SOC Threat Intelligence Explained: How It Enhances Detection and Response

In a world where cyberattacks are evolving faster than ever, Security Operations Centres (SOCs) need to stay one step ahead. Enter SOC threat intelligence – a critical capability that turns raw data into actionable insights, helping organisations detect, investigate, and respond to threats, before they can cause harm.

Threat intelligence gains a deeper understanding of the behaviours, methods, and motives behind cyberattacks. It’s a vital tool in predicting and preventing these attacks, and can even help respond to an incident by drawing on data to develop a clear strategic path.

In this article, we’ll be discussing what SOC threat intelligence really means, how it works within modern security operations, and how outsourcing your SOC to a trusted provider can provide you with the most comprehensive threat intelligence to keep your business safe.

What Is SOC Threat Intelligence?

Threat intelligence is the essential output of threat research and analysis that includes actionable information about attackers, their tools, infrastructure, and the methods to detect threats in the network – and most importantly, how to prioritise the response to those threats.

Data is typically gathered from a wide variety of sources before being carefully processed and analysed to discover patterns.

By monitoring events both inside and outside of your network, the business can identify potentially harmful activity and stop attacks before they even happen.

Definition and Core Purpose

SOC threat intelligence is the process of gathering, analysing and utilising threat intelligence data to support a SOC’s detection and response capabilities. Unlike general threat intelligence, which may offer strategic or industry-wide insight, SOC threat intelligence focuses on operational use, delivering real time, contextual alerts to help analysts understand and stop threats quickly.

This intelligence includes everything from indicators of compromise (IOCs) like IP addresses and file hashes, to deeper insights into adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

Threat intelligence can come in many forms, including:

• IP addresses
• Domain names
• Domain Name Service (DNS) servers
• File hashes
• Active ransomware gangs
• Attack patterns
• URLs
• Network Signatures

Each of these provides another layer of data that can be combined with the others to develop a complex understanding of how malicious attacks occur, where they’re likely to come from, and how best to defend against and respond to them should they occur.

For example, by analysing unique file hash values, a security team will then be able to quickly identify any instances of known malicious files and even track them across all internal networks for easier elimination.

Why It Matters in Modern Cybersecurity

Today’s cyber threats are more dynamic, sophisticated, and targeted than ever, not to mention the effect that AI is having on the speed of attack innovation. Real-time threat intelligence allows your SOC to detect threats earlier, cut through the noise of false positives, and take faster, more effective action.

For overstretched internal teams, especially in medium or large businesses, SOC threat intelligence is the difference between surviving a cyberattack or becoming its next victim.

Threat intelligence works by focusing the organisation on the most important threats facing their systems and networks at any given time. This will allow an organisation to defend against, and deal quickly with, ongoing data breaches and detect and respond to cyberattacks, often before they happen.

Maintaining a threat intelligence program provides your business with the necessary information to help identify unknown adversaries and decreases the likelihood of the attack being successful, as well as limiting the severity of any attack.

The Role of Threat Intelligence Within a Security Operations Centre (SOC)

If organisations are going to keep up with or stay ahead of attackers, they’re going to need to integrate more sophisticated detection mechanisms into their security toolkit. These include mechanisms such as intrusion detection systems (IDS) which help to build a full threat intelligence picture alongside other tools such as SIEM and Log Management, Endpoint Detection and Response, Dark Web and Vulnerability Monitoring. However, these tools, their upkeep, and the monitoring needed can be expensive.

All of that, plus the amount of time and in-house expertise needed to be able to read and act on the threat intelligence data generated. Businesses are looking to MSSPs to help them manage threats by outsourcing their organisation’s cyber security to a fully managed Security Operations Centre (SOC).

How SOC Teams Use Threat Intelligence in Practice

A SOC typically relies on a blend of threat feeds, internal telemetry, and historical data to build a full picture of threat activity. Intelligence is:

• Collected from external feeds, open source intel, and internal monitoring.
• Processed into structured formats and filtered for relevance.
• Analysed to identify patterns and correlations.
• Actioned by creating alerts, updating detection rules, or triggering automated responses.

This lifecycle – often referred to as the Threat Intelligence Lifecycle – ensures that threat data is turned into meaningful, timely action.

The 5 Steps of Cyber Threat Intelligence

Direction 

Organisations first need to figure out what information is needed to make the best decisions within the shortest period. This needs to be based on evidence, such as what exactly was compromised, the nature of the attack, and what devices were involved. Organisations may set objectives such as establishing appropriate information-sharing partnerships or establishing an incident response process.

Collection 

This stage involves amassing any pertinent data, from audit logs to IP addresses, depending on the nature of the attack. This can involve huge amounts of data, meaning that planning, storage, and processing need to be key areas you consider. You’ll need to consider your storage infrastructure and how scalable it is, how to appropriately classify data, and what your retention policy will be, amongst a host of other considerations.

Processing 

The raw data gathered can then be processed into a more manageable and actionable format. This processing will likely involve large amounts of data decoding and organising/tagging. These processes must be standardised and known across the entire team or organisation to ensure consistent processing.

