Threat Intelligence Procedure Template (ISO/IEC 27001 A.5.7)

Threat intelligence for A.5.7: strategic, tactical, operational levels, requirements, sources, lifecycle, prioritisation, TLP, actions, log, metrics

ISMS और ISO/IEC 27001पूर्णISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.7 (cited only); ISO/IEC 27002:2022; ISO/IEC 27005:2022threat intelligence procedureअपडेट किया गया 1 नव॰ 2026

एडिटर में खोलें.md डाउनलोड करें

उपयोग कैसे करें: Use it to run a threat intelligence process that changes risks, patches, detections and training. Fill the intelligence requirements and the source register first. The main pitfall is a feed subscription with no analysis, no actions and no log to show the auditor.

प्रीव्यू

Threat Intelligence Procedure: [Organization name]

Describes how [Organization name] collects, analyses, shares and acts on information about information security threats, so that risk assessments, controls, detection and awareness reflect the threats the organization actually faces. It supports ISO/IEC 27001:2022 + Amd 1:2024 Annex A control A.5.7 (threat intelligence, new in the 2022 edition), with guidance from ISO/IEC 27002:2022, and feeds clauses 6.1.2 and 8.2 (risk assessment). Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

Document control

Field	Value
Document ID	DOC-ISMS-045
Version	[1.0]
Status	[Draft / In review / Approved / Superseded]
Owner	[@security-lead]
Approvers/reviewers	[@isms-manager], [@ciso or cto], [@head-of-it-operations]
Last updated	YYYY-MM-DD
Classification	[Internal; intelligence products marked with TLP labels]
Standard and edition	ISO/IEC 27001:2022 + Amd 1:2024 (A.5.7, 6.1.2, 8.2); ISO/IEC 27002:2022
Next scheduled review	YYYY-MM-DD (at least every 12 months)
Cadence	[Daily triage, weekly summary, quarterly strategic brief]
Related records	Intelligence log (section 9), risk register DOC-ISMS-016, vulnerability remediation tracker DOC-ISMS-072

Approvals

Role	Name	Decision	Date
Procedure owner	[@security-lead]	[Prepared]	YYYY-MM-DD
ISMS manager	[@isms-manager]	[Reviewed]	YYYY-MM-DD
Top management sponsor	[@ciso or cto]	[Approved]	YYYY-MM-DD

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Change
0.1	YYYY-MM-DD	[@author]	First draft
1.0	YYYY-MM-DD	[@author]	Approved for issue
[x.y]	YYYY-MM-DD	[@author]	[Change summary]

1. Purpose and scope
2. Levels of threat intelligence
3. Intelligence requirements
4. Sources
5. Intelligence lifecycle
6. Analysis and prioritisation
7. Dissemination and handling
8. Actions and integration with ISMS processes
9. Intelligence log
10. Feedback and metrics
11. Roles and responsibilities
12. Size tiers
13. Records and evidence
14. References
Standard and licence note

1. Purpose and scope

This procedure sets out how threat information is turned into intelligence that supports decisions at [Organization name]. It covers:

information about threats, threat actors, their methods and their targets that is relevant to the organization's sector, technology and geography;
information about actively exploited vulnerabilities in technology the organization uses;
indicators of compromise (IOCs) and detection content;
sharing intelligence with trusted communities.

It applies to all systems, cloud services and locations within the ISMS scope (DOC-ISMS-002). Vulnerability scanning and patching are run under security/vulnerability-management-policy; incident handling under the incident response plan (DOC-ISMS-020). This procedure supplies inputs to both and receives feedback from both.

Objectives:

Know which threats matter most to the organization and keep that view current.
Act on urgent threats (for example a newly exploited vulnerability in an internet-facing product) within the target times in section 6.
Feed risk assessments, control selection, detection rules and awareness with current threat information.
Contribute to and benefit from trusted sharing communities.

