There are two parts to proactive cybersecurity: knowing who is coming and anticipating what they plan to do when they arrive. Threat actor profiles address the ‘who’. The MITRE ATT&CK addresses the ‘what’. When combined, they create a powerful and imposing resistance against threat actors as well as their extensive list of attacks.
MITRE ATT&CK is a cybersecurity framework of sorts. It is also a knowledge base of adversarial tactics and techniques built from real-world observations. The MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base provides a foundation for developing specific threaten models and strategies across both public and private sector entities.
As for the threat actor profile, DarkOwl describes it as a cybersecurity dossier of sorts. It details individuals and groups already identified as cybersecurity threats. It describes who they are, what they do, and how they go about doing it. So by combining profiling with the MITRE ATT&CK dataset, cybersecurity teams can get a more thorough understanding of what they are up against on a daily basis.
The Periodic Table of Hacking
The MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base is often compared to chemistry’s periodic table. That table is set up with columns and rows, just like a spreadsheet. In the columns of the MITRE ATT&CK dataset are the tactics, or goals, threat actors have when launching attacks. One actor’s goal might be breaching a network while another might be targeting specific files he wants to either steal or lock down via encryption.
In the dataset’s rows are the techniques, or specific methods, through which threat actors achieve their goals. Social engineering is one of the most effective techniques threat actors use to gain authorized entry to a network.
One of the more interesting aspects of the MITRE ATT&CK is the MITRE language. It is a common language spoken by security experts the world over. It simplifies things. For example, the MITRE dataset might assign a specific ID number to a known strategy for hiding threat actor digital footprints. Any threat actor utilizing that strategy, regardless of physical location, would be identified partially through that ID number.
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How Dark Web Intelligence Contributes
The MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base would not exist if not for dark web intelligence. Combining the two is where the real magic happens. Think of it in terms of sports analogies. The dark web is the team clubhouse. It’s where players meet to talk shop. It is where coaches meet to devise strategies and game plans. If security experts can get inside that clubhouse, they can learn a lot of helpful things.
Meanwhile, the MITRE ATT&CK is like game film. Coaches repeatedly review every game their future opponent played this season to analyze them. What is learned from a MITRE ATT&CK analysis informs dark web intelligence and vice versa.
Dark web intelligence arguably benefits MITRE ATT&CK analysis more than the other way around. MITRE ATT&CK data is observational data harvested from real-world scenarios. But dark web intelligence is direct source data coming from the very threat actors that security teams are trying to stop.
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Why It All Matters
All of this matters to security experts whose number one priority is protecting networks and data. But it matters to CEOs and company owners, to. Why? Because a comprehensive understanding of threat actors and what they are known to do gives upper management and opportunity to shift the organization away from general defense and toward intelligence-led defense instead.
Intelligence-led defense is proactive defense. It is a better way to protect infrastructure, data, software, and identities. It is powered by dark web intelligence and MITRE ATT&CK data.
