It's easier to combat security threats if you're prepared for them so it isn't perhaps surprising that security teams are increasingly turning to threat intelligence to stay ahead of the game.
A new report commissioned by endpoint protection specialist Webroot and prepared by the Ponemon Institute shows that most companies believe threat intelligence is essential for a well-rounded cybersecurity defense and has proven effective in stopping security incidents.
It does, however, also point out that threat intelligence needs to undergo changes in order to make it more timely, accurate and actionable. The report's findings show that 40 percent of companies surveyed had suffered a material security breach in the past 24 months, and 80 percent believed if they'd had threat intelligence at the time of the breach, they could have prevented or minimized the consequences of the attack.
The report is based on a survey of 693 IT and IT security professionals in the US, with 61 percent of them working in large companies. Only 36 percent of respondents rate their own company's defenses as strong. Almost half are increasing the amount of intelligence data they receive in order to prevent or mitigate the consequences of an attack.
There's concern about speed of response though with 56 percent saying intelligence becomes stale within seconds or minutes. The more valuable features of a threat intelligence solution are the ability to implement intelligence and gauge the trustworthiness of the source in real time.
Almost half of respondents (49 percent) use paid for sources of intelligence, saying that free sources aren't adequate for comprehensive threat analysis and make it more difficult to prioritize threats. A third of respondents expect to increase their threat intelligence budget significantly in the next two years.
"Businesses are struggling to identify and stop new web threats because they must assess the risk of more unknown objects than before and the rate of change across the threat landscape is faster than their traditional security technologies can keep up with," says Patrick Kennedy, vice president of enterprise marketing at Webroot. "The study highlights the need for highly accurate and timely threat intelligence to help organizations assess the risk of incoming data, reduce the volume of security incidents, and accelerate response to successful attacks".
The full report Importance of Threat Intelligence to a Strong Security Posture is available as PDF on the Webroot site.
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