IT Security Champion: Cyber Threat Intel and Emerging Threats

This module introduces cyber threat intelligence (CTI) from the perspective of an IT administrator who is stepping into the role of an "IT security champion" — someone who is not a full-time security analyst, but who nonetheless has direct influence over the systems, logs, and controls that make threat intelligence actionable. It covers what threat intelligence is, why it matters to the business, the different levels at which intelligence operates, how that intelligence is gathered, how incident response phases work, the structure of the cyber kill chain, the MITRE ATT&CK framework and its supporting standards (TAXII and STIX), a hands-on look at the MITRE ATT&CK Navigator tool, and a set of good cyber hygiene practices that reinforce everything else in the module.

Threat intelligence, or "threat intel," is a collection of data that provides insight into threats and helps an organization defend, detect, and respond to attacks. It is not raw data by itself — it is data that has been processed and given context so that it becomes usable.

In short, good threat intelligence keeps the company operating and keeps attackers — and unauthorized eyes — out of the organization's data.