Threat hunting vs. threat intelligence: key differences and how to use both

Understanding the difference between threat hunting and threat intelligence is essential to building a modern cybersecurity strategy. While often used in similar contexts, they are distinct functions. Relying on one without the other creates a significant gap in defense for modern security teams.

This article will define threat hunting and threat intelligence, clarify their differences, and explain how combining threat intelligence with hunting creates a more effective security approach against cyber threats.

What is threat hunting?

Threat hunting is a proactive search for malicious activity that has evaded automated security tools. Rather than waiting for an alert, human threat hunters operate on the assumption that a breach has already occurred.

The process of active threat hunting begins with a hypothesis. For example, a threat hunter might hypothesize that an attacker is using a specific technique to maintain persistence within the network.

They then search through vast amounts of data (SIEM logs, endpoint data, and network traffic) to find evidence supporting or refuting that hypothesis.

The goal of cyber threat hunting is to find unknown threats or previously unknown threats that automated systems have missed. This approach enhances an organization's threat detection capabilities: it actively searches for anomalies in system logs and user behavior, rather than waiting to respond to cyber-attacks.

What is threat intelligence?

Cyber threat intelligence, often called CTI, is evidence-based knowledge about existing or emerging threats. It includes context, mechanisms, indicators, and actionable advice. It is raw data that has been collected, processed, and analyzed to provide context about the threat landscape.

Effective threat intelligence provides answers to these questions:

• Who are the threat actors targeting our industry?
• What are their standard tools, techniques, procedures (TTPs), and attack patterns?
• What are their motivations and objectives?

This information is gathered from diverse sources, including open-source intelligence (OSINT), private security forums, dark web monitoring, social media intelligence, and technical feeds. It allows security teams to understand the potential threats they face and make decisions about security priorities. It helps move beyond a purely reactive stance on cyber incidents.

Key differences: threat hunting vs. threat intelligence

The core distinction in the threat hunting vs. threat intelligence discussion is their operational focus. Threat hunting is primarily an internal, proactive search for active compromises. Threat intelligence is the process of collecting and analyzing external data about potential threats.

This table summarizes the main differences:

So, threat hunting is an internal, proactive security exercise. It adopts an “assume breach” mindset, where threat hunters search through their own organization's data for signs of an active, undetected compromise. The goal is to answer the immediate question: “Are we compromised right now?” This investigation leads to the direct discovery of malicious activity and improves real-time threat detection capabilities. It is an active search for a fire that may already be burning inside the walls.

In contrast, threat intelligence is an external, data-driven discipline. Its purpose is to provide context and strategic insights. Security teams use threat intelligence to understand who the attackers are, what methods they use, and who they are targeting globally.

Rather than finding an active intrusion, its outcome is actionable knowledge that informs defensive strategy, resource allocation, and risk management. It answers the forward-looking question: “What are the threats we should be worried about?”

While both disciplines are critical for security, threat intelligence provides the map of potential dangers, while threat hunting is the active expedition to find those dangers within an organization's own territory.

How threat intelligence and threat hunting work together

The synergy between threat intelligence and threat hunting creates a feedback loop that improves an organization's security posture. Combining them is the hallmark of a mature security operation.

This is how the cycle works:

1. Intelligence informs the hunt: Threat analysts provide a report on a new malware variant, including its associated indicators of compromise (IOCs) and behavioral patterns. This gives threat hunting teams a specific, data-driven hypothesis and makes it more effective for threat hunting.
2. The hunt enriches intelligence: A threat hunter may validate the intelligence by finding a known IOC. More importantly, they might discover a new indicator not present in the original report, such as a new malicious IP address or a new persistence technique. This represents new, raw intelligence derived directly from observing an attack in the wild.
3. Findings become new intelligence: The new discovery is analyzed, verified, and integrated into the organization's internal threat intelligence platform. This refined intelligence is then used to strengthen automated defenses, such as updating firewall rules or creating new threat detection signatures.

This cycle, where intelligence guides the hunt and the hunt generates new intelligence, can be essential for an adaptive defense against emerging threats.

Integrating both into your cybersecurity strategy

Organizations can integrate these capabilities progressively with the following steps:

1. Establish data visibility: Effective hunting is impossible without comprehensive data. Centralize logs from endpoints, servers, firewalls, and applications into a SIEM or data lake to ensure visibility into system and user behavior.
2. Start consuming threat intelligence: Begin with high-quality open-source intelligence (OSINT) feeds from trusted sources like CISA or industry-specific ISACs. As your program matures, consider commercial feeds that provide intelligence tailored to your sector.
3. Formalize proactive threat hunting: Dedicate specific time to cyber threat hunting. Give your security teams the time and tools to be curious and investigate hypotheses. This shifts the posture from purely reactive threat hunting (responding to alerts) to proactive investigation.
4. Build the feedback loop: Create a formal process for handling findings. This process should include investigation, containment, remediation, and, most critically, a learning phase where findings are used to create new detection rules and strengthen security controls.

Conclusion

Threat intelligence and threat hunting are not opposing concepts but essential partners in a comprehensive cybersecurity program. Intelligence provides the necessary context on the threat landscape and potential threats, while hunting is the active expedition to find malicious activity within your environment.

Relying solely on intelligence without hunting is a passive strategy. Relying on hunting without intelligence lacks direction.

With both, you can create a dynamic defense system that guards against known cyber-attacks, past cyber incidents, and actively seeks out and learns from unknown threats.