Report: 73% of IT security managers lack necessary threat intelligence skills, despite growing adoption

Vulcan Cyber released a survey conducted by Gartner Pulse that examined the effectiveness of threat intelligence sources as part of an integrated cyber risk and vulnerability management program.

Per the report, “Threat intelligence reduces vulnerability risk to optimize security posture by removing blind spots and providing crucial visibility. The goal for any security team is to more effectively identify threats and prioritize the most critical vulnerabilities.”

The findings revealed that 73% of IT security managers lack the necessary threat intelligence skills. This is despite the fact that threat intelligence is a key piece of risk management programs.

The survey revealed that threat intelligence is clearly a crucial source for ongoing vulnerability detection and prioritization. In fact, 87% of decision-makers rely on threat intelligence “often or very often” for vulnerability prioritization, and 75% of companies have dedicated threat intelligence teams. In the same vein, 66% also have dedicated threat intelligence budgets.

Although the growth of threat intelligence is a good sign, without the abilities and skills in place, many organizations are shooting in the dark, leaving identified vulnerabilities unpatched and unmitigated. Some other interesting findings that highlight the issue:

• Fifty-five percent of respondents said their threat intelligence data is not predictive enough.
• Main use cases for threat intelligence include blocking bad IPs/URLs (64%) and integration with other security products for a holistic view of cyber hygiene (63%).

For respondents, the most common source of threat intelligence was commercial threat intelligence feeds (78%), followed by community (OTX) (64%) and social channels (61%). Yet, 75% of respondents said threat intelligence helps their teams identify threats at least weekly.

This survey revealed that teams need more than just tools. They need the skills and the ability to use the tools at their disposal to improve the security posture of their organizations.

Read the full report from Vulcan Cyber.