A Guide to Threat Intelligence on the Web

In the modern cybersecurity world, collecting threat intelligence is crucial for the security of organizations. It’s not enough to use the right security tools and adopt cybersecurity best practices. It’s not enough to educate employees on issues such as phishing. 

In addition to the above, it has become necessary to leave the safety of your domain and venture outwards to gather intelligence, sometimes into enemy territory. 

Gathering actionable threat intelligence on the web is no mean feat. There is a lot of unstructured data. Every step in the process, from data collection to structuring to processing to advanced analysis is complex. 

However, thanks to machine learning and artificial intelligence, threat intelligence on the web is not only a feasible endeavor but also a beneficial one. 

Additionally, thanks to a range of tools, along with OSINT techniques, valuable data can be extracted from the web. 

The OSINT Methodology

OSINT is an acronym that stands for Open Source Intelligence. This is threat intelligence collected from various sources of data on the internet. It is called open source because it uses data that is publicly and legally accessible.

Sources of OSINT include blogs, the comments sections of websites, online forums, online directories and databases, and online tools such as reverse image and image metadata tools. 

OSINT techniques involve accessing information from these sources and processing it to generate actionable threat intelligence. 

OSINT and the Dark Web 

The dark web is significantly less accessible compared to the open web. Most of the websites there are not indexed. Furthermore, websites on the dark web can’t be accessed with normal browsers. They need special tor browsers. 

Because of the barriers to access listed above, in addition to others, the dark web is out of reach for many people. 

Still, it is a source of valuable information. In fact, with regards to cybersecurity, information obtained from the dark web can be several times more valuable than information obtained from the open web. This is because threat actors are generally more active on the dark web. 

Proper threat intelligence collected over the web has to include sources from the dark web. 

What is Dark Web Threat Intelligence? 

Threat intelligence on the dark web is the collection of data from various websites and forums on the dark web to generate insights on potential cyber attacks and improve cyber security for organizations. 

The dark web is a hub for cybercrime in more than one way: 

• It facilitates communication and collaboration among threat actors
• It enables the exchange of advanced cybercrime tools such as state-of-the-art malware 
• It facilitates the sale and purchase of data acquired from successful breaches. Such data, if purchased by threat actors, can be used to engineer further attacks against organizations. 
• When used together with modern means of payment such as cryptocurrency, which are significantly less traceable than conventional means, it enables illegal transactions to be conducted in ample privacy. 

Given how the dark web facilitates cybercrime, conducting threat intelligence on the dark web is an effective technique in cyber security. It can help improve the general security profile of an organization and even help thwart attacks. 

How Threat Intelligence on the Dark Web Helps Organizations Boost Cybersecurity

Collecting threat data from the dark web isn’t easy. Analyzing and making sense of it is even more difficult. There are significant security considerations to make when venturing into the dark web. In addition, accessibility isn’t easy because joining most forums requires establishing trust with criminals. 

However, braving these challenges is worth it. Here’s how companies benefit from dark web threat intelligence:  

• If there’s been a security breach and your data is put up for sale on the dark web, you could buy it back. This ensures that it doesn’t fall into the hands of threat actors who would use it to perpetuate more damage against your organization. 
• It can be a useful source of information on threat actors. Analyzing data from multiple platforms on the dark web could provide useful insights into the techniques and motivations of pertinent threat actors, making your organization more prepared and more secure. 
• It helps generate real-time alerts, which can help thwart attacks. With the help of advanced artificial intelligence software, which are capable of analyzing the big data of the dark web as it is generated, your company could get real-time alerts when events of interest occur. For example, you could get notified the moment your name appears on a dark web forum. 
• Investigating threat actors becomes easier. Most cybercriminals conduct most of their online activity on the dark web. Having access to dark web data can help shed light on the identities, locations, and actions of threat actors. Such information can help stop them. 
• It can help with evidence for prosecution. Analyzing multiple sources on the dark web could reveal evidence that could be used to prosecute threat actors. 
• It helps identify breaches and address them. If you find your organization’s data on the dark web, you can perform an audit to find out how the breach occurred. Sometimes, if you are not monitoring the dark web, it can take longer to identify a data breach and correct it. This can lead to more attacks. 

Conclusion 

The modern cybersecurity landscape necessitates the collection of web intelligence. Though web intelligence is not easy, it comes with significant benefits. It can help organizations adopt a more proactive approach to cybersecurity, one which helps stop some attacks before they happen. 

Open source intelligence, including that from the dark web, is crucial in the collection of threat intelligence on the web.