Data Model

The Intelligence Center uses the industry standard STIX (version 2.1) to represent information.

Objects

STIX uses JSON objects with pre-defined schemas to represent Cyber Threat Intelligence data. The knowledge graph is based on nodes (STIX Domain Objects or SDO) and relationships (STIX Relationship Objects or SRO).

The Intelligence Center supports the following STIX Domain Objects:

objects-types

Observables

An observable is a technical information that can detect a potential threat. They are derived from all data contained in the Intelligence Center but are not always contextualized.

Note

If an observable clearly represent a malicious activity then it is an IoC (Indicator of Compromise).

Observables are automatically extracted from various sources : public, subscriptions, partners, SEKOIA internal analysis.

The Intelligence Center supports the following observables:

observables-types

What is the difference between an indicator and an observable?

To understand the difference between an indicator (an object type) and an observable, we have to dig deeper into the definition of each one of these.

Observables

These are different kinds of technical artifacts
They are not necessary malicious (example: google.com)
They can be enriched with tags to contextualize the (non)-threat
- These tags allow you to enrich logs/events in Sekoia.io XDR
They are not provided in the CTI feed (API / TAXII / MISP, etc.)
They don’t directly raise alerts in Sekoia.io XDR but tag-based detection rules can be created to allow that
They can be manually enriched through the web application and can have dedicated relations (for example : resolves-to, belongs-to, etc.)
They are usable (thanks to the tags system) within Sekoia.io XDR to create warning rules that provide context to the analysts who are in charge of producing Intelligence or to avoid false positives creation.

Indicators

These are Indicators of Compromise (IoC)
They are always related to a threat (malware, campaign, intrusion set, threat actor, vulnerability, etc.) and they are always contextualized with a confidence rating, a validity date and a Kill chain phase
They are based on observables
They are exported in the CTI feed (API / TAXII / MISP, etc.) to allow a contextualized detection
They raise real-time alerts in Sekoia.io XDR but also in the past through retro hunting which depends on the validity period of the indicator and the log retention duration

External Sources

One of the founding principle of the Intelligence Center is the consolidation of information coming from several sources.

Sources are represented in STIX by Identity objects.

Our consolidation strategy means that the created_by_ref field of the STIX objects will always be set to the SEKOIA identity. The sources that contributed to one of our STIX object are available, as references, in the x_inthreat_sources_refs custom field.

As an exemple, here are parts of a Spearphishing Link object:

{
  "type": "attack-pattern",
  "name": "Spearphishing Link",
  "id": "attack-pattern--6cd1a813-ccdf-4ba0-9b54-cb808f1059cc",

  "created_by_ref": "identity--357447d7-9229-4ce1-b7fa-f1b83587048e",  # SEKOIA

  "x_inthreat_sources_refs": [
    "identity--357447d7-9229-4ce1-b7fa-f1b83587048e",  # SEKOIA
    "identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5"   # The MITRE Corporation
  ],

  [...]
}

Confidence

STIX 2.1 adds an optional confidence field for an object creator to express how confident we are about the information.

When specified, this confidence level on objects should be read with the Admiralty Credibility scale.

Number	Meaning	Details
1	Confirmed by other sources	Confirmed by other independent sources; logical in itself; Consistent with other information on the subject
2	Probably true	Not confirmed; logical in itself; consistent with other information on the subject
3	Possibly true	Not confirmed; reasonably logical in itself; agrees with some other information on the subject
4	Doubtful	Not confirmed; possible but not logical; no other information on the subject
5	Improbable	Not confirmed; not logical in itself; contradicted by other information on the subject
6	Truth cannot be judged	No basis exists for evaluating the validity of the information

Reliability

Next to the source (object type: Identity), the confidence score may be specified to express the source's reliability. When specified, this reliability level should be read with the Admiralty Reliability scale.

Letter	Meaning	Details
A	Completely reliable	No doubt of authenticity, trustworthiness, or competency; has a history of complete reliability
B	Usually reliable	Minor doubt about authenticity, trustworthiness, or competency; has a history of valid information most of the time
C	Fairly reliable	Doubt of authenticity, trustworthiness, or competency but has provided valid information in the past
D	Not usually reliable	Significant doubt about authenticity, trustworthiness, or competency but has provided valid information in the past
E	Unreliable	Lacking in authenticity, trustworthiness, and competency; history of invalid information
F	Reliability cannot be judged	No basis exists for evaluating the reliability of the source