Webroot report highlights importance of threat intelligence

You can’t defend against every possible scenario, and you can’t defend yourself effectively if you don’t understand who the enemy is or what tools and tactics the enemy is likely to employ. Threat intelligence is critical for effective security because it enables you to allocate and deploy limited resources for maximum effectiveness.

I wrote a blog post about a study from Webroot and Ponemon on the importance of threat intelligence:

It’s impossible to defend against every possible exploit and threat vector. Businesses have to allocate limited resources to provide the best possible defense against the most probable threats. That requires threat intelligence. A new report titledImportance of Cyber Threat Intelligence to a Strong Security Posture illustrates how crucial threat intelligence is for effective security.

A Webroot blog post about the study shares the key findings from the survey:

* 40% of companies surveyed had a material security breach in the past 24 months, and 80% believe if they’d had threat intelligence at the time of the breach, they could have prevented or minimized the consequences of the attack

* Current cyber defense practices are not considered effective; only 36% of respondents rate their company’s defense as strong

* Almost half of respondents are increasing the amount of intelligence data they receive to prevent or mitigate the consequences of an attack

* 56% say intelligence becomes stale within seconds or minutes, and indicate that the more valuable features of a threat intelligence solution are the ability to implement intelligence and gauge the trustworthiness of the source in real time

* 49% use “fee-based” sources of intelligence, stating free sources are inadequate for comprehensive threat analysis, making it more difficult to prioritize threats

“Businesses are struggling to identify and stop new Web threats because they must assess the risk of more unknown objects than before and the rate of change across the threat landscape is faster than their traditional security technologies can keep up with,” said Patrick Kennedy, vice president of enterprise marketing at Webroot. “The study highlights the need for highly accurate and timely threat intelligence to help organizations assess the risk of incoming data, reduce the volume of security incidents, and accelerate response to successful attacks.”

You can read the full post on CSOOnline.com: Cyber threat intelligence is crucial for effective defense.