What Makes Real Threat Intelligence

By Hal Lonas, Chief Technology Officer, Webroot

First popularized in terminology several years ago, threat intelligence means many things to many people. This is due, in part, to the wide variety of producers, consumers, formats, intended uses, and quality of this type of data. This wide variety of definitions is exacerbated by the spectrum of qualitative and quantitative data called threat intelligence.

This paper will arm you with a set of criteria to gauge threat intelligence by its source, intended audience, and use cases to help narrow down the field to a few basic types. It also explores the quality of threat intelligence by examining positive and negative aspects of these types and how they are derived.

We’ll also discuss how to gauge the real value of threat intelligence, and how, when properly developed and applied, it can bring enterprise-grade security to businesses and individuals with limited budgets and personnel.