Types of Threat Intelligence: Tactical vs Strategic vs Operational

As cyber threats grow in complexity and volume by the day, organizations across industries are recognizing that protection requires more than reactive internal defense measures. Now, you need intelligence to predict attacks before they happen. Find out why understanding the three types of threat intelligence is crucial for safeguarding your digital assets and maintaining business continuity.

What is Threat Intelligence?

Threat intelligence transforms raw security data into insights your team can act on, revealing who might attack you, why they'd do it, and how they'll try.

However, "Intelligence is widely misunderstood both in cyber and outside of cyber," says Daniel Curtis, Manager of Finished Global Intelligence at ZeroFox. "Threat intelligence even more so."

At its core, Daniel explains, "Intelligence is information that has been processed to become useful for a given target audience." In the cybersecurity context, this means proactively seeking and harnessing the information that helps organizations defend against anyone seeking to breach networks or conduct any type of malicious activity via digital technology.

For example, by using threat intelligence, a retail company might learn that hackers are preparing to target point-of-sale systems before Black Friday, or a hospital could discover dark web ransomware groups discussing how to exploit a specific medical device vulnerability.

Let’s take a look at the key components that combine to make up threat intelligence:

• Evidence: Threat intelligence means information backed by real data, observations, and analysis.
• Context: You get the bigger picture—understanding not just what's happening, but why, when, and where it typically occurs.
• Mechanisms: Threat intelligence explains how threats actually work, including the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) attackers use.
• Indicators: Awareness of specific signs and signatures helps you recognize when you're being targeted by these threats.
• Implications: Threat intelligence helps you understand what risks mean for your specific situation, including the potential initial impact and long term consequences.
• Actionable advice: All this knowledge is delivered as concrete steps you can take to protect yourself or respond effectively.

Essentially, threat intelligence takes the chaos of cybersecurity information and turns it into strategic and timely knowledge that security teams can actually use to stop playing defense and start preventing attacks.

The Three Primary Types of Threat Intelligence

It’s clear that the issues that concern a CEO are not the same as what keeps an SOC analyst up at night.Different people in your organization need specialized forms of intelligence. According to Daniel, there are a few different ways that we can segment intelligence—by timeframe/shelf life, target audience, and breadth of scope. However, the distinctions can sometimes be subtle and hard to grasp.

"Once you start breaking intelligence down into tactical, strategic, and operational, I think a lot of people get lost," Daniel observes. "Even people working in security or inside the threat analysis functions are not always overly familiar with these terms."

Before we take a look at each intelligence category, perhaps the most important point to note is that these three types should always be working in harmony, informing each other to deliver the most effective results.

So, let’s examine the three main types of threat intelligence, plus an emerging fourth category:

Strategic Threat Intelligence

In considering types of threat intelligence, the target audience is crucial: "When we talk about key findings and intelligence, we need to focus on: Who are they pitched towards? Who are they useful to?" Daniel stresses. "In strategic intelligence, we're talking about C-suite. We're talking about budget holders, risk owners, and high-level decision makers." 

Strategic intelligence reveals the big picture to help executives understand threats to the business as a whole, not just the network, and looks at threats over months and years, compared to the much shorter timeframes of operational and tactical.

"From that strategic level, the question that we're looking to answer for organizations is: What’s coming over the horizon?" Daniel explains. 

“It examines topics like high-level trends, upticks, things of note that threat groups are doing over an extended period. Those deeper aspects which don't immediately seem pertinent but may contribute to an environment where those strategic threats can flourish."

Such factors include global geopolitical events, evolving legal frameworks, or shifting economic landscapes and broad questions like: Which nation-states target your industry? How might new regulations affect your cyber risk? What happens if your supply chain gets compromised?

"These all evolve by the day, and over the long term they can generate environments where threats can flourish. Luckily, they can be identified and understood ahead of time."

For example, when Russia invaded Ukraine, strategic intelligence warned energy companies about the likelihood of increased cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. When ChatGPT launched, businesses armed with strategic intelligence knew to be on the alert for new AI-powered phishing threats.

ZeroFox delivers strategic intelligence through comprehensive reports on global threats and industry risks. With these insights based on real threat data, leaders can effectively reallocate resources and adjust business strategies to ensure their organizations continue to thrive.

Tactical Threat Intelligence

Tactical intelligence reveals how attackers operate by pinpointing and exposing their techniques, tactics, and procedures.

Daniel identifies the audience for tactical intelligence as "The SOC teams conducting the threat hunting, providing threat mitigation, and lessening the impact of network breaches."

