ISO 27001:2022 Annex A Control 5.7 (A.5.7)
Explaining Control 5.7 (A.5.7) Threat intelligence
ISO 27001 Annex A Control 5.7 (A.5.7) Threat Intelligence (TI) is a structured approach to collecting and analyzing information about current and emerging threats that pose risks to your organization’s information systems. This control strengthens your ability to detect, prevent, and respond to threats by providing actionable insights on attacker motivations, methods, and tools.
Control Type
- Preventive
- Detective
- Corrective
Information Security Properties
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Availability
Cybersecurity Concepts
- Identify
- Detect
- Respond
Operational Capabilities
- Threat and Vulnerability Management
Security Domains
- Defence
- Resilience
Objective of Control 5.7
The objective of ISO 27001 Control 5.7 is to ensure that information relating to potential or existing security threats is systematically gathered, validated, and interpreted to generate relevant threat intelligence. When done effectively, this supports the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your organization’s information. It also allows your teams to align defensive measures with the evolving threat landscape and make informed decisions on implementing or adjusting other security controls.
Purpose of Control 5.7
Threat intelligence provides visibility into the methods and tactics used by adversaries. With this visibility, your organization can:
- Anticipate threats and prevent them from materializing into damaging incidents.
- Identify weak points in existing defenses and address vulnerabilities more proactively.
- Prioritize resources in areas of highest risk or likelihood of attack.
- Reduce potential business impact by responding faster to new or emerging threats.
Introduction to Threat Intelligence
Definition
Threat Intelligence is the collection and analysis of information that describes specific threats targeting your organization or industry. It encompasses:
- Relevance: Data focused on potential risks to your specific environment.
- Insight: A deeper understanding of how attackers operate and how these methods might affect your organization.
- Context: Awareness of timelines, geographical factors, previous experiences, and trends within industries.
- Actionability: Clear steps or recommendations that your organization can take to counter identified threats.
Importance
Your organization may face a wide range of threats such as malware, phishing, denial of service attacks, or sophisticated intrusions. Threat intelligence illuminates these risks by providing evidence-based knowledge, enabling security teams to act with precision. This knowledge not only helps you detect and respond to incidents faster but can also shape strategies to prevent similar attacks in the future.
Scope
This control may apply to multiple areas within your organization, such as:
- Information Security Risk Management
- Incident Response and Management
- Security Operations (e.g., SOC teams)
- Vulnerability Management Programs
By identifying how and where threats could impact your systems, you can bring together various security functions under a unified approach to combat potential attacks.
Layers of Threat Intelligence
To build a robust threat intelligence program, it is beneficial to view it through three distinct layers:
Strategic Threat Intelligence
Strategic threat intelligence focuses on high-level trends and patterns that shape the threat landscape. It addresses questions such as:
- Which groups are likely to target your organization or sector?
- What types of attacks are on the rise globally or regionally?
- What geopolitical or economic factors are influencing attacker motivations?
This layer is commonly shared with senior management to help drive policy and resource allocation decisions.
Tactical Threat Intelligence
Tactical threat intelligence provides details on adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). It answers:
- How are attacks typically executed?
- What known vulnerabilities or weaknesses are attackers exploiting?
- Which tools or malware families are most prevalent in your industry?
Security operations teams often rely on this level of intelligence to fine-tune defenses and adapt detection strategies.
Operational Threat Intelligence
Operational threat intelligence offers real-time or near-real-time insights into specific threats. This includes:
- IP addresses or domains used in ongoing attacks.
- Malware signatures and indicators of compromise (IoCs).
- Specific threats targeting your organization’s systems or networks.
Incident responders and analysts use operational intelligence to act quickly in detecting intrusions and mitigating breaches.
Threat Intelligence Activities
To build a robust threat intelligence program, it is beneficial to view it through three distinct layers:
Strategic Threat Intelligence
Strategic threat intelligence focuses on high-level trends and patterns that shape the threat landscape. It addresses questions such as:
- Which groups are likely to target your organization or sector?
- What types of attacks are on the rise globally or regionally?
- What geopolitical or economic factors are influencing attacker motivations?
This layer is commonly shared with senior management to help drive policy and resource allocation decisions.
Tactical Threat Intelligence
Tactical threat intelligence provides details on adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). It answers:
- How are attacks typically executed?
- What known vulnerabilities or weaknesses are attackers exploiting?
- Which tools or malware families are most prevalent in your industry?
Security operations teams often rely on this level of intelligence to fine-tune defenses and adapt detection strategies.
Operational Threat Intelligence
Operational threat intelligence offers real-time or near-real-time insights into specific threats. This includes:
- IP addresses or domains used in ongoing attacks.
