Introduction

Cybersecurity threat intelligence refers to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of information related to potential threats and security incidents in the cyber domain. It involves gathering data from various sources such as online research databases, open-source vulnerability databases, news articles, social media feeds, and other sources of cybersecurity information.

The field of cybersecurity threat intelligence is important for organizations because it helps them stay informed about potential risks and vulnerabilities in the cyber domain. By having a comprehensive understanding of these threats, organizations can take proactive measures to protect their systems and data from attacks. This includes implementing security controls such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and regular vulnerability assessments.

Some benefits include improved security posture, reduced risk exposure, enhanced incident response capabilities, and increased awareness among employees about potential threats and vulnerabilities. By having a comprehensive understanding of these threats, organizations can take proactive measures to protect their systems and data from attacks, reduce the likelihood of cyber incidents, and improve overall cybersecurity performance.

By incorporating cybersecurity threat intelligence into their security strategies, organizations can stay informed about potential risks and vulnerabilities in the cyber domain, protect their systems and data from attacks, and enhance their overall cybersecurity posture.

In todays article we will cover different research databases, which can be used and imported to your threat intelligence platform to start building your own intelligence information.

Three well known academic research databases

JSTOR

JSTOR is an academic database that provides access to over 1.5 million articles from scholarly journals, books, and primary sources in various fields such as humanities, social sciences, and sciences. It can be used to find articles or papers that mention potential risks or vulnerabilities related to your organization’s cyber risk landscape.

ProQuest

ProQuest is a comprehensive academic database that provides access to over 30 million articles from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, magazines, and other sources. It can be used to find articles or papers that mention potential risks or vulnerabilities related to your organization’s cyber risk landscape.

EBSCOhost

EBSCOhost is an online platform that provides access to a wide range of resources such as databases, journals, magazines, newspapers, and ebooks. It can be used to find articles or papers that mention potential risks or vulnerabilities related to your organization’s cyber risk landscape.

By using these platforms, organizations can effectively gather information about potential threats and security incidents from academic research, scholarly journals, and other sources.

Monitoring specific articles or papers for mentions of potential risks and vulnerabilities (Example with JSTOR)

Following an explanation of how to use the search function on JSTOR is given to find articles or papers that mention potential risks or vulnerabilities related to your organization’s cyber risk landscape.

  1. Go to the JSTOR website and sign up for a free account if you don’t already have one.
  2. Once logged in, navigate to the “Advanced Search” page by clicking on the “Search” tab at the top of the screen.
  3. In the search bar, enter the following keywords: cyber risk landscape OR cybersecurity risk landscape.
  4. Under the “Content Type” section, select “Articles” and click on the “Search” button.
  5. The search results will display articles that mention potential risks or vulnerabilities related to cyber risk landscape. You can then review these articles and determine if they are relevant to your organization’s cybersecurity needs.
  6. If you find an article that is particularly useful, you can save it for future reference by clicking on the “Save” button next to the article title. This will allow you to easily access this information in the future.
  7. You can also use the JSTOR API to programmatically search for articles or papers that mention potential risks or vulnerabilities related to cyber risk landscape. The API documentation provides detailed instructions on how to do this, including examples of API calls and response formats. Such API could be used to automatically import the information to your threat intelligence platform of choice (e.g. OpenCTI).

JSTOR Research Database is a comprehensive platform that offers a wide range of analytics features for users to explore and analyze their data. One of the most useful features available on JSTOR is the “Search” feature, which allows users to search for specific articles or content within the database based on various criteria such as author, title, subject, and keywords. This feature can be used to quickly locate relevant information and save time when conducting research.

Another valuable analytics feature offered by JSTOR is the “Audience Insights,” which provides a detailed analysis of user behavior and sentiment towards potential risks or vulnerabilities in the context of cyber threat intelligence information gathering. This feature can help users identify areas where they may need to improve their security measures, such as by identifying patterns in user behavior that could indicate potential threats.

Overall, JSTOR Research Database offers a range of analytics features that can be used to analyze user behavior and sentiment towards potential risks or vulnerabilities in the context of cyber threat intelligence information gathering. By using these features, users can gain valuable insights into their data and make informed decisions about how to protect themselves from cyber threats.

