CommunityDevOps ExchangePartners
Articles
5/24/2021
10 minutes

What is Cyber Threat Intelligence?

Written by
Copado Team
Table of contents

Fortunately, most people are not proponents or fans of armed conflict, especially on the nation-state level where the resulting destruction can be unimaginable. Yet, the wise among us realize that not being prepared to defend yourself, if necessary, can render you vulnerable to those with bad intentions. However, successfully battling harmful forces depends on much more than hardware. Perhaps the most important asset for success is intelligence. And this begins with fully understanding who and what threats you face. 

Granted, business is not war, in the sense that lives are not lost and property is not destroyed. However, the life of your business can be at stake if cyber threats are not understood and plans to thwart them are not in place. Therefore, it is imperative to have and utilize cyber threat intelligence to provide the level of data security required in today’s digital environment.

Understanding Cyber Threats

Whether you already are leveraging the advantages of cloud security or are building a digital transformation roadmap, it is incumbent upon you to be aware of the threats that you may face in cyberspace. The following questions need to be answered. 

What Are Cyber Threats?

The short answer to this question is that cyber threats are anything that can threaten the security of your data. This includes both external threats, where your data may be captured or compromised during transmission or reception with other systems, and internal threats, where stored data or secrets used to access data are breached. Types of cyber threats include:

  • Phishing
    Phishing is probably the most common and least sophisticated threat. Typically, the goal is to entice the voluntary disclosure of information or to convince the user to click on a link that will usually install a type of malware on the targeted user’s system. A more advanced form of this attack is called spear phishing, where information about the targeted victim is used to provide a more convincing inducement for clicking on a link.
  • Malware
    Malicious malware is also common. Actions can range from taking over a computer’s function to crashing the machine or even erasing important files. Common types of malware include:
  • Trojans
    Just as in the breaching of Troy via the supposed gift of a horse, trojans are intended to appear benign, but actually hide harmful code.
  • Ransomware
    As the name implies, ransomware involves encrypting data so you can’t use it and then extorting some sort of payment to obtain the decryption key. 
  • Data breaches
    Data breaches are the accessing of protected information by unauthorized sources. For businesses, the objective may be to simply embarrass the organization or to obtain proprietary information such as research, financial records, client and/or customer information, or other personally identifiable information (PII).  
  • Denial of Service (DoS) attack
    DoS and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks include crashing websites and thus blocking an organization from providing service to its customers. 

​The list is not all-inclusive; for example, IoT devices, mobile phones, and even PCBAs can be targeted. Yet, the list does include the most important cyber threats to know. It is also worth considering where these threats come from. 

Understanding Cyber Threats | Copado

What Are the Sources of Cyber Threats?

In addition to knowing what threats are out there, it is also necessary to know from where these cyber threats may be launched. Common sources that may target your enterprise may include one or more of the following:

  • Individuals
    Disgruntled or unhappy employees, individual hackers, or crackers may seek to steal information or simply wreak havoc.
  • Organized groups
    Depending upon your business sector, threats may come from crime organizations or even terrorists.
  • Industry competitors
    One of the most often overlooked sources of cyber threat are business competitors or industrial spies. Both national and international entities may target your data, especially R & D or other product information.
  • Nation state actors
    If you think nation state actors only attack other governments, you would be wrong. An example that has gained a large amount of attention is the accessing and dissemination of privileged information from the computers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2016. 

What Assets Do Cyber Threats Target?

The answer to this question is the same as for “What do thieves steal?” Simply put, anything that is thought to have value. For example, banking threats are most often focused on gaining access to account information, while for defense contractors, design, testing, and prototype data would be highly prized. Fortunately, just as cyber threats and sources continue to evolve, so do mechanisms to thwart them.

How to Use Cyber Threat Intelligence to Secure Your Data

With so many threats and sources, cyberspace can indeed seem like a mined field. However, by utilizing cyber threat intelligence, as defined below, victory over the enemies to your data security can be achieved.   

