Data versus information versus intelligence
In Chapter 1, Why You Need a Threat Intelligence Program, we examined some examples of data, information, and intelligence. Often, these terms are thrown around the information security industry, which leads to both confusion and the terms being misemployed. However, examining each term through the lens of CTI, there are distinct differences that should be examined to better understand how that data, ultimately, becomes intelligence.
So far, the maturity from data into intelligence has been done via the processes we've covered in this book, including data collection, processing, and exploitation, as shown in the following diagram:
Imagine that the vertically extended oval shapes are lenses that represent the phases of the intelligence life cycle. Also, imagine that the cone shape indicates light shining through the lenses...