How Threat Intelligence is Used in the Real World – Customer Interview

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Larry Larsen, Director of Cyber Security at Apple Federal Credit Union, to learn about the cybersecurity challenges they face and how threat intelligence fits into their overall approach to risk mitigation.

Larry explained that his primary objective is two-fold: to protect member information and assets, and to protect Apple FCU’s organizational information. With increasing complexity around cyber, he discussed with me the need for threat intelligence to become more apparent. Beyond just blocking threats, he wants to understand what attackers are trying to do so he can prepare as best as possible. And while there are many sources of open source threat information, intelligence takes it a step further by correlating patterns of behavior that the cybersecurity team at Apple Federal Credit Union uses to guide their efforts and anticipate threats before they occur.

When it came to discussing how they use the intel from SurfWatch Labs, Larry said that it has “led to direct changes in Apple FCU’s infrastructure due to emerging threats we would not have known about as quickly if we did not have that pattern analysis and comprehensive picture.”

In this 5 minute clip, you can learn about how strategic and operational threat intelligence are used throughout the organization – beyond just the cyber team – to prepare for impending threats and reduce risk.

Author: Sam Erdheim

Sam Erdheim has more than 15 years of experience across all facets of marketing and product management for enterprise software companies. Mr. Erdheim has spent the past 10 years in the information security space, most recently serving as Director of Marketing for AlgoSec, a security policy management vendor, where he was responsible for leading the strategy and development of the company's corporate and product positioning, content and communications. Prior to AlgoSec, Mr. Erdheim served as Director of Marketing at Lumension, an endpoint security provider, where he drove a comprehensive demand generation program that supported more than a third of the sales pipeline and created an automated email nurture campaign that received a Gold Medal from MarketingSherpa. Previously, Mr. Erdheim served in product management and marketing roles for other technology companies such as Softek (acquired by IBM Global Services), iLumin (acquired by CA) and Thomson Financial. Mr. Erdheim is a graduate of Tufts University. View all posts by Sam Erdheim