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Danny Pickens

Director, Cyber Threat Intelligence

Danny Pickens has more than fifteen years of experience in the fields of military intelligence, counterterrorism and cyber security. As the director of Optiv’s cyber threat intelligence (CTI) practice, Pickens is responsible for the direction and operations of a staff of CTI analysts and consultants charged with conducting research and analysis to support clients with strategic advisement and consulting in the area of intelligence for business alignment and decision advantage.

Operationalizing a Cyber Threat Intelligence Solution

December 21, 2016 · By Danny Pickens ·

Cyber threat intelligence is a process required to make action-oriented, judgement-based decisions that are not otherwise possible. Optiv recommends considering four essential attributes of threat agents mapped back to a security posture, as well as six essentials courses of action, known as threat modeling, in order to properly produce, consume and act upon cyber threat intelligence.

Using MICE to Understand Your Adversary

October 7, 2014 · By gTIC, Danny Pickens ·

There are many different reasons why malicious actors would attack your network and assets; some for monetary gain and others just for fun. Intelligence officers use the acronym “MICE” to determine what would push a potential source of intelligence information over to providing such information to a U.S. intelligence official (Crumpton, 2012).

Five Things to Consider for a Successful Intelligence Team - Part 5

September 4, 2014 · By gTIC, Danny Pickens ·

The previous four parts in this series have covered subjects necessary to make an intelligence staff a successful endeavor for an enterprise. In this final piece, I want to concentrate on how to pull it all together and make the team operational. As stated in Part 1: Invest in the Proper People and Tools, “Threat intelligence in our industry is evolving.

Five Things to Consider for a Successful Intelligence Team - Part 4

August 26, 2014 · By gTIC, Danny Pickens ·

In Part 3, “Allow for Open Communication,” I talked about the need for open communication to and from the intelligence team. For this edition, I am going to go further into the necessity of communication, but from a sharing perspective; yes, even outside of your own organization. For many, the thought of giving up information surrounding detected and even successful attacks to others in the same industry, competitors included, sends up red flags.

Five Things to Consider for a Successful Intelligence Team - Part 3

July 31, 2014 · By gTIC, Danny Pickens ·

Part 1 and Part 2 of this series concentrated on people, tools and encouraging DEVOPS. All of these are great considerations when building or beginning intelligence operations to support information security programs. They go a long way in establishing and providing support to Security Operations Centers, or security operations in any form, but to take it a step further an organization should allow for open communication of the intelligence staff.

Five Things to Consider for a Successful Intelligence Team - Part 2

July 24, 2014 · By gTIC, Danny Pickens ·

In Part 1 of this series, I covered the need to invest in the proper people and tools for the intelligence team. This consisted of identifying those with the necessary skills and understanding of intelligence methodologies, while also looking at some necessary tools for the collection, storage and analysis of intelligence information. In this edition, I will go a little further into tools, but from a development standpoint also known as Development Operations (DEVOPS).

Five Things to Consider for a Successful Intelligence Team - Part 1

July 17, 2014 · By gTIC, Danny Pickens ·

I’ve had the opportunity to travel a bit and “evangelize” about Intelligence - what it is and the basic methodology surrounding it. The “Take Away” portion covers five areas of consideration for organizations wanting to set up their own intelligence shop and be successful. I will be breaking these down in more detail over the course of this five part series.

News Brief - OpenSSL "Heartbleed" Bug

April 14, 2014 · By Danny Pickens ·

The "Heartbleed" bug disclosed on April 7 had serious implications for businesses and consumers alike. Senior Research Analyst Danny Pickens gives us a rundown of the vulnerability and how to minimize its impact.

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