, threat detection and response, and a lot more. It provides pervasive visibility across IT infrastructures, enabling better and faster detection of security incidents, with automation and orchestration capabilities to investigate and respond efficiently.

Key Differentiators

Provides visibility into threats and incorporates threat intelligence and business context
Automated capabilities for incident response
Extended detection and response (XDR) to detect and automatically respond to intrusions that have bypassed preventative controls
Quickly halts the progress of threats and minimizes their impact
Centrally manages and monitors log data from cloud-based and on-premises infrastructure
Real-time visibility into network traffic with full packet capture
Detects unknown threats by applying behavior analytics and machine learning

Read next: What Is a 3-2-1 Backup Strategy?

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What Is a 3-2-1 Backup Strategy?

Posted in: backup, backup and disaster recovery, data backup, IT Strategy, Security, tape backup - Aug 27, 2021

The importance of having a backup for your files is not a new concept; most people would agree that backing up data is crucial. However, not every company implements a robust enterprise backup strategy, causing billions of dollars worth of lost data.

As the number of places a person or company can store data increases, one of the best backup strategies is sometimes forgotten. The often overlooked 3-2-1 backup strategy is a foundational approach that should still be applied today.

What Is a 3-2-1 Backup Strategy?

Simply put, a 3-2-1 backup strategy will protect your data against the unforeseeable, whether it be a server crash, cyberattack, or natural disaster. A 3-2-1 backup plan puts multiple data preservation concepts into practice. Here’s the framework:

Create 3 copies of the data
Use 2 different media types
Store 1 copy offsite

3 Copies of the Data

A sound backup system will always preserve at least three copies or versions of data over different periods in time. Having three copies of the data ensures you can recover from accidents that affect multiple versions.

For this example, let’s use a file named sunset.jpeg, which is a picture of a sunset you took on your last summer vacation. It lives on your desktop and represents the first version of your data.

2 Different Media Types

Say you add that picture to an external hard drive — if you or your company uses Mac, you might be using the Time Machine drive. As part of the process, your external hard drive will hold the backup of sunset.jpg.

Now you have a second copy on a different device, or medium, from the first. If something happens to your desktop the picture is permanently deleted there, you can recover it from the Time Machine drive.

1 Offsite Copy

After the scare of losing your sunset picture, you decide you need additional backup, so you consider your third backup: a completely different form of media than your computer or external hard drive. Importantly, you need this data to be accessible in a different way.

So now, in addition to your picture living on your desktop and external drive, you put sunset.jpeg on the cloud. A cloud storage service acts as an online backup method, making it the third copy of your picture. Because this cloud backup exists on a separate network, it won’t be affected if your local network is compromised.

At the enterprise level, creating a tape backup is a more secure way to safeguard sensitive data. Tape backups are more secure than disk and flash backups because they create an air gap — a barrier between the data and the rest of the network, hosted offsite and not accessible online.

Read more: Are Air Gapped Networks Secure?

Why Are Backups Important?

Many of us have experienced the heartache of permanently losing data. Whether it be a corrupted file or a white paper we forgot to save, losing data can be heartbreaking.

On a corporate level, however, these losses are more than just sad. They can be costly, too. As we’ve seen from recent cyberattacks, data breaches hurt your brand and could you to lose your entire business.

Therefore, the third copy of your data must be stored seperately, in a safe place that won’t be affected if your local or cloud storage gets hacked, fails, or experiences a physical disaster like a fire or flood.

Is Having a Backup Strategy Enough?

To be clear: It’s not enough to have a backup strategy in place. There is always the possibility that you or your business will experience a devastating loss of data, even if you adhere to backup strategy best practices.

So how can you recover once you experience a loss? Always have a disaster recovery plan in place. A recovery plan will help DevOps respond in an effective manner and help minimize recovery time and losses.

Here is an example of what you may want to include in your recovery plan:

List of all assets
Description of critical resources, equipment, and staff required for recovery
Recovery time targets
Checklist of next steps to follow in the short and long term

Once you’ve recovered from a disaster, you must take steps to prevent a recurring event. Perform an audit to gather information and learn from the event. Reconsider your current backup software and solutions, making sure your backups don’t all live in the same place

A recovery plan will help your business get back to being operational after an emergency. To help safeguard against such events in the first place, be sure to have a 3-2-1 backup strategy in place.

