ZeroFox Recognized as Best in Class for Brand Threat Intelligence in Forrester Wave: External Threat Intelligence Services, Q1 2021

Forrester has released the latest Forrester Wave: External Threat Intelligence Services, Q1, 2021, evaluating the 12 most significant vendors providing cyber, brand and vulnerability threat intelligence services. The External Threat Intelligence Services (ETIS) market has evolved greatly since Forrester’s first publication of the report in 2018. With the recent acquisition of Cyveillance, ZeroFox not only is now included, but is proud to be a Strong Performer in this new Wave and is noted by Forrester as best in class for brand threat intelligence use cases and takedown services.

An Expanding Threat Intelligence Market

Since Forrester’s 2018 ETIS Wave, we have seen an expansion in the adoption of threat intelligence tools as well as a great emphasis on brand threat intelligence specifically. The Wave notes that, “according to Forrester Analytics’ Business Technographics® survey data, global security decision-makers now subscribe to an average of 7.5 commercial external threat intelligence services, which is up from an average of 4.2 vendors in 2018.” This expanded opportunity has led to new players joining the space with unique focuses on the three key requirements for external threat intelligence services that Forrester has identified: primary source intelligence, brand reputation protection and vulnerability intelligence.

Forrester’s Recommendations for External Threat Intelligence Services

The Forrester Wave: External Threat Intelligence Services report recommends customers should look for providers that can deliver:  

• Primary source intelligence. That is, “direct observations via incident response engagements and access to the sensors that observe threat activity.” 
• Brand reputation protection. Involves protecting brand reputation and an enterprise’s customer base. This includes not only the identification of brand risks but organic takedown services as well.
• Vulnerability intelligence. Goes beyond simply passing on vulnerability information and focuses on “helping asset owners reduce the risk of vulnerability exploitation and application downtime.”

These requirements combined create a comprehensive External Threat Intelligence Services solution, but depending on an organization’s needs they may choose to focus their efforts and investments on one dimension above another.

Specializing in Brand Threat Intelligence

Of these three requirements, brand threat intelligence is noted as being a valuable asset to organizations of every size. This is because every single organization has a brand and customers to protect. This is ZeroFox’s sweet spot. The Forrester report recognized ZeroFox as best in class for brand threat Intelligence use cases. Brand protection encompasses the identification and removal of impersonations (both corporate and executives), detecting and thwarting account takeovers, early discovery of breaches and quick remediation, hardening defenses based on early attack warning and more. Brand threat intelligence goes beyond gaining access to data and information to provide security teams with actionable intelligence to not only identify but disrupt attacks threatening the brand and enterprise. This involves analyzing multiple vectors of attack and integral response systems for immediate actionability to threats that are found.  

Merging Artificial and Human Intelligence

A strong External Threat Intelligence Services solution employs a combination of artificial intelligence collection and analysis with a team of expert analysts to conduct in-depth human intelligence. The ZeroFox Platform leverages advanced AI tools such as computer vision, natural language processing and machine learning to identify and thwart text, image and video-based threats. These AI analysis tools enable robust intelligence collection, filtering and prioritization, so security teams can focus on high-priority threats first. Augmenting these AI capabilities are our expert HUMINT services. A team of threat analysts, researchers and hunters perform in-depth analysis and create tailored reports based on targeted campaigns to provide security teams actionable, relevant and finished intelligence. 

The Need for Actionability and Takedown Services

Rapid actions, including the takedown of offending sites or material, is paramount to limiting harm from an attack.  Because attackers can stand up impersonating web sites easily and quickly, a solution that instantly recognizes such an imposter, and then proceeds to have the site just as quickly removed, will discourage attackers and force them to pursue softer targets.  This is what ZeroFox does.  We employ relationships with social networks, proven playbooks and 100s of technology integrations to coordinate rapid removal of fake sites and malicious content.  Better yet, if associated attack infrastructure (the involved servers, malicious domains, spoofed social accounts, bogus email systems and other supporting tools) can be ‘dismantled’ (taken offline/banned from tenancy, blacklisted, etc.) the attacker will lose the ability to launch attacks altogether.  ZeroFox Adversary Disruption does this as a managed service on your behalf.  This helps to squelch the appeal of attacking your brand and key personnel, and keeps your stakeholders you engage with safe.

Read the Full Forrester Wave: External Threat Intelligence Services, Q1 2021

Learn more about the state of the External Threat Intelligence Services market and see how ZeroFox stacks up against other threat intelligence vendors by downloading a copy of the Forrester Wave: External Threat Intelligence Services here. 

To learn more about ZeroFox’s threat intelligence solution, check out our video.