- Malware signatures and indicators of compromise (IoCs).
- Specific threats targeting your organization’s systems or networks.
Incident responders and analysts use operational intelligence to act quickly in detecting intrusions and mitigating breaches.
Threat Intelligence Activities
Risk Assessment Integration
Threat intelligence can significantly enhance your risk assessments by providing real-world context. Incorporate TI findings into:
- Asset inventories, to identify systems or data types that might be at higher risk.
- Vulnerability scans, so you know which threats are targeting certain weaknesses.
- Risk scoring models, to factor in attack likelihood based on current threat data.
Technical Preventive and Detective Controls
With reliable threat intelligence, your organization can fine-tune tools such as:
- Firewalls and intrusion detection systems, ensuring they block or alert on current known malicious IP ranges or signatures.
- Anti-malware solutions, so they track newly observed malware families.
- Endpoint detection and response (EDR), to detect suspicious behavior sooner.
Security Testing Processes
Penetration tests and vulnerability scans become more relevant and targeted when guided by intelligence on real-world threat actors. Consider:
- Simulating the tactics most commonly used against organizations in your sector.
- Scanning for vulnerabilities that are favored by attackers identified in TI reports.
- Conducting Red Team exercises aligned with the latest TTPs for a realistic view of how your defenses would hold up under an actual attack.
Threat Intelligence Sharing
Benefits of Sharing TI
Threat intelligence sharing helps spread awareness and fosters collective defense. By sharing relevant details with trusted peers and industry groups, you can:
- Receive reciprocal information that fills gaps in your own intelligence picture.
- Build a more accurate industry-wide understanding of emerging threats.
- Contribute to community-driven initiatives that develop best practices for threat detection and mitigation.
Establishing Secure Sharing Mechanisms
When sharing TI, your organization must ensure that sensitive information is exchanged securely:
- Use secure communication channels, such as encrypted emails or private portals.
- Define processes for validating recipients and controlling distribution.
- Label and classify shared intelligence in line with data classification policies.
Collaborations and Partnerships
Participating in industry Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) or Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) can be highly beneficial. Collaboration allows for:
- Early alerts on threats specific to your region or sector.
- Access to specialized resources or threat data from trusted authorities.
- A sense of shared responsibility, helping strengthen the overall security ecosystem.
Continuous Improvement and Review
Monitoring Efficacy
Regularly assess the value of your threat intelligence efforts. This includes:
- Tracking how often TI leads to timely detection and prevention of incidents.
- Reviewing if the intelligence aligns with actual threats encountered in your environment.
- Checking whether intelligence feeds or services deliver the promised benefits.
Feedback Loop
Use the outcomes of incident investigations, threat hunting exercises, and post-incident analyses to refine your intelligence program. This feedback loop can reveal:
- Which intelligence sources are consistently accurate.
- Gaps in coverage that need additional resources.
- Methods to enhance data correlation or analysis speed.
Periodic Review
Schedule periodic reviews to align your threat intelligence strategy with your organization’s evolving business goals. As your threat landscape changes and your security strategy matures, you may need to adjust objectives, data sources, or analytical methods to maintain relevance.
Relevant Controls
Several other controls support or benefit from threat intelligence:
- Control 5.25 Monitoring and Logging: Enhanced by threat indicators that inform logging rules and monitoring strategies.
- Control 8.7 Protection against malware: Correlates events with known malicious malware derived from TI.
- Control 8.16 Monitoring activities Focuses monitoring activities on the impact threats.
- Control 8.23 Web filtering: Ensures continuity plans reflect web filtering capabilities.
Templates That Could Assist
The following templates might help implement Control 5.7:
Threat Intelligence Collection Plan Template
Provides guidelines on selecting relevant data sources, scheduling collection frequencies, and detailing roles responsible for data gathering.Threat Analysis Report Template
Standardizes how intelligence findings are summarized and shared. Encourages consistent format for threat indicators, descriptions, and recommended actions.Risk Assessment and Treatment Template
Integrates newly obtained threat intelligence into existing risk assessment procedures, making it easier to document changes to risk treatment plans based on recent threat data.Incident Response Playbook Template
Incorporates real-time threat intelligence into incident detection, analysis, and recovery steps, streamlining incident management with clear instructions and escalation pathways.
Conclusion
ISO 27001 Control 5.7: Threat Intelligence is essential for proactively safeguarding your organization against emerging and evolving threats.Structured layers of threat intelligence—strategic, tactical, and operational—ensure that decision-makers and security teams remain informed and prepared. Ongoing review and refinement of your program will help you maintain resilience against attackers who continuously adapt their methods. Ultimately, effective threat intelligence supports a more responsive and robust security posture that aligns with your organization’s risk management goals.