2. Levels of threat intelligence

Level	Question it answers	Audience	Typical products	Horizon
Strategic	Which threat actors and trends affect our business, sector and regions, and how is the risk changing?	Top management, steering committee, risk owners	Quarterly threat brief, input to annual risk assessment and management review	Months to years
Tactical	Which techniques and tools do relevant actors use, and do our controls cover them?	Security architects, control owners, IT operations	Technique coverage review (for example mapped to MITRE ATT&CK), control improvement proposals	Weeks to months
Operational	What specific attack, campaign or exploit is happening now, and what should we do today?	Security operations, IT administrators, incident responders	Alerts, IOC lists, emergency patch notices, detection rules	Hours to days

3. Intelligence requirements

Req ID	Intelligence requirement	Driven by	Level	Consumer
PIR-001 (Example)	Which ransomware groups target our sector, and which initial access methods are they using this quarter?	RISK-004 ransomware (risk register)	Strategic and tactical	Steering committee, security team
PIR-002 (Example)	Is any vulnerability in our internet-facing products being exploited in the wild?	Asset inventory, internet-facing systems list	Operational	IT operations, platform team
PIR-003 (Example)	Are our domains, brands or executives being impersonated in phishing campaigns?	RISK-009 credential theft	Operational	Security team, awareness lead
PIR-004 (Example)	Are any of our cloud providers or critical suppliers reporting security incidents?	Supplier register DOC-ISMS-066	Operational	ISMS manager, supplier owners
PIR-005 (Example)	Have credentials belonging to our domains appeared in public breach data or criminal markets?	RISK-009 credential theft	Operational	Identity team
PIR-006 (Example)	What new legal or regulatory reporting expectations follow from major threat campaigns?	Legal register DOC-ISMS-014	Strategic	Legal counsel, ISMS manager

Keep the list short: 5 to 10 requirements is enough for most organizations; a small organization can start with 4 or 5 (section 12).

4. Sources

4.1 Source categories

Category	Examples	Typical value	Cost
National CERTs and CSIRTs, government agencies	National cybersecurity centre advisories, sector alerts, CISA advisories and the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalogue	Authoritative alerts on exploited vulnerabilities and campaigns	Free
Information sharing and analysis centres (ISACs) and sector groups	Sector ISAC membership, regional sharing groups (see DOC-ISMS-069)	Peer intelligence, sector-specific IOCs, early warnings	Membership fee or free
Technology vendors	Security advisories and bulletins from vendors of products in the asset inventory, cloud provider security bulletins	Patches, workarounds, product-specific exploitation notes	Free with the product
Vulnerability scoring data	NVD and CVE records, FIRST CVSS v4.0 scores, FIRST EPSS probabilities	Prioritisation data for vulnerabilities	Free
Open sources	Security research blogs, conference talks, open IOC feeds, MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base	Technique descriptions, campaign reports	Free
Commercial intelligence services	Threat intelligence platform subscriptions, brand and credential monitoring	Curated, enriched intelligence; dark web monitoring	Paid
Internal sources	SIEM and EDR alerts, incident records (DOC-ISMS-021), phishing reports from staff, honeypots	Intelligence about attacks on the organization itself	Internal effort
Suppliers and customers	Incident notifications under contract, shared alerts	Supply chain threats	Contractual

4.2 Source register

Source ID	Source	Category	Requirements served	Delivery	Reliability rating	Owner	Last reviewed
SRC-001 (Example)	CISA KEV catalogue	Government agency	PIR-002	JSON feed, daily automated check against the asset inventory	A, reliable	Platform team	2026-09-30
SRC-002 (Example)	National CERT advisories	National CERT	PIR-001, PIR-002	E-mail and RSS	A, reliable	Security lead	2026-09-30
SRC-003 (Example)	Sector ISAC portal	ISAC	PIR-001, PIR-003	Portal and TAXII 2.1 feed	B, usually reliable	Security lead	2026-09-30
SRC-004 (Example)	Cloud provider security bulletins	Vendor	PIR-002, PIR-004	E-mail and status page	A, reliable	Platform team	2026-09-30
SRC-005 (Example)	Staff phishing report button	Internal	PIR-003	Mailbox and ticket	B, usually reliable	Security operations	2026-09-30
SRC-006 (Example)	Credential exposure monitoring service	Commercial	PIR-005	Alert e-mail and API	B, usually reliable	Identity team	2026-09-30

Reliability scale (Example): A reliable, B usually reliable, C fairly reliable, D not usually reliable, E unreliable, F cannot be judged. Rate the information separately from the source when needed (confirmed, probably true, possibly true, doubtful).

