Cyber Threat Intel
A Parody and Deep Dive Into Threat Intelligence Realities
In an animated cyber parody that brilliantly fuses Monty Python absurdity with real-world threat intelligence woes, “Bring Out Your Logs” sets the stage for a larger conversation about the state of cybersecurity threat feeds. The animation, created using Replikant, serves up hilarious lines like “I’m not malware—I’m a legitimate application!” and lampoons the over-reliance on indicators of compromise (IOCs) such as IP addresses, hashes, and domains. After the short, Ron Gula dives deep into the very real challenges and philosophical debates behind using threat intelligence effectively in modern cyber programs.
Here’s a comprehensive look at the key takeaways, structured into four main sections: the technology behind threat intel, using threat intel for prioritization, the challenges of threat feed creation, and the realities of investing in threat intel startups.
1. The Technology of Threat Intelligence: IOCs, Filtering, and False Positives
Threat intelligence typically boils down to one core concept: sharing knowledge about known bad behavior. But translating that into actionable data is anything but simple.
Threat feeds depend on various indicators like:
IP addresses (which can host multiple domains, some benign)
Domain names (which can redirect or change ownership)
Hashes of malware (which can be modified by a single bit)
TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures outlined in frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK)
This is where the analogy to the blind men and the elephant comes in: each feed describes a different “shadow” of a threat. The result? You often only get part of the picture, and that part might be outdated, incomplete, or simply wrong in a given context.
Adding to the challenge is the sheer scale. Can your EDR, SOAR, or firewall even ingest the "million most malicious IPs" you just acquired? Many can’t, making enforcement a weak link.
The spoofed Monty Python bit underscores this perfectly: “He crashed my computer—it ran better after I rebooted!” may be a false positive, but in today’s industry, a crash tied to a VirusTotal hash often still results in a full-blown reverse engineering effort.
Tools like Threater and GreyNoise offer new ways to manage this complexity. Threater allows filtering by geography and integrates feeds like ProofPoint, helping security teams enforce without breaking and inspecting traffic. GreyNoise, on the other hand, adds context to scanning activity and offers “RIOT”—a database of known good infrastructure like Amazon and Salesforce to help reduce false positives.
2. Prioritization: The Cybersecurity Have-Nots and the Great Debate
One of the thorniest debates in cybersecurity: Should you prioritize defenses based on threat intelligence?
For less-resourced teams—what Gula calls those below the “cyber poverty line”—threat intelligence is often a triage tool. When you can’t cover everything, prioritization is your only hope.
But for top-tier CISOs with mature programs, prioritization may actually be a sign of weakness. These organizations aim for complete coverage. They don’t just hunt and patch selectively—they build defenses that address entire categories of risk. No picking and choosing; everything gets handled.
The debate becomes political and philosophical:
Is prioritization strategic or reactive?
Are you preventing fires or just learning to put them out faster?
MITRE ATT&CK’s TTP mapping helps teams assess coverage, but even then, Gula argues the real issue is resource disparity. Teams with full coverage don’t use threat feeds to decide what to fix—they use them to validate that nothing was missed.
For everyone else, prioritization remains a necessary evil—and possibly a warning sign that you need more help.
3. Creating Threat Feeds: Art, Science, and Timing
Threat feeds are built in two main ways:
Sensor networks (e.g., honeypots, browser plugins, full-packet inspection from tools like Trinity Cyber)
Manual research (from vendors like Flashpoint, Mandiant, Sophos, and Volexity)
Each method has limits. Researchers only see part of the attack. They might focus on telco netflow data or logs from 1,000 customers—not the whole internet. And once they find something, they often have to notify governments, avoid burning ongoing ops, or wait for patches—delaying public disclosure.
Meanwhile, threat feed creators must balance urgency against accuracy. They want to help, but a false report can erode trust. And once something is out there, operationalizing it is another challenge entirely.
GreyNoise’s model of publishing both “bad” and “known good” infrastructure is especially helpful. It lets teams avoid wasting cycles chasing legitimate domains while still responding to emerging threats.
4. Investing in Threat Intelligence: Why It’s a Tough Market
Despite its importance, threat intel is a difficult market for startups. Gula receives many pitches from ex-intel professionals offering proprietary feeds, but most fail to stand out commercially.
Why? Several reasons:
Established giants dominate the market (ThreatConnect, Anomali, Recorded Future)
Many feeds are free, making monetization difficult
Value depends on context—a unique feed might not be useful to every customer
Detection ≠ prevention—even great intel doesn’t always lead to action
Moreover, cybersecurity buyers are skeptical. A new Russian botnet feed might sound exciting, but unless it covers an overlooked corner of the ecosystem or provides unique, real-time insights, it’s unlikely to move the needle.
That said, companies like Threater and GreyNoise—both part of the Gula Tech portfolio—have succeeded by solving specific pain points and building intuitive, actionable products.
Bonus: Humor, Parody, and Replicant Chat
“Bring Out Your Logs” isn’t just entertainment. It’s satire with a message. By mixing Python-style comedy with SOC realities, the short captures the absurdity of threat intel overload—and the dangers of treating every IOC as gospel.
And with tools like Replicant Chat, Gula explores a whole new way to engage audiences. The AI avatars even joke about the 2024 CrowdStrike outage and debate threat intelligence philosophies in hilariously unhinged style. (Think Socrates meets Clippy, but caffeinated.)
Conclusion
Threat intelligence remains vital, but it's no silver bullet. As Gula emphasizes:
Threat feeds are useful, but often incomplete or difficult to apply at scale.
Prioritization is necessary, but only until you can afford not to do it.
Feed creation is hard, and few vendors get it right.
Investment requires a unique edge, not just more data.
The field needs more realism—and a little more humor. So whether you’re “reinstalling Windows because malware” or trying to sort false positives from actual threats, remember: cyber is serious business, but laughing at our shared pain might be the most secure practice of all.
Want more? Watch “Bring Out Your Logs” and check out Replikant Chat on Steam. For more insights and investment commentary, follow Ron Gula and Gula Tech Adventures.