Analysis 

This step involves proving the timeline of the attack using the collected and processed data. Any contradictory data will need to be compared and analysed further. This is often one of the most time-consuming stages of the entire process as patterns emerge that will require further analysis, and it’s typically led by a specialist analyst who can lend their expertise to the process.

Action 

Following the completion of the prior steps, actions can now be taken that have been guided by data analysis. This could include anything from remediation to the implementation of an entirely new security system. The conclusion of this action then starts off the entire process again, in a continuous cycle aimed at constantly improving your organisation’s security.

Integrating Threat Feeds into SOC Workflows

Threat intelligence platforms (TIPs) and integrations with SIEM and EDR tools enable SOCs to automatically ingest, enrich, and apply threat intel. Priority is given to high confidence, high relevance indicators – reducing analyst workload and increasing efficiency.

Real-Time Detection vs Strategic Insights

Real time alerts are the key to detecting active threats quickly, but threat intelligence provides invaluable context for strategic cyber protection roadmap planning. For example, trends in ransomware TTPs can inform future defence strategies and risk modelling.

Benefits of SOC Threat Intelligence for Security Teams

The effectiveness of any Security Operations Centre (SOC) can be greatly improved through the proper utilisation of cyber threat intelligence.

It can enhance a SOC’s capabilities in continuous data collection, analysis, and automation. It can also drastically improve early detection and response times by providing real time tracking of tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) being used by known and emerging threats.

It also allows the SOC to act much more proactively by arming it with advanced knowledge of how threats are evolving, where they’re likely to try to gain access to certain systems, and providing reliable indicators that can be tracked across networks.

Active threat intelligence also enables the SOC to continually evolve and improve as it receives more information. Intelligence from both inside and outside of the organisation can combine to create a more adaptive and resilient SOC. With this, the SOC can then also scale as it needs to, without allocating too many extra resources to do so.

Faster Detection and Triage

SOC threat intelligence enables quicker identification of anomalies and attacks. Known malicious IPs, domains, or behaviour patterns can be flagged immediately, saving precious time in critical moments.

Better Context for Incident Response

Threat intelligence helps add context for incident response by providing analysts not just with what is happening, but why, leading to more effective investigation and remediation. This is particularly crucial in complex multistage attacks.

Proactive Defence and Threat Hunting

Threat intelligence supports proactive threat hunting by highlighting unusual behavioural activity and exposing cyberattack trends before they’re weaponised against your business.

Reduced Alert Fatigue and False Positives

Quality threat intelligence means better filtering, only surfacing alerts that matter. This drastically reduces noise, saving analysts from drowning in meaningless notifications.

SOC Threat Intelligence in Action: Real-World Use Cases

Detecting Emerging Threats

With access to global threat intelligence feeds, a SOC can identify new threats such as zero-day exploits before they’re widely exploited. For example, if an emerging exploit is seen targeting specific industries or regions, DigitalXRAID’s SOC can deploy preemptive detection rules or apply virtual patching. This rapid response closes vulnerabilities before attackers can leverage them, reducing exposure windows to hours instead of days, or completely blocking an attack before it can happen.

DigitalXRAID’s proactive monitoring of dark web forums, ransomware gang chatter, and advanced persistent threat (APT) activity means emerging threats are often spotted long before they hit mainstream awareness.

Prioritising Incidents with Contextual Data

Using threat intelligence, SOC teams can assign risk scores to any alerts, based on factors such as the known behaviour of the attacker group, previous targeting patterns, and relevance to your specific industry. This allows the SOC to focus resources on incidents that pose the greatest business risk.

For example, an alert involving a commodity malware strain might be deprioritised if it has no clear target or goal, while a similar alert tied to a known ransomware group that has previously targeted your sector would be escalated immediately.

Enhancing Response Playbooks and Automation

Threat intelligence feeds enrich automated playbook workflows by embedding actionable data. If an IP address tied to a known command-and-control (C2) server appears in network traffic, then threat intelligence allows the SOC to immediately flag, isolate, and block the connection without manual intervention.

This intel is used to update detection rules, train machine learning (ML) models, and inform analysts during post-incident reviews. This provides you with continuous improvement in response capabilities and a more resilient security posture.

Challenges and Considerations

Data Overload and Signal-to-Noise Ratio

With threat data flowing in from multiple sources, including threat feeds, log files, sensors, and endpoint tools, SOC teams can quickly find themselves drowning in information and alerts. The real challenge is identifying what’s important versus what’s noise. Without proper filtering and context, valuable intelligence can get lost.

This is where automation, machine learning, and advanced correlation engines come into play. These technologies help cut through the clutter, prioritising only the most relevant indicators and patterns for human analysis. But it’s not just about expensive security tools, it’s also about having the experience to deploy and tune them effectively, which requires experience and domain expertise.

False Intelligence and Poor Quality Feeds

Threat intelligence is only as good as its source. Low quality feeds can trigger a huge amount of false positives, leading to wasted resources. Acting on inaccurate data could delay a high priority alert being investigated and compromise legitimate business functions.