5. Intelligence lifecycle

Step	What happens	Who	Output
1. Direction	Set and review intelligence requirements (section 3)	Security lead with ISMS manager and risk owners	PIR list, annual review record
2. Collection	Receive items from the source register, automated where possible	Security operations, platform team	Raw items in the intelligence mailbox, platform or ticket queue
3. Processing	Remove duplicates, normalise formats (for example STIX 2.1), enrich with asset and exposure data	Security operations	Candidate items
4. Analysis	Decide relevance, confidence and priority (section 6)	Analyst on duty	Log entry with priority
5. Dissemination	Send the right product to the right audience with a TLP label (section 7)	Analyst, security lead	Alert, ticket, weekly summary, quarterly brief
6. Action	Owners act: patch, block, add detection, update risk, brief staff (section 8)	Control owners	Change, ticket, risk update
7. Feedback	Consumers rate usefulness; metrics reviewed (section 10)	Security lead	Feedback record, source changes

6. Analysis and prioritisation

6.1 Relevance test

An item is relevant when at least one answer is yes:

Does it concern a product, version or service listed in the asset inventory (DOC-ISMS-012) or the cloud service register (DOC-ISMS-044)?
Does it concern our sector, a region where we operate, or a supplier in the supplier register?
Does it describe a technique that our current controls or detections do not cover?
Does it mention our domains, brands, staff or customers?

6.2 Priority levels

Priority	Criteria	Target time to first action (Example)	Example action
P1 Urgent	Active exploitation of a relevant vulnerability on an internet-facing system (for example listed in CISA KEV or confirmed by a CERT), or an active campaign naming the organization	24 hours	Emergency change, temporary block, threat hunt, executive notice
P2 High	Exploitation likely (for example high EPSS probability or public exploit code) for a relevant internal system, or a campaign targeting our sector	7 days	Planned patch, detection rule, targeted awareness message
P3 Medium	Relevant technique or trend with no immediate exposure	30 days	Control review, risk register update
P4 Information	Background or strategic context	Next quarterly brief	Include in strategic brief

Where intelligence concerns a vulnerability, the priority above sets the deadline in the vulnerability remediation tracker (DOC-ISMS-072) and overrides a lower priority derived from CVSS alone. CISA SSVC decision trees can support this decision if the team already uses them.

6.3 Confidence

Record confidence in the assessment as High, Moderate or Low, based on source reliability, corroboration from a second source and how directly the item applies to the organization. Low-confidence P1 items are still acted on, with a note to re-check.

7. Dissemination and handling

Product	Audience	Frequency (Example)	Format	Default TLP
Urgent alert	IT operations, affected system owners, incident manager	As needed (P1)	Ticket plus chat message	TLP:AMBER
Weekly threat summary	Security team, IT leads, ISMS manager	Weekly	One page	TLP:AMBER
IOC and detection package	SOC, detection engineers	As needed	Machine-readable (STIX 2.1 or CSV)	Per source label
Quarterly strategic brief	Steering committee, risk owners	Quarterly	2 to 4 pages	TLP:AMBER
Awareness note	All staff	Monthly or as needed	Intranet post or e-mail	TLP:CLEAR
Sharing contribution	ISAC or sharing group	As needed	Community format	TLP:GREEN or TLP:AMBER

Handling rules:

Respect the TLP label set by the source. TLP:RED information is not forwarded; TLP:AMBER+STRICT stays within the organization.
Remove personal data and customer identifiers before sharing outside the organization, unless a legal basis and an agreement allow it.
Store intelligence according to its classification (DOC-ISMS-042).
Before contributing to a sharing group, the security lead checks that the contribution does not reveal confidential information about ongoing incidents, customers or legal matters.

8. Actions and integration with ISMS processes

ISMS process	How threat intelligence feeds it	Record
Risk assessment (6.1.2, 8.2)	Strategic brief updates likelihood ratings and adds new scenarios; P1 and P2 items can trigger an out-of-cycle reassessment	Risk register DOC-ISMS-016, threat catalogue DOC-ISMS-018
Control selection and SoA (6.1.3)	Technique coverage gaps lead to new or improved controls	Risk treatment plan DOC-ISMS-013
Vulnerability management (A.8.8)	Exploitation data raises priorities and sets deadlines	Vulnerability remediation tracker DOC-ISMS-072
Monitoring and detection (A.8.16)	IOCs and technique reports become detection rules and hunts	Detection rule specification (`security/detection-rule-spec`), monitoring procedure DOC-ISMS-064
Network and web filtering (A.8.20, A.8.23)	Malicious domains and IPs added to block lists with an expiry	Block list change record
Incident management (A.5.24 to A.5.28)	Context for triage, attribution and scoping; incidents produce internal intelligence	Incident register DOC-ISMS-021
Awareness (A.6.3)	Current phishing lures and scams used in training and simulations	Awareness programme, phishing simulation plan DOC-ISMS-074
Supplier management (A.5.19 to A.5.22)	Supplier breach reports trigger supplier reviews	Supplier register DOC-ISMS-066
Management review (9.3)	Quarterly brief summarised as an input on changes in external issues	Management review minutes DOC-ISMS-085

