Maintaining online security by staying ahead of threat actors is no longer a luxury. It is the standard by which security teams and their partners do business. Among the many tools they rely on is open-source intelligence (OSINT). OSINT tools are combined with specialized techniques to uncover hidden threat actors and stop them in their tracks.
For the record, OSINT is intelligence derived from publicly available sources. The dark web is an enormous resource in itself. The truth is that anyone with the right equipment and some basic knowledge can access the dark web as easily as your average consumer accesses the traditional internet. Everything found on the dark web is freely available to anyone who knows how to find it.
Access to Anonymous Networks
Uncovering hidden threat actors starts with the hunt. In other words, organizations like DarkOwl produce threat intelligence platforms capable of accessing encrypted networks like Tor and I2P. These are the networks on which threat actors operate. Encryption offers them a level of protection they simply cannot get with their traditional internet.
Once these anonymous networks are accessed, security teams can then look for suspicious or criminal activity. They can hunt for data breaches, ransomware operations, black market forums and message boards, and even illicit marketplaces.
Data Discovery and Correlation
Finding a hidden threat actor is good, but that knowledge alone might not be enough to stop the threat actor from doing what he does. So OSINT also relies on data discovery and correlation.
OSINT platforms gather tremendous amounts of information from as many sources as possible. The data is then analyzed and compared against other data sets to draw correlations. This is how security teams come to understand threat actor activities and tactics. It is how they are able to prepare for an emerging threat before it actually becomes visible.
Profiling Is Part of the Plan
OSINT tools are capable of profiling threat actors. Profiling is always part of the plan because it enhances data correlations. A typical profile includes usernames, IP addresses, known aliases, and other data points that make it possible to link certain threat actors to known activities.
Profiling also facilitates linking threat actors to known groups. All the links serve to create cybersecurity ecosystems. And like natural ecosystems, cybersecurity ecosystems have a structure that security teams can study and learn about for better security.
The ecosystem model helps security teams understand how individuals and groups go about their business. It shows links that might otherwise be unobservable. In short, ecosystems offer a level of understanding that is hard to achieve any other way.
Trends and Emerging Threats
Even as OSINT platforms hunt for threat actors and groups, they are also tracking trends. Doing so makes it easier to identify emerging threats at the earliest possible stages. Early recognition facilitates an early response and a stronger defense.
Trends and threats are observed through discussion monitoring, tracking transaction patterns, and paying attention to what known threat actors are doing in real time. Surprisingly, tracking trends and emerging threats in cybersecurity is very similar to tracking marketing trends. The best security teams can predict what is coming down the pike because the data points to specific threats.
The term ‘open source’ can conjure up thoughts of alternative software developed by volunteers and communities. But it can also apply to intelligence. In the cybersecurity world, the open-source concept is quite valuable. Thanks to OSINT tools, security teams can find hidden threat actors and identify their activities. Security teams can know their enemies and respond in more effective ways.
