📘CCNP security (350-701)
1. What Is Security Intelligence?
Security intelligence is information about threats and attacks that helps security systems detect, prevent, and respond to cyber threats.
It answers questions such as:
- What type of attack is happening?
- Where did it come from?
- Is it known to be malicious?
- How dangerous is it?
- How should systems respond?
Security intelligence is used by:
- Firewalls
- Intrusion detection systems (IDS/IPS)
- Endpoint protection tools
- SIEM platforms
- Email and web security systems
2. Why Security Intelligence Is Important
Security intelligence allows organizations to:
- Detect attacks early
- Block known malicious activity
- Respond faster and accurately
- Reduce false alerts
- Share threat knowledge across teams and tools
Without security intelligence:
- Security tools work blindly
- Attacks are harder to detect
- Response is slow and reactive
3. The Security Intelligence Lifecycle
Security intelligence works in three main stages:
- Authoring – Creating intelligence
- Sharing – Distributing intelligence
- Consumption – Using intelligence
This lifecycle is continuous.
4. Security Intelligence Authoring
4.1 What Is Authoring?
Authoring means creating security intelligence from data.
It involves:
- Collecting security data
- Analyzing that data
- Turning it into usable threat information
4.2 Sources Used for Authoring
Security intelligence is authored using data from:
- Network logs
- Firewall logs
- IDS/IPS alerts
- Endpoint security alerts
- Malware analysis results
- SIEM correlation results
- Threat research teams
- Incident response investigations
4.3 Types of Intelligence Created
Authoring produces different types of intelligence:
a. Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)
- Malicious IP addresses
- Malicious domains
- File hashes
- URLs
- Email sender addresses
b. Behavioral Indicators
- Unusual login patterns
- Abnormal traffic flows
- Suspicious file execution behavior
c. Threat Signatures
- IDS/IPS signatures
- Malware detection patterns
- Exploit detection rules
d. Contextual Intelligence
- Threat severity
- Confidence score
- Attack type
- Known threat actor association
4.4 Manual vs Automated Authoring
Manual Authoring
- Done by security analysts
- Uses investigation and research
- High accuracy but slower
Automated Authoring
- Done by security tools
- Uses analytics and machine learning
- Faster but may need validation
Most environments use both.
5. Security Intelligence Sharing
5.1 What Is Sharing?
Sharing means distributing security intelligence so other systems or organizations can use it.
Sharing improves:
- Visibility
- Coordination
- Defense across multiple systems
5.2 Why Sharing Is Important
- Threats spread quickly
- One system’s detection can protect others
- Reduces duplicated analysis
- Enables coordinated defense
5.3 Internal vs External Sharing
Internal Sharing
Within the same organization:
- Firewall to SIEM
- SIEM to endpoint protection
- SOC tools sharing IOCs
External Sharing
Between organizations:
- Vendors
- Industry groups
- Trusted partners
- Threat intelligence providers
5.4 Sharing Formats and Standards (Exam Important)
Security intelligence is shared using standard formats:
a. STIX (Structured Threat Information Expression)
- Standard format for threat data
- Describes IOCs, threats, relationships
- Machine-readable
b. TAXII (Trusted Automated Exchange of Intelligence Information)
- Transport mechanism
- Used to share STIX data
- Supports automated sharing
STIX = data format
TAXII = data transport
5.5 Cisco Intelligence Sharing Examples
Cisco security solutions share intelligence through:
- Cisco Talos
- SecureX
- Cisco firewalls and endpoints
- Cloud-based intelligence feeds
6. Security Intelligence Consumption
6.1 What Is Consumption?
Consumption is the process of using security intelligence to take action.
Security tools consume intelligence to:
- Detect threats
- Block malicious activity
- Generate alerts
- Trigger responses
6.2 Systems That Consume Intelligence
Security intelligence is consumed by:
- Firewalls (block IPs/domains)
- IDS/IPS (detect exploits)
- Endpoint security (detect malware)
- Email security (block phishing)
- SIEM (correlate alerts)
- SOAR platforms (automate response)
6.3 How Intelligence Is Used
Security intelligence enables:
a. Detection
- Identifying known threats
- Matching IOCs
b. Prevention
- Blocking traffic
- Quarantining files
- Denying access
c. Response
- Creating alerts
- Triggering automated actions
- Supporting incident response
6.4 Real-Time vs Historical Consumption
Real-Time
- Blocking active threats
- Immediate alerting
Historical
- Threat hunting
- Incident investigation
- Forensics analysis
7. Integration with Security Operations
Security intelligence is tightly integrated with:
SOC (Security Operations Center)
- Analysts review intelligence
- Prioritize incidents
- Improve detection rules
SIEM
- Correlates intelligence with logs
- Reduces false positives
SOAR
- Automates actions based on intelligence
- Enforces consistent response
8. Challenges in Security Intelligence
Understanding challenges helps for exam questions.
Common Challenges:
- False positives
- Low-quality intelligence
- Lack of context
- Too much data
- Poor integration
- Delayed sharing
9. Best Practices (Exam Focus)
Cisco expects understanding of best practices:
- Use trusted intelligence sources
- Automate sharing and consumption
- Add context to intelligence
- Regularly update intelligence feeds
- Correlate intelligence with internal data
- Validate intelligence before blocking critical systems
10. Key Exam Summary (Must Remember)
For the SCOR 350-701 exam, remember:
- Security intelligence = threat information used to detect and respond
- Authoring = creating intelligence from security data
- Sharing = distributing intelligence internally and externally
- Consumption = using intelligence in security tools
- STIX = threat data format
- TAXII = sharing mechanism
- Intelligence improves detection, prevention, and response
- Used by firewalls, endpoints, SIEM, SOAR, and SOC teams
11. One-Line Memory Aid
Author → Share → Consume → Detect → Respond → Improve