Security teams use this type of threat intelligence to strengthen defenses by answering critical questions like: How do attackers bypass our email filters? Which vulnerabilities do they exploit most? What tools do they use once inside?

Security architects and threat hunters receive tactical intelligence via technical reports and frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK (Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge), and translate the insights into robust defenses.

With ZeroFox's tactical intelligence, you get detailed attack analysis tailored to your environment. Teams use it to test defenses, hunt for hidden threats, and close security gaps before attackers find them.

Here's a real example: In 2023, tactical intelligence revealed that the Lockbit ransomware group was exploiting CitrixBleed vulnerabilities to breach networks. Security teams with information were able to rapidly patch systems, monitor for specific behaviors, and train staff to detect the attack pattern.

Operational Threat Intelligence

Operational intelligence provides real-time information about active threats. It bridges strategy and tactics with specific, timely details.

SOC managers, SOC analysts, and incident responders are the audience who rely on this intelligence. SOC managers use it to structure security teams and allocate resources, while analysts and responders use it for immediate threat mitigation such as takedowns. They receive it through alerts, indicators of compromise, and threat bulletins that demand immediate action.

For example, operational intelligence can alert your bank if a phishing campaign is targeting other banks right now. You get a list of the email subjects used, along with the malicious domains and the malware hashes involved.

In another case, operational intelligence might alert your hospital that hackers are sending fake CDC emails with malware attachments titled "Updated COVID Protocols", allowing your SOC team to immediately block those domains, create detection rules, and warn staff of the threat.

ZeroFox tracks campaigns targeting your industry and assets to deliver operational intelligence in real-time. With our early warning system, your teams can respond before attacks even begin.

Technical Intelligence: An Expanding Fourth Category

While strategic, operational, and tactical intelligence are widely recognized types of threat intelligence in the established framework, a fourth category is emerging in the cybersecurity community: technical intelligence.

Technical intelligence consists of the most granular level of threat information—the actual artifacts left behind by attackers. These digital fingerprints of attacks include malicious IP addresses, dangerous domains, malware signatures, and other digital forensics.

ZeroFox's threat intelligence feeds integrate technical intelligence with your existing security stack: Firewalls, SIEMs, and endpoint tools receive curated indicators that block threats without human intervention. For instance, when a new botnet emerges, technical intelligence feeds update your firewall with thousands of malicious IPs to block, or when malware variants appear, your endpoint protection gets new signatures within hours.

Comparison of Threat Intelligence Types

Common Challenges in Threat Intelligence

Despite the immense benefits to be had, implementing and maintaining effective threat intelligence programs can present various challenges for organizations. Here’s a round-up of the most typical obstacles you’re likely to encounter:

• Information overload drowns teams in data. A bank's SOC might receive 50,000 threat indicators daily but has the capacity to investigate just 100, leaving important threats hiding in the noise and analysts struggling with alert fatigue.
• Quality issues waste resources. Generic intelligence about "increased ransomware activity" doesn't help a specific organization defend itself. Teams need relevant, accurate intelligence for their environment.
• Integration problems leave intelligence stranded. Many organizations collect excellent intelligence but can't get it into their tools and workflows. The data sits in reports while attacks succeed.
• Resource constraints limit effectiveness. Most organizations can't afford in-house dedicated intelligence analysts. Security staff juggle intelligence duties with dozens of other responsibilities.
• ROI measurement challenges budgets. Executives struggle to quantify prevented attacks. How do you measure something that didn't happen?

How ZeroFox Delivers Comprehensive Threat Intelligence Solutions

ZeroFox's external cybersecurity platform addresses the complex challenges of modern threat intelligence thanks to an integrated approach that combines advanced technology, expert analysis, and managed services. Tailored to your organization’s specific needs, ZeroFox is the most comprehensive way to combat the cyber threats that extend beyond your network perimeter.

Full-Spectrum Intelligence Platform

ZeroFox delivers all intelligence types through a unified platform, so everyone gets what they need:

• Strategic insights for executives
• Tactical guidance for security teams
• Operational alerts for SOCs
• Technical feeds for your tools 

Expert Analysis and Context

The platform's foundation is ZeroFox Intelligence Search and threat intelligence data graph—a massive threat database with petabytes of unique data. But raw information means nothing without analysis, so ZeroFox leverages 100+ threat analysts to transform that data into intelligence. 

"ZeroFox’s teams are packed with people that have real-world intelligence backgrounds," Daniel reveals. "They’ve practiced intelligence as a trade in the public sector or military setting. And in CTI specifically, this expertise is something that's often missing, but it's absolutely crucial, particularly at the operational and strategic level."

