Cyber intelligence is the process of gathering, analyzing, and utilizing information about potential or current cyber threats. This intelligence helps organizations understand attacker motives, techniques, and objectives so they can proactively defend against threats.
Cyber intelligence can be strategic (long-term planning), operational (mid-term threat analysis), or tactical (real-time incident response). It relies on sources such as threat feeds, dark web monitoring, social media, open-source intelligence (OSINT), and technical indicators from internal systems.
Organizations use cyber intelligence to detect anomalies, identify vulnerabilities, attribute attacks, and prioritize mitigation efforts. Intelligence feeds may reveal new malware strains, indicators of compromise (IOCs), or emerging threat actors.
This practice enables better decision-making, incident response, and overall security posture. Cyber intelligence also contributes to collaboration between private organizations, governments, and security researchers in sharing data and combating cybercrime.
By incorporating cyber intelligence, businesses gain a proactive edge in preventing breaches and protecting critical assets.