VIDEO
To build better threat models and integrate high-quality CTI, the industry must adopt a more holistic perspective. Security practitioners need more than conceptual frameworks. They require actionable insights that support their daily decision-making. Generating this kind of practitioner-oriented content is critical because it’s these front-line defenders who translate intelligence into real-world defense strategies.
The Value of Threat Intelligence: Distinguishing Attackers from Adversaries
To maximize the effectiveness of CTI, organizations must embrace a nuanced perspective—one that distinguishes between attackers and adversaries.
Attackers are action-takers: they send phishing emails, exploit vulnerabilities, and execute the immediate steps we encounter in day-to-day operations. Adversaries, on the other hand, are the strategists. They operate with clear goals, evolving capabilities, and long-term plans. Attackers generate noise, while adversaries are the signal. They are the true drivers behind the threats.
Shifting focus from attackers to adversaries enhances the value of CTI by enabling a deeper understanding of the “why” behind these actions. This perspective informs the design of stronger threat models, which help organizations connect the dots and see the bigger picture. By emphasizing adversary behavior—motivations, strategies, and capabilities—security teams can align their threat intelligence efforts to better anticipate risks and defend critical assets.
As intelligence analyst Richards J. Heuer Jr. highlighted, “Analysts should be self-conscious about their reasoning process… not just about the judgments and conclusions themselves.” This shift in mindset not only strengthens threat modeling but also enhances an organization’s ability to communicate the importance of CTI internally, ensuring its relevance and impact.
A key best practice in government threat modeling is understanding the relationships between different threat components.
The Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis
The Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis is a foundational framework for understanding cyber threats, connecting four key components:
Adversary (the attacker behind the operation),Capability (tools like malware or exploits),Infrastructure (platforms such as C2 servers), andVictim (the target).
These components form a diamond shape, with edges representing the relationships between them. The model uses a victim-centered approach , allowing analysts to map the lifecycle of an attack, starting from a detection and tracing it back to its source.
