Unit 42 tackles threat intelligence on a global scale

Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 team is tasked with investigating threat data critical to preventing future cybersecurity attacks.

Wendi Whitmore, SVP of cyber consulting and threat intelligence at Palo Alto Networks, said the Unit 42 team analyzes over 1,000 threat investigations each year.

"We're aiming to get [threat] detections out within minutes to hours at the most into our products. So, operationalizing the intelligence ... it's really what you do with the intelligence, not just what intelligence you have," said Whitmore.

Since 2014, Unit 42 has worked closely with clients and law enforcement agencies to identify, analyze and evaluate cybersecurity threats.

"We were just cited last week as part of Interpol's Africa cyber surge operation, which took down hundreds of thousands of nodes throughout the world that were involved in cyber criminal attacks," said Whitmore.

You can download a lightly edited transcript of the podcast here.

Here are a few topics we covered:

• Background on Unit 42, Palo Alto Networks' threat intelligence and consulting business (00:53)
• Unit 42's work in gathering cybersecurity data and delivering threat analyses (2:20)
• Palo Alto's role in the Cyber Threat Alliance (6:06)
• More on external organizations that collaborate with Unit 42 (7:59)
• Building relationship equity and developing skill sets to succeed in the cybersecurity industry (9:14)
• 2022 was the year of credentials theft and ransomware (13:06)
• Empowering employees to be responsible for keeping enterprise data secure (15:24)

Related stories and links:

• Palo Alto execs: AI, automation solve reactionary security problem
• The Notebook Dump: We're freezing up in here
• FuboTV suffers cyberattack during World Cup semifinal

— Kelsey Kusterer Ziser, Senior Editor, Light Reading