These experts speak 27 languages and monitor threats globally, investigating alerts, uncovering connections, and gathering insights impossible to find elsewhere. Their human expertise catches what AI algorithms miss. They identify sarcasm, code words, and false flags that confuse automated systems and they understand cultural context, criminal slang, and threat actor psychology. Daniel emphasizes that this is ZeroFox’s unique value: "That type of analysis you can't find just anywhere, we have those analysts working directly next to people with the cybersecurity expertise to dismantle those threats, understand them, and turn that insight into actionable recommendations."

"The full cycle of the Intelligence Cycle takes place—the direction, the collection, the processing, and the dissemination, it's all done with tradecraft in mind."

Specialized Intelligence Feeds

ZeroFox's feeds address specific threat categories:

Identity and Fraud Intelligence protects against account takeovers and fraud. When credentials from your company appear on the open, deep, or dark web, you're alerted immediately. The feed includes compromised passwords, stolen credit cards, and exposed personal data.

Network and Vulnerability Intelligence defends infrastructure. When new vulnerabilities emerge, you know which ones criminals actually use—critical for prioritization when you can't patch everything immediately. The feed even delivers details such as botnet commands, malware signatures, and exploit code. 

Deep and Dark Web Intelligence represents a particular strength. This intelligence monitors criminal forums and marketplaces. Thanks to ZeroFox, you know when hackers discuss targeting your company, when your data appears for sale, and when new attack tools emerge. "ZeroFox is unequaled with its very well established and very accurate dark web capability," Daniel notes.

"We have experts that operate within the dark web using well-seasoned presences," he explains. "They can approach the threat actor and engage to find out the extent of any breach. They can buy back your credentials and prevent an incident from happening to your organization."

Seamless Integration

For intelligence to be effective, it must be incorporated into existing security workflows and tools. ZeroFox's intelligence solutions integrate with security information and event management (SIEM) platforms, security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) tools, threat intelligence platforms (TIPs), and other security technologies, ensuring that intelligence flows directly to the systems and teams that need it, without disrupting established processes.

Integration capabilities extend beyond technical tools to include an organization's business processes and decision-making frameworks. ZeroFox's intelligence is delivered in formats that support various security functions, from executive decision-making to SOC operations to incident response activities.

Physical Security Intelligence

Recognizing that threats extend beyond the digital realm, ZeroFox Physical Security Intelligence provides near real-time alerting and advanced geovisualization of global events that could affect an organization's executives, employees, facilities, and assets.

This solution monitors for potential physical threats like protests, civil unrest, natural disasters, and other disruptive events that occur near an organization's locations. By integrating physical and digital threat intelligence, ZeroFox delivers a holistic view of the risks facing an organization.

Industry-Specific Insights

Generic intelligence wastes time, that’s why ZeroFox delivers intelligence tailored to your industry.

For example: "We collect numerous victim leak pages of digital extortion collectors on the dark web and break down their victims by industry," Daniel explains. "We have a dedicated team to do this, and that means that at the strategic level, we can see who threats are targeting, understand why, and figure out how they're doing so."

Managed Intelligence Services

Most organizations lack resources for 24/7 intelligence operations, but ZeroFox's managed services fill this gap:

OnWatch™ Alert provides round-the-clock monitoring and validation. Expert analysts review alerts, investigate threats, and escalate critical issues. They filter noise and deliver only relevant, validated threats. 

OnWatch™ Expert assigns dedicated analysts to your organization. These specialists learn your environment, understand your risks, and deliver customized intelligence, becoming an extension of your team without the hiring costs.

Enhance Your Security Posture with ZeroFox

Looking ahead, Daniel paints a challenging picture: "What's coming over the horizon is an extremely complex and diverse cyber threat landscape, which is getting more so by the day, driven by increasingly ingenious toolkits leveraging both legitimate and malicious tools."

"Traditional cyber attack techniques are being enhanced and entirely new TTPs are being continually tested, adjusted and deployed," he explains. 

For organizations without threat intelligence, Daniel delivers a stark warning: "I'd say that implementing security is impossible without threat intelligence. They’re completely blind at the tactical, strategic and operational levels."

"There’s no way that they can understand the diversity and ferocity of the threats posed to their organizations, no way they can verify the security of their supply chain, and no way they can guarantee their customers' security."

To tackle current and future threats, ZeroFox provides strategic insights for your executives, tactical knowledge for your architects, operational alerts for your analysts, and technical feeds for your tools. Our experts, technology, and managed services transform overwhelming threat data into clear actions that protect your business.

Stop reacting to attacks. Start preventing them.

Learn more about how ZeroFox can protect your organization from external cyber threats.