Cyber threat intelligence (CTI): Definition, types, lifecycle

Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI)

As organisations increasingly rely on technology, the need for advanced protection strategies has become critical. Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is at the forefront of these defences, providing valuable insights into emerging threats, malicious actors and system vulnerabilities. By harnessing CTI, companies can anticipate, understand and proactively counter cyber risks to protect their data and assets from potential compromise.

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What is cyber threat intelligence (CTI)?

Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) identifies, analyses and evaluates potentially malicious threats and files. CTI does not directly block or remediate attacks; rather, it informs and enriches security controls, such as SIEM, SOAR, EDR and firewalls, through standards and frameworks like STIX/TAXII or the Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS) program. CTI helps organisations prepare for and prevent cyber attacks by providing information about attackers, motivations and capabilities.

There are several use cases for cyber threat intelligence, including automated malware analysis, patch prioritisation and incident response.

Cyber threat intelligence is not a solution but a crucial security architecture component. It can help organisations:

Be proactive: CTI helps organisations be proactive and predictive instead of reacting to cyber attacks.

Make informed decisions: CTI provides context about threats, such as who attacks, their capabilities, and what indicators of compromise (IOCs) to look for.

Prevent and contain attacks: CTI can help security professionals prevent and contain attacks faster.

Insights into adversary behaviours and patterns help organisations tailor their defences and proactively reduce the risk of future attacks. By shedding light on the unknown, cyber threat intelligence enables security teams to make more informed decisions.

It helps reveal adversarial motives, tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) – often structured using the MITRE ATT&CK framework – to better understand stakeholders' decision-making processes. Additionally, CTI empowers stakeholders to invest wisely, mitigate risk and become more efficient.

By investing in cyber threat intelligence, businesses can access extensive threat databases that can exponentially improve the efficacy of their defences.

Types of cyber threat intelligence

There are four main types of CTI: technical, tactical, operational and strategic.

Technical threat intelligence

Technical threat intelligence identifies short-lived indicators of compromise (IOCs) such as malicious IP addresses, file hashes, URLs and domains. These indicators are highly time-sensitive and are typically integrated into defensive systems to improve detection and blocking capabilities.

Technical intelligence is often aggregated from a mix of commercial, community and open-source (OSINT) feeds, curated through threat intelligence platforms (TIPs) that share data using standards such as STIX/TAXII.

This form of intelligence supports the rapid identification of threats and is commonly used in automated detection and response workflows.

Tactical threat intelligence

Tactical threat intelligence focuses on adversary tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) – the methods attackers use to achieve their objectives. It helps analysts and defenders understand how adversaries operate and how to detect or disrupt them.

Tactical intelligence is often mapped to frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK, helping incident response and threat-hunting teams develop more accurate detections and defence strategies.

This type of intelligence bridges the gap between technical indicators and broader operational context, guiding defensive playbooks and control improvements.

Operational threat intelligence

Operational threat intelligence provides insight into specific threat campaigns, actor capabilities, intent and timing. It focuses on how, when and why an organisation might be targeted and is often derived from incident reports, dark web monitoring or intrusion analysis.

Unlike short-lived technical data, operational intelligence has a longer useful life because adversaries cannot easily change their broader tactics or objectives.

CISOs, CIOs and other information security decision-makers use operational threat intelligence to identify threat actors who are likely to attack their organisations and respond with security controls and other actions to thwart their attacks.

Strategic threat intelligence

Strategic intelligence focuses on understanding high-level trends and adversarial motives and uses that information to engage in strategic security and business decision-making. It gives decision-makers outside of IT, such as CEOs and other executives, an understanding of their organisations' cyber threats.

This form of intelligence supports strategic decision-making and resource allocation, helping stakeholders align organisational risk management and investment with current and emerging threats.

Strategic intelligence is the most challenging type to produce and typically takes the form of analyst-driven reports or briefings that require deep cybersecurity expertise and awareness of geopolitical dynamics.

Cyber threat intelligence lifecycle

The intelligence lifecycle transforms raw data into finished intelligence for decision-making and action. The goal is to guide a cybersecurity team through the development and execution of an effective threat intelligence program.

The CTI process generally involves:

Data collection: Gathering raw data from various sources, such as internal logs, commercial threat feeds, open-source intelligence (OSINT) and community sharing platforms.

Data processing: Filtering, correlating and analysing the raw data to create actionable intelligence.

Data dissemination: Sharing the actionable intelligence in formats appropriate for technical and business audiences.

There are six steps to the cyber threat intelligence framework:

1. Requirements: This stage sets the roadmap for a specific threat intelligence operation. During this stage, teams will agree on their intelligence program's objectives, goals and methodology based on the stakeholders' needs.

2. Collection: Once the requirements are defined, the teams collect the information to meet their objectives.

3. Processing: After collecting the data, the teams process it into a format suitable for analysis. This can entail creating spreadsheets, decrypting files, translating and evaluating data for relevance and reliability.

4. Analysis: Once the dataset has been processed, the team must thoroughly analyse it to answer questions posed in the requirements phase. The team also deciphers the dataset into action items and recommendations for stakeholders.

5. Dissemination: In this phase, the team translates their analysis into a digestible format and presents the results to stakeholders.

6. Feedback: Stakeholders review the delivered intelligence, provide input on its relevance, accuracy and usefulness, and refine future intelligence requirements.

Benefits of cyber threat intelligence

CTI can help organisations in many ways, including:

Improving defence: CTI can help organisations identify the tactics and motivations of attackers, which can help them anticipate future attacks. This information can help organisations develop defence strategies to reduce the likelihood and impact of attacks.

Faster response: Cyber threat intelligence can help organisations detect and respond to cyber attacks more quickly, reducing the risk of damage to their information assets.

Avoiding data breaches: CTI can help organisations reduce the likelihood of data breaches by identifying and monitoring suspicious IP addresses and domains attempting to communicate with their systems.

Improving incident response: Cyber threat intelligence can help organisations respond to security incidents more quickly and efficiently, which can help minimise damage and restore business operations.

Collaborative knowledge: CTI enables information-sharing through industry groups such as ISACs and ISAOs, as well as government programs like CISA AIS, helping organisations exchange threat insights and improve defensive coordination.

Cost-effective: Cyber threat intelligence can be a cost-effective way to protect against financial and reputational damages.

Technologies used for cyber threat intelligence

AI and machine learning (ML) play crucial roles in modern cyber threat intelligence. They automate the detection, analysis and response to emerging cyber threats. These technologies accelerate the analysis of massive amounts of data and identify anomalies that could indicate malicious activities, such as unusual login patterns or unauthorised access attempts.

ML algorithms enable predictive modelling by examining historical threat data to anticipate future attack patterns, helping organisations stay one step ahead of adversaries.

Additionally, AI-driven behavioural analysis and user monitoring establish ‘normal' activity baselines, flagging deviations that suggest insider threats or account compromises.

Through natural language processing (NLP), AI can scan unstructured sources—such as dark web forums, news feeds and social media—to gather intelligence on emerging threats and attacker tactics.

These capabilities allow organisations to scale defences, reduce false positives and respond quickly to threats.

As cyber risks continue to rise, leveraging cyber threat intelligence could be the key to safeguarding your organisation’s future. CTI empowers enterprises to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals by offering real-time insights into evolving threats and helping to shape an adaptive, intelligence-driven security posture. Investing in cybersecurity consulting strengthens resilience and enhances the ability to respond effectively to potential attacks.