Innovation Heroes: How threat intelligence helps protect critical infrastructure

They’re protecting the U.S. energy grid, monitoring the dark web, and even getting shot at in Ukraine. Threat intelligence agencies are taking down criminals daily in the world of cybersecurity.

“Cisco and Talos have empowered me to go stop bad people,” says Joe Marshall, senior security strategist at Cisco Talos Intelligence Group, one of the largest commercial threat intelligence teams in the world.

He appeared on the latest episode of Innovation Heroes, a podcast by SHI, where he talked with host Ed McNamara about the role that threat intelligence plays in maintaining critical infrastructure and even saving lives.

Talos collects massive amounts of raw data from sources like the dark web, product performance data, and other research. Marshall has been involved in some of the more dangerous cyber attacks in history, alongside a diverse team of 500 people who range from linguists to engineers. Talos has been in Ukraine since 2016, focused on maintaining power grids, water systems, gas, airspaces, and other important services.

“We’ve had these watershed, history-making cybersecurity events that have happened only in Ukraine,” says Marshall, who has been to Ukraine twice.

Marshall outlines how Talos fights cyber attacks with the help of law enforcement, the United Nations, INTERPOL, and other partners. He also discusses the potential for threats against critical U.S. infrastructure, misinformation campaigns, and the evolution of cybersecurity.

Listen to the full conversation to learn more about threat intelligence. You can also find episodes on SHI’s Resource Hub, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms, and on YouTube in an all-new video format.

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