9. Intelligence log

TI ID	Date received	Source	Summary	Requirement	Priority	Confidence	Affected assets	Action and record	Owner	Closed
TI-2027-001 (Example)	2027-01-08	SRC-001 CISA KEV	Remote code execution in the VPN appliance model used at two offices, exploited in the wild	PIR-002	P1	High	Two VPN gateways	Emergency change CHG-2027-004, patched within 18 hours, hunt found no compromise	Platform team	2027-01-09
TI-2027-002 (Example)	2027-01-15	SRC-003 ISAC	Phishing campaign against the sector impersonating a payroll provider	PIR-003	P2	Moderate	All staff mailboxes	Mail filter rule MFR-112, awareness note to all staff, used in February simulation	Security operations	2027-01-17
TI-2027-003 (Example)	2027-01-22	SRC-002 National CERT	Ransomware group shifting to abuse of remote management tools	PIR-001	P3	Moderate	Endpoints with remote support tools	Detection rule DET-045, risk RISK-004 likelihood reviewed (unchanged at 3)	Security lead	2027-02-10
TI-2027-004 (Example)	2027-02-03	SRC-006 credential monitoring	3 staff credentials found in a third-party breach dataset	PIR-005	P2	High	3 user accounts	Passwords reset, sessions revoked, MFA confirmed, users informed	Identity team	2027-02-03
TI-2027-005 (Example)	2027-02-11	SRC-004 cloud provider	Provider reports a service incident in a managed database service in a region not used by the organization	PIR-004	P4	High	None	No action, noted in weekly summary	Platform team	2027-02-11

10. Feedback and metrics

10.1 Feedback

After each P1 action and each quarterly brief, the consumer answers three questions: Was it relevant? Was it timely? Did it lead to an action? The security lead reviews the answers quarterly and adds, tunes or removes sources.

10.2 Metrics

Metric ID	Metric	Target (Example)	Source
TI-M01	Median time from receipt to first action for P1 items	24 hours or less	Intelligence log
TI-M02	Share of P1 and P2 items with a recorded action and record ID	100%	Intelligence log
TI-M03	Number of risk register updates triggered by intelligence per quarter	At least 1	Risk register history
TI-M04	Number of detection rules created or tuned from intelligence per quarter	At least 2	Detection rule records
TI-M05	Share of sources that produced at least one relevant item in 12 months	80% or more	Source register
TI-M06	Contributions made to sharing groups per year	At least 2	Sharing records

Worked example (Example): in the first quarter of 2027 the team logged 5 relevant items (TI-2027-001 to TI-2027-005): 1 P1, 2 P2, 1 P3 and 1 P4. All 3 P1 and P2 items had a recorded action (TI-M02 = 100%). The single P1 item was actioned in 18 hours (TI-M01 met).

11. Roles and responsibilities

Role	Responsibility
Security lead (procedure owner)	Owns this procedure, the requirements and the source register; produces the quarterly brief; manages sharing group membership
Analyst on duty	Daily triage, relevance and priority decisions, log entries, urgent alerts
IT operations and platform team	Act on operational intelligence: patches, blocks, configuration changes
Detection engineers or SOC	Turn IOCs and techniques into detections and hunts
Risk owners	Update risks when intelligence changes likelihood or impact
ISMS manager	Ensures intelligence reaches risk assessment and management review; checks evidence
Awareness lead	Uses current threats in training and simulations
Legal counsel	Advises on sharing personal data and on legal limits of intelligence collection