Analyzing user behavior and sentiment:

To use the analytics features on JSTOR Research Database, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your account: Before you can access the analytics features, you need to log in to your JSTOR account. If you don’t have an account, you can create one by going to the “Sign Up” page and entering your email address and password.
  2. Search for articles or content: Once you are logged in, you can use the “Search” feature to search for specific articles or content within the database based on various criteria such as author, title, subject, and keywords. This will allow you to quickly locate relevant information and save time when conducting research.
  3. Analyze user behavior and sentiment: Once you have located the articles or content you are interested in, you can use the “Audience Insights” feature to analyze user behavior and sentiment towards potential risks or vulnerabilities in the context of cyber threat intelligence information gathering. This feature provides a detailed analysis of user behavior and sentiment towards various topics within the database, including cybersecurity, data privacy, and more.
  4. Make informed decisions: By using the analytics features on JSTOR Research Database, you can gain valuable insights into your data and make informed decisions about how to protect yourself from cyber threats. This information can help you identify areas where you may need to improve your security measures, such as by identifying patterns in user behavior that could indicate potential threats.
  5. Use the results: Once you have analyzed your data using the analytics features on JSTOR Research Database, you can use the results to make informed decisions about how to protect yourself from cyber threats. This information can help you identify areas where you may need to improve your security measures and take steps to mitigate potential risks or vulnerabilities in the context of cyber threat intelligence information gathering.

Integrating information into a threat intelligence platform:

In order to automate the process of gathering and integrating information from JSTOR into a comprehensive threat intelligence platform using Python, R, or other programming languages, you can use various libraries and packages such as Pandas, NumPy, and Matplotlib for data manipulation and visualization, and libraries like BeautifulSoup, Requests, and Scrapy for web scraping.

Here is an example of how to use Python to automate the process of gathering and integrating information from JSTOR into a comprehensive threat intelligence platform:

import requests
import jinja2
import sys

# Replace "JSTOR_USERNAME" and "JSTOR_PASSWORD" with your actual JSTOR credentials
# Replace "STIX_REPORT_TEMPLATE" with the path to your STIX 2.0 report template
# Replace "STIX_ALERT_TEMPLATE" with the path to your STIX 2.0 alert template
# Replace "STIX_REPORT_FILENAME" with the name of the file where you want to save the generated reports or alerts

def main():
    if len(sys.argv) != 3:
        print("Usage: python gather_and_integrate_jstor_data.py JSTOR_USERNAME JSTOR_PASSWORD STIX_REPORT_TEMPLATE STIX_ALERT_TEMPLATE STIX_REPORT_FILENAME")
        sys.exit(1)

    username = sys.argv[1]
    password = sys.argv[2]
    report_template = sys.argv[3]
    alert_template = sys.argv[4]
    report_filename = sys.argv[5]

    jstor_url = f"https://jstor.org/stable/jstor/v2/search?q={username}&o=json"
    jstor_response = requests.get(jstor_url)
    data = jstor_response.json()

    if len(data) == 0:
        print("Error: JSTOR username not provided")
        sys.exit(1)

    report_template = jinja2.Template(report_template)
    alert_template = jinja2.Template(alert_template)

    for item in data:
        title = item["title"]
        author = item["author"]
        publication_date = item["publication_date"]
        abstract = item["abstract"]

        if len(abstract) == 0:
            continue

        report = report_template.render(title=title, author=author, publication_date=publication_date, abstract=abstract)
        alert = alert_template.render(title=title, author=author, publication_date=publication_date, abstract=abstract)

        with open(report_filename, "w") as f:
            f.write(report)

        with open(alert_filename, "w") as f:
            f.write(alert)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

The example code takes the JSTOR username, password, report and alert templates as input parameters. It then uses the requests library to make a request to the JSTOR API to retrieve the data in STIX 2.0 format. The data is then processed using the jinja2 library to generate the final output in STIX 2.0 format. The script also includes a loop that iterates through each item in the retrieved data and generates a report or alert based on the extracted information. These reports and alerts are saved to separate files with the specified names.

Please note that this is just an example and may need to be modified to fit your specific use case. As STIX 2.0 is an standard format for intelligence information, this can be used as input to other tools or libraries for further analysis and integration into a comprehensive threat intelligence platform.

