Four Low Cost or No Cost Threat Intelligence Sources

Organizations are facing a severe dearth of threat intelligence sources that are needed in the present time to prevent oncoming attacks. Since cybercriminals are not concentrated into a particular domain or a geographical region, detecting and mitigating threats is nothing less than a herculean task. Several organizations have faltered to understand this part which has led to massive data breaches that the world has ever witnessed. To name a couple, Yahoo suffered one of the largest data breaches in the cybersecurity history followed by Sony Corporation.

Since cyber threats are not illusions anymore, enterprises are not averse to new intel information that could save a major embarrassment. Here we list a few sources for real time cyber threat intelligence information that do not disrupt the balance sheets of businesses.

The federal government, in an attempt to make organizations share threat information with the government and other businesses, has set up a website for private companies — it is called Automated Threat Sharing. Typical threat indicators available are information such as malicious IP addresses or the sender address of phishing emails. The aim is to focus more on pernicious attacks.

The portal was launched with the aim to create a platform for public and private sector enterprises to share information to protect America’s critical infrastructure. The government classifies critical sectors into 16 categories that range from the defense industrial base to manufacturing to construction mega projects. Alongside, the website disseminates crucial information on cybercrimes and cyber fugitives.

This non-profit organization was founded back in 1998, and is based out of Geneva and London. Its primary aim is to track threats such as phishing, malware, and botnets. Spamhaus also releases special data for use with Internet firewall and routing equipment. In addition, it publishes DNS-based blocklists, although this isn’t its primary intention.

According to a Verizon’s report, 51 percent of the breaches involved some kind of a malware. The following sites provide detailed analysis of the leading malware infecting networks around the world: virustotal.com, malwr.com, and virusshare.com.