In today’s fast-paced cybersecurity environment, the ability to quickly and effectively manage threat intelligence and incident response is critical. The solution? A seamless integration of human expertise with cutting-edge automation. Standardizing how intelligence and incidents are handled by merging human processes with automated workflows is necessary.

In the high-stakes world of cybersecurity, organizations must ensure that their teams not only protect the organization but also stay motivated and productive. One of the most insidious threats to achieving this goal is alert fatigue. When analysts are bombarded with thousands of security alerts daily, they risk becoming overwhelmed and disillusioned in their roles.

On November 19, 2024, Palo Alto Networks disclosed two critical vulnerabilities in its PAN-OS software, CVE-2024-0012 an Authentication Bypas, and CVE-2024-9474 a Privilege Escalation. These vulnerabilities enable attackers to gain unauthorized administrative access and escalate privileges to root level. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities, observed in the wild, has been attributed to a targeted campaign dubbed Operation Lunar Peek.

The first segment of this series highlighted anomaly detection and behavioral analytics for an early warning system regarding suspicious activities. But it is very important for mature adversaries for security teams to have tools in an arsenal to maintain the front-foot position.

Maintaining robust cybersecurity defenses comes with significant costs, but one area that often exceeds is the ongoing administration of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems. The expenses associated with logging, storing, and managing SIEM data can escalate rapidly, especially when compounded by compliance and regulatory requirements. What are these hidden costs and how can you mitigate them while also ensuring compliance?

Threat intelligence is the process of gathering, analysing, and applying information about current and potential cyber threats to help organisations protect themselves proactively. It involves monitoring threat actors, attack patterns, vulnerabilities, and global cyber activity to provide actionable insights. Unlike traditional reactive approaches to cyber security, threat intelligence enables businesses to anticipate threats and tailor their defences accordingly.