The post What Is a 3-2-1 Backup Strategy? appeared first on CIO Insight.

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What Is the Supply Chain Management Process?

Posted in: Innovation, IT Strategy, SCM, supply chain, supply chain management - Aug 27, 2021

When you hear the word supply chain, you may experience a variety of emotions. Recent disruptions in the global supply chain have lead to crowded ports, part shortages, and delayed deliveries. In this article, we’ll walk through the basics of supply chain management, and discuss the technology solutions that can help.

What Is Supply Chain Management?

Supply chain management (SCM) is the organization of resources as they move from point of origin to end consumer. It refers to the various processes involved in transportation, order processing, warehousing, inventory control, product planning, and production management.

A supply chain is a channel that brings a good or service from the producer to the consumer. A business’s supply chain can be either complete — comprising all the links from raw material to end customer — or partial.

SCM is the organization of resources as they move from point of origin to end consumer.

Businesses that follow sound supply chain principles have an advantage over others that don’t. For example, they can maintain product quality, charge competitive prices, and provide high levels of customer satisfaction.

Further, a well-managed supply chain may considerably lower a company’s operational expenses, resulting in higher profits. Finding small efficiencies in any step of the process, from concept to end product, can create huge savings overall.

The SCM process incorporates all the different tasks, policies, and controls of the supply chain. This process is usually understood as the coordination, interaction, integration, planning, design, control, and monitoring of activities along the various supply stages. The goal is to meet the customer’s demand while maximizing the efficiency of resource use.

Impact of Technology on SCM

Supply Chain Management has gone through a lot of changes in the last few years. These changes are due to high competition in logistics, as well as globalization. Digital transformation has also contributed a lot in improving the way companies managed their supply chains.

It’s important for business owners today to understand the impact of technology on supply chain management, and how they can benefit from it. SCM software allows for real-time tracking and analysis, and makes this information available to all stakeholders in the supply chain; information is stored and disseminated in the cloud.

It has never been easier to share information with distributed businesses and consumers.

In addition, real-time traffic data impacts the shipping and receiving of parts for product manufacturing. Along the same line, the Internet of Things (IoT) and improved tracking software make it easier for users at the end of the supply chain to see the movement and handling of goods in production and distribution.

What’s more, innovations in supply chain tech have made driverless deliveries, smart road technology, and robotic warehouses more feasible and cost-efficient. All told, it has never been easier to share information with distributed businesses and consumers.

SCM Best Practices

Supply chain management is a complicated endeavor. Here are the best ways to deal with it:

Maintain clear communication throughout the supply chain.
Invest in a diverse range of suppliers.
Find a balance between cost-effectiveness and flexibility.
Leverage digital transformation to improve efficiency.
Ensure the supply chain is in sync with company goals.

Supply Chain Management Software

Your company will be more agile and capable of meeting consumer needs if you can use the proper supply chain management software. Consider how digital supply chain technology can improve your operations, depending on your industry:

Oracle Supply Chain Management is appropriate for a wide spectrum of companies, from large corporations to small businesses.
Vizient is ideal for pharmacies and health care institutions.
SAP Supply Chain Management is best suited to companies that produce complex goods.
ArrowStream is ideal for food service establishments.
Magaya Supply Chain is the best option for transportation and logistics companies.
iM3SCM is suitable for small and midsize businesses that need increased warehouse visibility.
Logility is the best choice for consumer products and retail businesses.

SCM plays a vital role in the efficiency of any organization. When supply chain managers use collaboration tools, they can accomplish their goals more effectively and efficiently.

The greatest benefit of supply chain collaboration technology is the ability to accelerate processes and enable companies to make data-driven decisions in real time. By leveraging SCM technology, organizations can reduce costs and risks — which ultimately leads to success for companies across all industries.

Read next: What Is Predictive Analytics?

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What Is Predictive Analytics?