Cyber threat intelligence is knowledge about the types of threats that may have an interest in targeting your data and systems, the likely sources for these threats, and their objectives. This intelligence is critical to the development of an effective data security strategy.

Cyber threat intelligence is knowledge about the types of threats that may have an interest in targeting your data and systems, the likely sources for these threats, and their objectives. This intelligence is critical to the development of an effective data security strategy.

 

Contact us to learn how Copado can help you mitigate security risks.

Book a demo

About The Author

#1 DevOps Platform for Salesforce

We Build Unstoppable Teams By Equipping DevOps Professionals With The Platform, Tools And Training They Need To Make Release Days Obsolete. Work Smarter, Not Longer.

Copado Launches Copado Explorer to Simplify and Streamline Testing on Salesforce
Exploring Top Cloud Automation Testing Tools
Master Salesforce DevOps with Copado Robotic Testing
Exploratory Testing vs. Automated Testing: Finding the Right Balance
A Guide to Salesforce Source Control
A Guide to DevOps Branching Strategies
Family Time vs. Mobile App Release Days: Can Test Automation Help Us Have Both?
How to Resolve Salesforce Merge Conflicts: A Guide
Copado Expands Beta Access to CopadoGPT for All Customers, Revolutionizing SaaS DevOps with AI
Is Mobile Test Automation Unnecessarily Hard? A Guide to Simplify Mobile Test Automation
From Silos to Streamlined Development: Tarun’s Tale of DevOps Success
Simplified Scaling: 10 Ways to Grow Your Salesforce Development Practice
What is Salesforce Incident Management?
What Is Automated Salesforce Testing? Choosing the Right Automation Tool for Salesforce
Copado Appoints Seasoned Sales Executive Bob Grewal to Chief Revenue Officer
Business Benefits of DevOps: A Guide
Copado Brings Generative AI to Its DevOps Platform to Improve Software Development for Enterprise SaaS
Celebrating 10 Years of Copado: A Decade of DevOps Evolution and Growth
Copado Celebrates 10 Years of DevOps for Enterprise SaaS Solutions
5 Reasons Why Copado = Less Divorces for Developers
What is DevOps? Build a Successful DevOps Ecosystem with Copado’s Best Practices
Scaling App Development While Meeting Security Standards
5 Data Deploy Features You Don’t Want to Miss
Top 5 Reasons I Choose Copado for Salesforce Development
How to Elevate Customer Experiences with Automated Testing
Getting Started With Value Stream Maps
Copado and nCino Partner to Provide Proven DevOps Tools for Financial Institutions
Unlocking Success with Copado: Mission-Critical Tools for Developers
How Automated Testing Enables DevOps Efficiency
How to Keep Salesforce Sandboxes in Sync
How to Switch from Manual to Automated Testing with Robotic Testing
Best Practices to Prevent Merge Conflicts with Copado 1 Platform
Software Bugs: The Three Causes of Programming Errors
How Does Copado Solve Release Readiness Roadblocks?
Why I Choose Copado Robotic Testing for my Test Automation
How to schedule a Function and Job Template in DevOps: A Step-by-Step Guide
Delivering Quality nCino Experiences with Automated Deployments and Testing
Best Practices Matter for Accelerated Salesforce Release Management
Maximize Your Code Quality, Security and performance with Copado Salesforce Code Analyzer
Upgrade Your Test Automation Game: The Benefits of Switching from Selenium to a More Advanced Platform
Three Takeaways From Copa Community Day
Cloud Native Applications: 5 Characteristics to Look for in the Right Tools
Using Salesforce nCino Architecture for Best Testing Results
How To Develop A Salesforce Testing Strategy For Your Enterprise
What Is Multi Cloud: Key Use Cases and Benefits for Enterprise Settings
5 Steps to Building a Salesforce Center of Excellence for Government Agencies
Salesforce UI testing: Benefits to Staying on Top of Updates
Benefits of UI Test Automation and Why You Should Care
Types of Salesforce Testing and When To Use Them