That’s why it’s vital to rely on curated, trusted sources, such as those aggregated and vetted by a Managed Security Service Provider like DigitalXRAID. Our SOC leverages intelligence from globally recognised vendors, including Microsoft, and our own threat hunting research, ensuring the highest level of detection and response.

The Human Element: Analyst Expertise Still Matters

While automation is important to reduce the noise that alerts can cause, human analysts remain essential. Machines can correlate data, but they can’t yet fully understand business and industry context, nuance, or intent. Skilled analysts and CTI specialists can bring intuition and experience. They can spot sophisticated threats, distinguish between a signal and noise, and make informed decisions under pressure.

At DigitalXRAID, our CREST and Microsoft accredited analysts operate as an extension of your team. They ensure your threat intelligence program is not only accurate and timely but also effective and actionable, helping to keep you one step ahead of adversaries.

Why a Managed SOC Is the Best Way to Operationalise Threat Intelligence

Building a team with the appropriate knowledge and experience in cybersecurity can be difficult, with the skills shortage within the industry well documented. This is why outsourcing your cyber security needs should be something you consider for your organisation.

You’ll save valuable time and money compared to building out and managing your in-house team, while still getting the benefits of comprehensive experience and 24/7 security support. You’ll also gain instant access to a team of highly qualified professionals who can identify and assess your existing vulnerabilities and develop a plan tailored specifically to your business.

24/7 Monitoring and Expert Analysis

A managed SOC delivers round-the-clock coverage by highly skilled and certified cyber professionals who know what to look out for and how to act on intelligence.

Integration with Advanced Threat Intelligence Platforms

Managed SOCs leverage leading TIPs and feeds, integrating data from multiple sources for broader visibility and faster action.

Reducing Cost and Complexity for Internal Teams

Building an in-house SOC with equivalent capabilities is expensive and time consuming. Outsourcing delivers enterprise grade security without the overhead costs and initial outlays for set up and hiring.

What Makes DigitalXRAID’s SOC Threat Intelligence Stand Out?

DigitalXRAID’s SOC Threat Intelligence service is powered by our unique threat intelligence hub – The Hive. Our unique central intelligence function gathers data from the most comprehensive intelligence feeds in the world, which ensures our SOC analysts and Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) specialists are constantly fed data from across the entire internet, every day.

By mapping out adversaries and their infrastructure – including activity across hidden, unindexed areas of the dark web – we give your business a serious edge in preventing attacks. DigitalXRAID’s SOC is built around best-in-class frameworks, including MITRE ATT&CK.

We also leverage Microsoft’s security infrastructure, which alone sees more than 43 trillion signals daily. Combined with advanced tooling and enrichment processes, this data feeds into our AI-powered platforms that continuously learn, correlate, and prioritise the most relevant threats with rich context and real time precision.

Our approach ensures that our threat intelligence isn’t just comprehensive – it’s proactive, targeted, and aligned to the evolving threat landscape your business faces.

Certified Expertise and Proven Frameworks

Our team holds the highest level of accreditations from industry leading bodies and the Government – a mark of trust and quality.

CREST, NCSC & Microsoft Accreditations

We’re proud to be a Microsoft Security Solutions Partner with a specialisation in Threat Protection. DigitalXRAID’s partnership with Microsoft means our customers benefit from enhanced threat intelligence and visibility through platforms like Microsoft Sentinel and Defender. This provides real time insights to identify and neutralise threats before they can be exploited.

DigitalXRAID is also proud to be:

• A CREST certified provider for both our Security Operations Centre and Cyber Incident Response services, amongst others, demonstrating our commitment to providing you with gold standard services
• An NCSC Cyber Incident Response Level 2 Assured Service Provider, meaning we’re officially recognised by the UK Government, NCSC and CREST for our ability to respond effectively to security incidents.
• A Microsoft Threat Protection Specialist, which highlights DigitalXRAID’s expertise in delivering integrated Microsoft security solutions and its commitment to safeguarding organisations in an evolving threat landscape.

Seamless Integration Across DigitalXRAID’s Security Services

Our SOC Threat Intelligence feeds directly into our wider services, including Managed Detection and Response (MDR), Managed SIEM, Managed XDR, Penetration Testing, and Incident Response – delivering holistic security protection across offensive and defensive services.

Final Thoughts: Turning Threat Intelligence into Action

Cyber threat intelligence has never been more important for businesses, and its value will continue to rise over the coming years as threats continue to multiply and grow even more sophisticated. By engaging early, you can stay ahead of the curve when it comes to potential cyber threats, and develop an organisation that’s proactive when it comes to digital security.

You must partner with the right cybersecurity provider, one that will provide the most comprehensive level of threat intelligence and security protection – that’s tailored to your organisation’s needs, and that can scale with your business.

Making this work takes time, tools and talent – which is why a Managed SOC like DigitalXRAID’s is the most effective route. With our CREST and Microsoft accredited expertise and cutting edge threat intelligence feeds, we’ll keep your business one step ahead.

Get in touch with DigitalXRAID today and discover how our Security Operations Centre services can give you the clarity, confidence, and coverage you need to stop attacks fast.