Threat Hunting vs Threat Intelligence – What's the Difference
Threat actors are always devising new ways to breach network systems, penetrate firewalls, and exploit software vulnerabilities. For businesses, staying ahead of these threats is a never-ending challenge; however, solutions like threat hunting and threat intelligence seek to aid companies in their cybersecurity efforts. In this post, we will compare threat hunting vs. threat intelligence and outline their respective strengths and weaknesses.
What is Threat Hunting?
Threat hunting is a proactive approach to cybersecurity that involves digging through data logs and system analytics to uncover indicators of compromise, malicious behavior, and other suspicious activity. Threat hunting is more like a gut instinct developed by cybersecurity professionals to find anything that might facilitate a cyber attack. Utilizing advanced malware detection technologies and threat intelligence tools, threat hunting is often focused on detecting and mitigating threats before they cause damage.
Some quick facts about threat hunting are:
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Threat hunting identify 31% of advanced threats, which often go unnoticed through automated security systems.
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65% of IT professionals report an increased reliance on threat hunting in 2021 as a result of the pandemic's impact on cybersecurity.
What is Threat Intelligence?
Threat intelligence is the understanding of the latest security threats, methodologies, and trends based on continual analysis of security events and data. Threat intelligence can help businesses devise proactive security strategies by providing insight and analysis of previous attacks against other organizations, and predicting the latest attack patterns, vulnerabilities exploited, and more. It also helps organizations identify and prioritize the most significant cyber threats, allowing early response actions to prevent severe damages.
Some quick facts about threat intelligence are:
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Threat intelligence market size rose to $5.8 billion in 2021, with a projected growth rate of 14.8% from 2022 to 2029.
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Over 80% of companies have stated that threat intelligence is an essential factor in their cybersecurity posture.
What's the Difference?
While threat hunting and threat intelligence share the same ultimate goal, their approaches differ significantly. Threat hunting is a reactive process where security teams investigate data and analytics for specific incidents or indicators of attack. In contrast, threat intelligence is a proactive process that provides information about potential vulnerabilities that might be exploited in the future.
Threat hunting is appealing as it offers higher precision, accuracy, and detects targeted or unknown threats. Threat intelligence provides better context and strategic insights and helps organizations make informed and timely cybersecurity decisions.
Conclusion
Both threat hunting and threat intelligence are complementary components of a robust cybersecurity strategy. They help detect, prevent and mitigate the damage from potential cyberattacks. While there are distinctions, organizations must integrate them as part of their security infrastructure to provide a comprehensive defense. The choice of use cases for each tool depends on the organization's needs and demands, including budget, cybersecurity maturity level, network infrastructure, and others.