Copado + DataColada: Enabling CI/CD for Developers Across APAC
What is Salesforce API Testing and It Why Should Be Automated
Machine Learning Models: Adapting Data Patterns With Copado For AI Test Automation
Automated Testing Benefits: The Case For As Little Manual Testing As Possible
Beyond Selenium: Low Code Testing To Maximize Speed and Quality
UI Testing Best Practices: From Implementation to Automation
How Agile Test Automation Helps You Develop Better and Faster
Salesforce Test Cases: Knowing When to Test
DevOps Quality Assurance: Major Pitfalls and Challenges
11 Characteristics of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) That Set Them Apart
7 Key Compliance Regulations Relating to Data Storage
7 Ways Digital Transformation Consulting Revolutionizes Your Business
6 Top Cloud Security Trends
API Management Best Practices
Applying a Zero Trust Infrastructure in Kubernetes
Building a Data Pipeline Architecture Based on Best Practices Brings the Biggest Rewards
CI/CD Methodology vs. CI/CD Mentality: How to Meet Your Workflow Goals
DevOps to DevSecOps: How to Build Security into the Development Lifecycle
DevSecOps vs Agile: It’s Not Either/Or
How to Create a Digital Transformation Roadmap to Success
Infrastructure As Code: Overcome the Barriers to Effective Network Automation
Leveraging Compliance Automation Tools to Mitigate Risk
Moving Forward with These CI/CD Best Practices
Top 3 Data Compliance Challenges of Tomorrow and the Solutions You Need Today
Top 6 Cloud Security Management Policies and Procedures to Protect Your Business
What are the Benefits of Principle of Least Privilege (POLP) for My Organization?
You Can’t Measure What You Can’t See: Getting to know the 4 Metrics of Software Delivery Performance
How the Public Sector Can Continue to Accelerate Modernization
Building an Automated Test Framework to Streamline Deployments
How To Implement a Compliance Testing Methodology To Exceed Your Objectives
Cloud Security: Advantages and Disadvantages to Accessibility
Copado Collaborates with IBM to Accelerate Digital Transformation Projects on the Salesforce Platform
Continuous Quality: The missing link to DevOps maturity
Why Empowering Your Salesforce CoE is Essential for Maximizing ROI
Value Stream Management: The Future of DevOps at Scale is Here
Is Salesforce Development ‘One Size Fits All?’
The 3 Pillars of DevOps Value Stream Management
Gartner Recommends Companies Adopt Value Stream Delivery Platforms To Scale DevOps
The Admin's Quick Glossary for Understanding Salesforce DevOps
Top 10 Copado Features for #AwesomeAdmins
10 Secrets Management Tools to Facilitate Stronger Security Practices
5 Cloud Security Compliance Basics to Prevent Data Breaches
5 Data Security Management Fundamentals
Cloud Agnostic vs Cloud Native: Developing a Hybrid Approach
Making DIE Model Security vs. the CIA Security Triad Complementary, Not Competitive
The CI/CD Pipeline: Why Testing Is Required at Every Stage
DevSecOps Roadmap: From Architecture to Automation
Pets vs. Cattle: More Than an Analogy for Modern Infrastructures
Data Compliance Solutions Provide Greater Control Over Enterprise Data
Copado Cares: Free Training, Collaboration and Product Access for Global Response to COVID-19
12 Types of Social Engineering Attacks to Look Out For
Go back to resources
There is no previous posts
Go back to resources
There is no next posts
Ready to Transform Your Software Delivery Process?

Explore more about

Security & Governance
Simplified Scaling: 10 Ways to Grow Your Salesforce Development Practice
Articles
10/5/2023
Simplified Scaling: 10 Ways to Grow Your Salesforce Development Practice
Why Empowering Your Salesforce CoE is Essential for Maximizing ROI
Articles
9/15/2023
Why Empowering Your Salesforce CoE is Essential for Maximizing ROI
Continuous Quality: The missing link to DevOps maturity
Articles
10/5/2023
Continuous Quality: The missing link to DevOps maturity
Data Security for Banks: Standards for Success
Articles
10/5/2023
Data Security for Banks: Standards for Success