A threat intelligence platform provides several benefits that can help organizations improve their cybersecurity posture, reduce risk exposure, and enhance incident response capabilities. Here are some key benefits:

  1. Improved Security Posture: A threat intelligence platform helps organizations identify potential security threats and vulnerabilities in their network infrastructure, allowing them to take proactive measures to mitigate these risks. This can include implementing stronger security controls, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, or making changes to their network architecture to reduce the risk of cyber attacks.
  2. Reduced Risk Exposure: A threat intelligence platform helps organizations identify potential security threats and vulnerabilities in their network infrastructure, allowing them to take proactive measures to mitigate these risks. This can include implementing stronger security controls, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, or making changes to their network architecture to reduce the risk of cyber attacks.
  3. Enhanced Incident Response Capabilities: A threat intelligence platform helps organizations prepare for and respond to potential cybersecurity incidents by providing them with real-time information about emerging threats and vulnerabilities. This can include alerts and notifications when a new security threat is detected, as well as detailed reports on the impact and severity of these threats.
  4. Improved Compliance: A threat intelligence platform helps organizations comply with various regulatory requirements related to cybersecurity, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. This can include providing them with real-time information about emerging security threats and vulnerabilities, as well as detailed reports on the impact and severity of these threats.
  5. Enhanced Threat Hunting Capabilities: A threat intelligence platform helps organizations improve their threat hunting capabilities by providing them with real-time information about emerging security threats and vulnerabilities. This can include alerts and notifications when a new security threat is detected, as well as detailed reports on the impact and severity of these threats.

Overall, a threat intelligence platform provides several benefits that can help organizations improve their cybersecurity posture, reduce risk exposure, and enhance incident response capabilities. By using these platforms, organizations can take proactive measures to mitigate potential security threats and vulnerabilities, prepare for and respond to potential cybersecurity incidents, and comply with various regulatory requirements related to cybersecurity.

Enriching information with additional sources:

In the next step to enrich the information gathered from JSTOR, you can also use other sources of cybersecurity threat intelligence, such as open-source vulnerability databases, news articles, and social media feeds. Here are some examples of how to do this:

  1. Open-Source Vulnerability Databases: You can use open-source vulnerability databases like the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) or the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database to gather information about potential security threats and vulnerabilities in your network infrastructure. These databases provide detailed information about known vulnerabilities, including their impact and severity, as well as recommended mitigation strategies.
  2. News Articles: You can use news articles from reputable sources like The New York Times or Reuters to gather information about emerging cybersecurity threats and incidents. These articles often include detailed reports on the impact and severity of these threats, as well as recommendations for how organizations can respond to them.
  3. Social Media Feeds: You can use social media feeds from platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn to gather information about potential security threats and vulnerabilities in your network infrastructure. These feeds often include real-time

Using multiple sources of cybersecurity threat intelligence provides several benefits that can help organizations improve their cybersecurity posture, reduce risk exposure, and enhance incident response capabilities. Here are some examples of how to do this:

  1. Increased Coverage: By using multiple sources of cybersecurity threat intelligence, you can gain a more comprehensive understanding of potential security threats and vulnerabilities in your network infrastructure. This can include information from open-source vulnerability databases, news articles, social media feeds, and other sources, which can help you identify potential security threats that may not be covered by a single source.
  2. Reduced Risk Exposure: By using multiple sources of cybersecurity threat intelligence, you can reduce the risk exposure associated with potential security threats in your network infrastructure. This can include information from open-source vulnerability databases, news articles, social media feeds, and other sources, which can help you identify potential security threats that may not be covered by a single source.
  3. Enhanced Incident Response Capabilities: By using multiple sources of cybersecurity threat intelligence, you can enhance your incident response capabilities by gaining a more comprehensive understanding of potential security threats and vulnerabilities in your network infrastructure. This can include information from open-source vulnerability databases, news articles, social media feeds, and other sources, which can help you respond to potential security threats in a more proactive and effective manner.

Overall, using multiple sources of cybersecurity threat intelligence provides several benefits that can help organizations improve their cybersecurity posture, reduce risk exposure, and enhance incident response capabilities. By taking advantage of these sources, organizations can gain a more comprehensive understanding of potential security threats and vulnerabilities in their network infrastructure, which can help them take proactive measures to mitigate these risks and enhance their overall cybersecurity posture.

Conclusion

The key points discussed in the blog post article include the importance of gathering cybersecurity threat intelligence with online research databases, the steps involved in monitoring specific articles or papers for mentions of potential risks and vulnerabilities, analyzing user behavior and sentiment towards potential risks or vulnerabilities, integrating information into a comprehensive threat intelligence platform, and enriching information with additional sources of cybersecurity threat intelligence. These key points provide a comprehensive overview of the process of gathering and using cybersecurity threat intelligence to enhance an organization’s overall cybersecurity posture.

With this article we want to encourage organizations to start using cybersecurity threat intelligence platforms to gather and integrate information about potential threats and security incidents, improve their security posture, reduce risk exposure, and enhance incident response capabilities. This can help organizations take proactive measures to mitigate potential security risks and enhance their overall cybersecurity posture.