12. Size tiers

Aspect	Small: Quillmere Analytics Ltd (46 staff)	Medium: Quillmere Health Systems (320 staff)	Large: Quillmere Group (2,400 staff, 6 sites)
Staffing	ISMS manager (0.5 FTE, Head of Engineering Operations) runs full triage twice a week with an engineer as deputy; the automated daily KEV check alerts the on-call engineer so P1 items still meet the 24-hour target	One analyst in the 3-person security team owns triage, rotating deputy	Dedicated intelligence function within the 14-person security office, regional contacts at each site
Sources (Example)	CISA KEV automated check, national CERT, cloud provider bulletins, vendor advisories for about 15 key products	Adds health sector ISAC, credential monitoring, EDR vendor intelligence	Adds commercial intelligence platform, OT-specific advisories for plant control systems, ISACs in 4 countries
Tooling	Shared mailbox, ticket queue, spreadsheet log	Ticketing integrated with SIEM, IOC import into EDR	Threat intelligence platform with STIX and TAXII, automated enrichment, SOC integration
Products	Weekly summary of half a page, quarterly brief to the CTO	Weekly summary, monthly awareness note, quarterly brief to the steering committee	Daily operational digest, weekly regional summaries, quarterly board-level brief, OT bulletins for plants
Requirements	4 to 5 PIRs tied to platform and credential risks	6 to 8 PIRs including healthcare customer threats	10 or more PIRs per business line, including OT and supply chain
Sharing	Receives only, at first	Receives and contributes to the sector ISAC	Active member of several ISACs, contributes regularly

13. Records and evidence

Record	Proves	Owner	Location	Retention (Example)
Intelligence requirements (PIR list) with review date	Direction is set and reviewed	Security lead	[ISMS document repository]	Current plus previous 2 versions
Source register	Sources are chosen, rated and reviewed	Security lead	[Repository]	Current plus 2 years
Intelligence log	Items are analysed, prioritised and acted on	Analyst on duty	[Ticket system or log file]	3 years
Weekly summaries and quarterly briefs	Intelligence is disseminated to the right audiences	Security lead	[Repository]	3 years
Action records (changes, tickets, detection rules, risk updates)	Intelligence leads to action	Control owners	[Change and ticket systems]	Per the owning process
Feedback and metrics reports	The process is evaluated and improved	Security lead	[Measurement programme records]	3 years
Sharing group memberships and agreements	Sharing is authorised and rules are known	Security lead	DOC-ISMS-069	Life of membership plus 1 year

Reference this procedure in the Statement of Applicability (DOC-ISMS-011) against A.5.7 and list the records in isms/control-evidence-matrix.

14. References

Reference	Edition or version (checked 2026-11-01)	Use
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 + Amd 1:2024, https://www.iso.org/standard/82875.html and https://www.iso.org/standard/88435.html	Current	A.5.7, clauses 6.1.2 and 8.2
ISO/IEC 27002:2022, https://www.iso.org/standard/75652.html	Current	Guidance on strategic, tactical and operational intelligence
ISO/IEC 27005:2022, https://www.iso.org/standard/80585.html	Current	Use of threat information in risk assessment
CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog	Live catalogue, CSV and JSON	Exploited vulnerability source
FIRST CVSS v4.0, https://www.first.org/cvss/	Published November 2023	Vulnerability severity scoring
FIRST EPSS, https://www.first.org/epss/	Daily scores, free	Exploitation probability
FIRST Traffic Light Protocol 2.0, https://www.first.org/tlp/	August 2022	Sharing labels
MITRE ATT&CK, https://attack.mitre.org/	v20.0 (October 2026); check for newer versions	Technique taxonomy for tactical intelligence
OASIS STIX 2.1 and TAXII 2.1	OASIS Standards, June 2021	Exchange formats
NIST CSF 2.0 (CSWP 29)	February 2024	ID.RA outcomes on threat intelligence (optional mapping)
Related templates		`isms/authority-special-interest-contacts`, `isms/isms-threat-vulnerability-catalogue`, `compliance/risk-register`, `security/vulnerability-management-policy`, `isms/vulnerability-remediation-tracker`, `security/detection-rule-spec`, `security/soc-playbook`, `isms/security-monitoring-procedure`, `isms/phishing-simulation-plan`, `isms/control-evidence-matrix`

Standard and licence note

Structure aligned with ISO/IEC 27001:2022 + Amd 1:2024 (Annex A control A.5.7 and clauses 6.1.2 and 8.2), ISO/IEC 27002:2022 and ISO/IEC 27005:2022. Control and clause numbers are cited with original short labels; the procedure text, tables and examples are original, and no text from ISO/IEC standards is reproduced. Obtain the official standards from ISO, IEC or your national standards body. CISA, FIRST, MITRE, OASIS and NIST materials are cited by name and version only. Check the current edition or version of each reference before use.

Template licence: MIT.