Here is Tip #20 for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Subscribe to threat intelligence sources.
Threat intelligence is critical to an organization’s security posture. Threat intelligence and collaboration include processes to effectively discover, analyze and understand cyber threats, with the capability to share information internally and with appropriate third parties. This may be anonymous information shared with peer groups, or full reporting required by law or regulation.
Studies have shown that of companies researched that had a recent security breach that compromised the company’s networks or enterprise systems, 80% believed if they had threat intelligence at the time of the breach, they could have prevented or minimized the consequences of the attack.
Steps you can take
Educate yourself.
Find respected organizations that can provide you with reliable information on threats. Some may require fee-based membership for full access or come as a part of a service.
One source of threat intelligence is the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center (MS-ISAC). MS-ISAC is the focal point for cyber threat prevention, protection, response and recovery for state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) governments. There is no cost to join the MS-ISAC; it is primarily supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to serve as the central cybersecurity resource for the nation’s SLTT governments.
Other threat intelligence sources:
General
o SANS Institute
o Internet Storm Center/DShield
o MS-ISAC
o US-CERT
Financial
o FS-ISAC
Healthcare
o Health-ISAC
o HITRUST
These are just a few examples of sources. Whether you use one of these or find your own, it’s important to have accurate information delivered to you as fast as possible.