What Is Threat Intelligence and How Does It Work in Cybersecurity?

By Patrick Duggan, DugganUSA LLC • April 2, 2026

DugganUSA discovered that most organizations consume threat intelligence passively — waiting for vendor advisories that arrive days or weeks after initial compromise. We built a system that eliminates that gap entirely.

Threat Intelligence Defined

Threat intelligence is the collection, analysis, and distribution of information about current and emerging cyber threats. It transforms raw data — IP addresses, domain names, file hashes, URLs — into actionable indicators of compromise (IOCs) that security teams use to detect and block attacks before they succeed.

How DugganUSA Automates Threat Intelligence

DugganUSA's 3-layer cascade pipeline processes threat data at machine speed:

Why Automation Matters

DugganUSA has resolved 2.9 million block events to 12,216 distinct hosts without human intervention — one scanner knocking 4,000 times is one attacker, not 4,000 saves, and we count it that way. Measured across 5,288 blocks in August 2026, the edge shield stopped 1,638 distinct hosts where list-only defence stops 55: 30x the reach, at effectively zero marginal cost. 81.3% were caught behaviourally — four in five attackers appeared on no blocklist anywhere. Manual processes cannot match this speed, and static lists cannot match this reach.

Getting Started

DugganUSA's STIX 2.1 feed is free for up to 25 API calls per day. It integrates natively with Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, CrowdStrike Falcon, Cortex XSOAR, Wiz, and OPNsense. Register for a free API key to start consuming threat intelligence in minutes.

Key Statistics

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25 API calls/day. STIX 2.1 feed. No credit card required.

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