Posted in: analytics, Big Data, IT Strategy, machine learning, machine learning algorithms, predictive analysis tools, predictive analytics, predictive business performance metrics, predictive marketing - Aug 27, 2021

A growing number of companies use predictive analytics, causing decision-makers elsewhere to strongly consider following suit. That’s understandable, but it’s vital to understand how the technology works and what it can do before investing in it.

What Is Predictive Analytics and How Does It Work?

Predictive analytics is a type of data analysis that uses machine learning and algorithms to predict future events or trends. Additionally, it’s a statistical method that can take past or current information to make predictions.

Users generally interact with predictive analytics tools via specialized dashboards that generate data streams based on specific questions posed. Someone might wonder, “What percentage of this month’s sales will come from new customers versus returning ones?” or “What’s the likelihood of running out of a certain item this month?” Data analytics can answer those queries and many others.

Predictive Analytics vs. Prescriptive Analytics

As people learn more about predictive analytics, they’ll likely come across content about prescriptive analytics, too. While they have similar names, these technologies are not the same.

Predictive products give details about future events. prescriptive tools offer solutions based on what the data shows.

Predictive products give details about future events, helping people plan for them. In contrast, prescriptive tools offer solutions based on what the data shows. Users often depend on them to solve known problems.

Types of Predictive Analytics Forecasting Models

Numerous predictive analytics exist to help users make accurate and useful forecasts. Some of the broadly utilized types include:

Neural networks: Using algorithms to find relationships between datasets
Regression techniques: Showing relationships between variables
Decision trees: Displaying the possibilities stemming from each choice made
Time series models: Generating trend data across a specific period
Clustering: Grouping data according to shared characteristics
Outliers: Highlighting data that deviates from the norm

What Are the Benefits of Predictive Analytics?

Many people understandably want to know how predictive analytics could help them before deciding to use such solutions. For starters, predictive tools enable company leaders to move away from gut instinct and assumptions. Relatedly, they cut down on time-intensive decision-making processes and eliminate guesswork.

Predictive tools enable company leaders to move away from gut instinct and assumptions.

Predictive analytics algorithms are well-suited to intensive data processing. Thus, they can
work with larger amounts of information faster than humans could alone. It’s then possible to identify patterns people may otherwise miss.

This technology can also improve the processes associated with product launches, supply chain decisions, and customer outreach efforts, among others. Not surprisingly, having a predictive analytics strategy can also help companies achieve better marketplace performance. One study showed that 63% of business representatives cited their data analytics programs as creating a competitive advantage.

How Do Companies Use Predictive Analytics?

Health Care

Hospitals can use predictive analytics to determine patient survival rates, allowing the best resource allocation. One study combined algorithms and patient medical record data to assess a person’s likelihood of hospital readmission within 30 days. Hospital administrators found that this analytics application reduced that rate, resulting in improved outcomes.

Marketing

Marketing teams often depend on predictive analytics to assess how a campaign or new product launch will perform. One company claims 85% accuracy with technology predicting which actors will generate the most profits if placed in lead roles.

Similarly, event planners and tour managers rely on algorithmic predictions when choosing which markets to visit, as well as the audience segments to target. They can also assess how fast a certain date may sell out.

Retail

Retailers rely on predictive tools to understand likely sales trends, as well as preventing product depletion or overstock issues. They know factors such as weather and preferences can make sales fluctuate, and want details on the elements that drive or decrease consumer demand.

Human Resources

Hiring managers apply predictive analytics in numerous ways. For example, they may do so to gauge a potential candidate’s suitability. Alternatively, predictions may let them intervene to communicate with disgruntled employees. Then it’s possible to address matters before the workers leave the organization.

Further, analytics could determine how a company’s workforce needs may change in the coming months, letting managers prepare.

What Are Some Examples of Predictive Analytics Platforms?

Business leaders must examine their organizations’ specific needs before investing in predictive analytics tools. However, some may wish to start their searches by looking at some of the industry-leading offerings. For example, Board offers automated predictive modeling features to speed utilization. SAP Analytics Cloud has tailored fast-start solutions that allow people to start analyzing data in days rather than weeks.

