Monitoring your cyberspace requires a combination of tools, skilled personnel, and an effective alerting system. But what if you have none of these in place? How can you still gain visibility into potential threats targeting your organization?
The good news is that even without a full-fledged security infrastructure, you can leverage free and online threat intelligence services to monitor your digital footprint. However, you cannot replace a human being with anything. No matter what tools you have, skilled professionals are essential for effective security monitoring. The following platforms provide critical insights that help identify vulnerabilities, detect malicious activity, and enhance your security posture without requiring extensive resources.
Below are five key platforms, their use cases, and simple examples of how to use them.
Shadowserver (shadowserver.org)
Shadowserver collects and analyzes global cybersecurity data, offering free daily reports on threats such as DDOS, bots, botnets, ASN etc.
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Use Case: An organization can get alerts for network misconfigurations like open resolvers or misused NTP services or exposed devices within its network, allowing them to isolate and remediate threats before they cause financial losses.
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How to Use:
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Visit Shadowserver’s report page.
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Register with your organization’s domain or internet resources to receive daily reports.
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Analyze the reports and take action on any detected threats.
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VirusTotal (virustotal.com)
VirusTotal aggregates malware scanning results from multiple antivirus engines and reputation services, helping organizations analyze files, URLs, and IPs for threats.
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Use Case: IoC’s such as IP, url, domain, hash or even a file can be uploaded to virustotal for scanning within a minute using more than sixty antivirus engine for getting a bigger visibility of the sample.
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How to Use:
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Go to VirusTotal.
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Upload a suspicious file or enter a URL, IP, or hash for scanning.
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Review the scan results and take action if threats are detected.
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Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) (haveibeenpwned.com)
HIBP enables companies to monitor their domains for leaked credentials, helping them respond proactively to data breaches.
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Use Case: An enterprise IT department monitors employee emails with HIBP, prompting users to change passwords when their credentials appear in a breach, reducing the risk of account takeovers.
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How to Use:
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Visit HIBP.
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Enter an email address or domain to check for breaches.
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Set up notifications for future breaches and enforce password changes when necessary.
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AbuseIPDB(abuseipdb.com)
AbuseIPDB is a community-driven threat intelligence service that tracks and reports malicious IP addresses.
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Use Case: IT staff can manually check suspicious IP addresses (e.g., from server logs or failed login attempts) using the AbuseIPDB web interface.
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How to Use:
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Go to AbuseIPDB.
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Enter an IP address to check if it has been reported for malicious activity.
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Use their API to integrate abuse reports into your firewall or security tools.
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Information Is Beautiful (informationisbeautiful.net)
This platform transforms complex data into visual insights, making cybersecurity threats easier to understand.
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Use Case: A cybersecurity awareness team uses Information Is Beautiful’s data visualizations to educate employees on phishing tactics, improving overall security hygiene.
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How to Use:
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Visit Information Is Beautiful.
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Browse cybersecurity-related infographics.
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Use the visuals in awareness training or presentations to simplify complex security topics.
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These platforms are easy to use, and with simple integrations, they can provide immense value to security teams and businesses looking to stay ahead of cyber threats.
About the Author: Imtiaz is working in a financial organization in Bangladesh and having experience in system, network and security administration. Feel free to contact with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.