Open-source intelligence (OSINT) has proved its worth as a cybersecurity intelligence in recent years. Organizations around the globe are now using it. But to what extent? Like everything else in cybersecurity, OSINT tools can do a lot more than what so many organizations are currently achieving with them.
OSINT tools can play a vital role in identifying threat actors and responding to them before they do extensive damage. But to unlock OSINT’s potential in this particular area, a security team needs the deepest possible understanding of OSINT itself.
OSINT: The Basics
OSINT is a cybersecurity strategy built on two key principles: threat intelligence and open source (publicly available) data. The threat intelligence portion is easy enough to understand. Organizations go in search of any and all information pointing to a potential attack. They also search for information about the attackers themselves. It is very much like military or law enforcement intelligence.
As for the sources of their information, security teams have both proprietary and open-source options. Proprietary data can be considerably more exhaustive and targeted. Open-source data – data gleaned from publicly available sources – is less exhaustive by nature. Its advantage is its ability to offer real-time insights.
OSINT + Threat Actor Profiling
OSINT tools do a very good job of helping security teams gain early visibility into potential threats. But what happens when teams combine OSINT with threat actor profiling? Great things.
Utilizing OSINT tools to build threat actor profiles adds yet another component that helps security teams strategize more proactively. Threat actor profiling helps security teams understand their adversaries inside and out. And when you know your enemy, you can be more proactive in defeating him.
How It All Works
Unlocking OSINT’s full potential for identifying and responding to threat actors is not just theoretical. It plays out in very practical ways. Here is a summary of how it all works, complements of DarkOwl:
1. Ongoing Monitoring
Taking advantage of OSINT’s real-time nature requires ongoing monitoring. By monitoring domains, IP addresses, leaked credentials, and dark web activity linked to known threat actors, organizations can better understand who might target them and how. Monitoring essentially creates links that tell security teams what threat actors might be up to.
2. Broader Visibility
Combining OSINT tools with threat actor profiling offers broader visibility that goes beyond the limits of internal data. OSINT investigations are able to uncover threats and vulnerabilities from external sources by linking activity to known adversaries. Broader visibility into ransomware forms, hacker communications, etc. gives security teams leverage they would otherwise not have.
3. Earlier Warning
Ongoing monitoring and broader visibility lead to earlier warnings of potential attacks. Data informs security teams about phishing attempts, social engineering, and a variety of other attack patterns before they can do significant damage.
4. Threat Actor Mapping
Threat actor mapping pulls it all together. Security teams leverage frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK to map threat actor behaviors and infrastructures. Known and discovered indicators of compromise are linked back to known adversaries and groups to build a bigger and more comprehensive profile.
It all boils down to the simple fact that threat actors leave their own digital trails on forums, marketplaces, and other online destinations. OSINT takes advantage of that. With the right OSINT tools and a comprehensive strategy for building threat actor profiles, new threat actors can be identified and linked to suspect behaviors.
The end result is a security team that knows its adversaries more thoroughly. As a result, the team becomes better at defending themselves against any threats that they are aware of and anticipate.