A selling point associated with Alteryx is that it caters to people without coding experience who consider themselves citizen data scientists. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, there’s the KNIME Analytics Platform. It’s geared towards people with formal data science backgrounds. This open-source option lets users build and optimize their models, plus create data visualizations to aid stakeholder comprehension.

Data Quality Matters

No matter when or how a company’s decision-makers want to start using algorithms to predict the future, high quality data is essential for success. If a company feeds incorrect or duplicate information into a powerful tool, the results may not have the accuracy and dependability a business leader needs to feel confident.

Read next: What Is Vector Similarity Search?

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Are You a Data Hoarder? The Dangers of Data Hoarders in Business

Posted in: archive storage, big data security, big data storage, Blogs, cloud data security, Cloud Storage, cloud storage providers, data security, Security - Aug 26, 2021

In a time when data storage seems to be pretty much unlimited, organizations are storing vast amounts of old, redundant information. Here we’ll explore the ramifications of data hoarders for your business.

What Is Data Hoarding?

Data hoarding is the accumulation of saved files and information over time, whether on a personal computer or on a shared network within a corporation. Whether digital hoarding is happening at an individual or enterprise level, it’s a huge security vulnerability.

Data hoarding is the accumulation of saved files and information over time.

Data is arguably the lifeblood of a company. It informs key decision makers on everything from how to budget for the upcoming quarter to where inefficiencies lie. The more you lose sight over data and its storage, the more likely your business will suffer a breach in data security. Data hoarding costs your company in more ways than one.

Data Hoarding Impacts

Hoarding excess amounts of old files can negatively impact data security. Files often contain sensitive information, and if they’re unencrypted, they’re at risk of getting hacked or stolen.

Furthermore, storing excess files severely hampers your organization’s flexibility and efficiency. When old and redundant files clog up your data stores, it makes the information harder to find.

Contrary to the idea that you’re doing your team or your organization a favor by saving files for future reference, you’re throwing those files into a blackhole that you’ll have a hard time retrieving them from — if the need ever actually arises.

Costs of Data Hoarders

If sensitive information gets leaked or hacked, your company brand suffers as a result. You may have to win back the trust of key clients. Data hoarding and its associated security risks can cost your company its reputation, but it can also incur huge operational costs.

In relation to data loss and breach of security, your company may get charged with a fine for breach of data protection, copyright laws, or other compliance issues.

Purchasing more storage than you need encourages data hoarding.

In addition, cloud storage makes it incredibly easy to purchase more storage as needed. With limitless cloud space, it’s logical when network users don’t think twice about saving files. However, the costs of increasing cloud storage capacity quickly add up. This is especially the case with businesses with multiple locations, as the cloud may host a copy of the data for each location.

The other side of this add-it-when-you-need-it mentality is that some businesses purchase more storage capacity than they actually need. This not only encourages future data hoarding, but it also costs companies around the world more than $62 billion every year, according to Business Insider.

Tips to Limit Data Hoarding in Your Business

You can start rethinking your company’s approach to data storage and management with these tips.

The CIO should set the right cultural tone around data security and storage best practices.
Remind network users on a regular basis that they should refrain from saving personal data, including photos and emails, on the cloud.
Create a company policy with a “spring cleaning” schedule. Multiple times per year, users should manually delete old and redundant files. At the IT level, implement processes to automatically purge old data after a set period of time has lapsed.
Some cloud service providers have monitoring tools that assesses how much data is being used and how frequently users open files. This can assist in deciding which files you can purge.

Mitigating the Risks of Data Hoarders

It’s easy for companies to store excess amounts of data, whether intentionally or accidentally. Plus, the growing capacities of cloud servers make it ever easier to add more data storage space. However, hanging on to old data and keeping copies of copies puts your company’s data at risk, hampers efficiency, and can incur financial and reputational costs.

There are some steps your company can start taking now in order to limit data hoarding. With the CIO leading from the front on best practices, implement new storage practices and take advantage of monitoring tools. These small but effective changes to your company’s culture will encourage mindful file saving and deletion.

The post Are You a Data Hoarder? The Dangers of Data Hoarders in Business appeared first on CIO Insight.

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