How Top SOCs Stay Up-to-Date on Current Threat Landscape

The cyber-threat landscape changes hourly. Infrastructure used in phishing, malware delivery, and command-and-control campaigns appears and disappears within minutes. For a SOC that still relies on static or outdated indicators, even a few hours of delay can mean the difference between early detection and full compromise.

****When yesterday’s data means today’s breach****

Leading SOCs consider timeliness and relevance of threat data as a measurable performance driver. Their KPIs, like MTTD, MTTR, and attacker dwell time, improve directly with the timeliness of threat intelligence they ingest. Studies from major vendors and security institutes show that using continuously updated, contextual threat intelligence cuts detection and response times dramatically.

The logic is simple: the sooner analysts know what’s active in the wild, the faster they can detect, triage, and contain.

****How timely intelligence shapes SOC KPIs****

KPI

Impact of Fresh / Real-Time TI

Business Outcome

MTTD (Mean Time to Detect)

Live IOCs (IPs, URLs, hashes) from ongoing campaigns trigger detections earlier in SIEM/XDR.

Quicker identification of active infections or phishing sites.

MTTR (Mean Time to Respond)

Contextual data (TTPs, sandbox reports, relationships) shortens investigation and accelerates playbooks.

Fewer analyst hours per incident, faster remediation.

Dwell Time

Faster detection + response leaves attackers less time in the environment.

Smaller lateral movement window, lower breach impact.

Analyst Efficiency

Enriched, validated IOCs reduce false positives and manual lookups.

Lower alert fatigue, higher throughput per analyst.

Risk-Based Prioritization

Campaign and actor context enable triage by business relevance.

Resources focus on incidents that truly matter.

Fresh threat data doesn’t just improve technical KPIs, it translates into tangible business outcomes: reduced breach cost, less downtime, and stronger compliance posture.

****Threat Intelligence Feeds: Intel at the Speed of Threats****

ANY.RUN’s Threat Intelligence Feeds are built on millions of live sandbox detonations, updated continuously and adding thousands of new threats and indicators each day. Each record is validated, context-rich, and directly actionable in SIEM, TIP, and XDR systems.

• 16K+ new threats added every day
• 15K SOC teams investigating actual incidents
• 50M+ unique threats in the database, growing daily
• Automatic extraction of IOCs from real behavioural analysis sessions
• API, STIX/TAXII, and SDK integration for instant use in SOC workflows

For analysts, this means fewer blind spots and faster decisions. For business leaders, it means measurable KPI improvement and lower operational risk.

TI feeds are compatible with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), and orchestration platforms. The support of STIX and MISP formats ensures plug-and-play compatibility with tools like Splunk, QRadar, or Palo Alto Networks. This streamlines workflows, automates triage, and cuts MTTR by enabling rapid correlation of IOCs with internal telemetry. Integration reduces manual overhead, allowing teams to scale operations without adding headcount.

****How Elite SOCs Maintain Intelligence Currency****

1. Instead of waiting for threats to be analysed, categorised, and published days or weeks later, top-performing SOCs tap into live malware analysis environments where threats are being executed and analysed as they emerge in the wild.

This approach provides:

• Immediate IOC availability: URLs, domains, IPs, and file hashes from active malware samples
• Current TTP intelligence: How threats are behaving right now, not how they behaved last month
• Context-rich data: Full execution traces, network behaviour, and payload delivery mechanisms

Empower your SOC with real-time insights and cut MTTR&MTTD
Get TI Feeds trial and act on threats while they’re still active.

2. Leading SOCs don’t just collect threat intelligence; they operationalise it immediately. This means:

• Automated feed ingestion into SIEM, EDR, and threat intelligence platforms
• Continuous IOC enrichment without manual analyst intervention
• Dynamic playbook updates based on current threat behaviours
• Automated indicator scoring using freshness as a key factor

3. Elite SOCs treat threat intelligence like perishable inventory:

• Age-weighted scoring: Recent IOCs receive higher priority
• Automated expiration: Stale indicators are deprecated systematically
• Revalidation workflows: Periodically confirm IOCs remain active
• Source freshness monitoring: Track and measure intelligence provider timeliness

ANY.RUN’s Threat Intelligence Feeds are purpose-built for SOCs and MSSPs aiming to stay ahead. Measurable improvements across core security metrics include:

• MTTR Reduction: Organisations with real-time threat intelligence cut response times by identifying threats earlier in the kill chain
• Analyst Efficiency: Automation of indicator enrichment reduces per-IOC investigation time from hours to minutes
• Detection Accuracy: Current threat context reduces false positives and helps prioritise genuine threats
• Coverage Gaps: Real-time feeds prevent the blind spots created when about half of basic IOCs become useless within 48 hours.
• Business Scalability: Automated triage and integration free up analyst time, enabling MSSPs to onboard more clients without proportional cost increases.
• Strategic Alignment: Clear KPI improvements strengthen CISO reporting to boards.

****Conclusion: Intelligence Currency as Competitive Advantage****

In modern cybersecurity operations, the freshness of your threat intelligence is as important as the quality. When half of all IOCs become useless within 48 hours, waiting days or weeks for threat intelligence isn’t just inefficient. It’s operationally negligent.

Top SOCs understand that staying current on the threat landscape requires more than periodic intelligence updates. It demands real-time visibility into active threats, immediate indicator availability, and automated integration that turns intelligence into action within minutes, not days.