Cyber Threat Intelligence Planning

A Special Forces Approach
1. Auflage 2027
ISBN: 978-1-041-15518-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm

Cyber threat intelligence has a discipline problem. Analysts are asked to make high-stakes judgments about adversary intent and capability, yet the field still lacks the structured, repeatable tradecraft that other intelligence disciplines have relied on for decades. Cyber Threat Intelligence Planning: A Special Forces Approach closes that gap by bringing battle-tested U.S. Army Special Forces and intelligence doctrine into civilian CTI practice.

Drawing on the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) and Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment (IPOE), authors Christopher Ruel, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran, and Ivan "Ajay" Menendez translate planning frameworks built for the battlefield into a rigorous methodology for identifying, assessing, and countering cyber adversaries. Rather than treating threat intelligence as an ad hoc collection of indicators and feeds, the book reframes it as a formal planning cycle: mission analysis, adversary courses of action, red-teaming assumptions, and decision-focused reporting that gives leadership what it actually needs to act.

The book grounds this Special Forces planning methodology in the standards civilian practitioners already work within, mapping its approach to the NIST NICE Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity and NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0. The result is a methodology that is doctrinally sound and immediately usable inside existing security operations, GRC, and workforce-development programs.

Written for CTI analysts, SOC leads, threat hunters, security program managers, and students in cybersecurity and intelligence studies, the book combines conceptual grounding with practical exercises, giving readers a repeatable planning process rather than a one-off case study. It is as much a workforce-development tool as an analytic one, useful for training new analysts, standardizing team tradecraft, and building intelligence functions that can withstand scrutiny.

At its core, the book makes an argument that has been overdue in the field: Cyber Threat Intelligence will not mature as a discipline until it adopts the same planning rigor that Special Forces intelligence work has always demanded. Cyber Threat Intelligence Planning offers the field-proven structure to get there.

Zielgruppe

Professional Practice & Development, Professional Reference, and Professional Training

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ruel, Christopher G.

Menendez, Ivan "Ajay"

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Computerkommunikation & -vernetzung Netzwerksicherheit
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Nachrichtendienste, Geheimdienste
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Technische Informatik Computersicherheit Schadprogramme (Viren, Trojaner etc.)
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Technische Informatik Computersicherheit Kryptographie, Datenverschlüsselung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction. Chapter 1: Formalizing Cyber Threat Intelligence. Chapter 2: Analyze the Business Plan. Chapter 3: IPOE Step 1 (Define the Environment). Chapter 4: IPOE Step 2 – Describe the Effects. Chapter 5: IPOE Step 3 – Evaluate the Adversary. Chapter 6: IPOE Step 3 Supplemental – Identifying High Value Targets. Chapter 7: IPOE Step 4 – Determine Adversary Course of Action (COA). Chapter 8: Shaping the Problem. Chapter 9: Developing Intelligence Requirements. Chapter 10: Building a Collection Plan. Chapter 11: Closing Mission Analysis – Validating, Refining, and Briefing the Plan. Chapter 12: Conclusion. Annex A: Ranking for Adversary COA Prioritization – A Practitioner's Guide. Annex B: Cyber Threat Intelligence Tools.

Über Autor(innen)

Colonel Christopher G. Ruel is a Special Forces officer with over 20 years of experience in Special Operations, Civil-Military Affairs, cybersecurity, and intelligence. He holds the 38G.6R Technology and Telecommunications Specialist functional designation with the 351st Civil Affairs Command, where he advises on communications systems, technology policy, and digital capacity-building at the national and subnational level in support of stabilization and partner-nation development missions across the Pacific theater. A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), he commanded Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha 5325 through multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and later served as the battalion commander of 3-518th Infantry Regiment.

His civilian career spans an unusually broad range of industries. He served as Lead Instructor for Cyber Threat Intelligence at SecureSet Academy in Denver, where he built and taught an 84-hour CTI, strategy, and governance curriculum, trained over 80 cybersecurity professionals annually, and was voted Best Educator by the student body. At Indigo Ag, an agriculture-technology company, he held progressive roles including Chief of Staff for the Commercial North America business, Director of the Biofuels Business Unit, and Senior Process Architect for Global Operations. He is founder and principal consultant of Prometheus Consulting LLC, advising organizations on cybersecurity architecture and threat intelligence, and owner-operator of VETS Junk Removal and Dumpsters, a veteran-owned company serving the Knoxville region.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Kestrel Robotics, a physical-AI aerial robotics startup, as a civil-military and defense advisor, and previously served on the board of Aktiver, an AI company building secure decision-making systems. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Rev. Carl G. Vouros Memorial Fund in New Britain, Connecticut, directing $1M in annual community grantmaking, and founded the Indigo Ag Veterans Association employee resource group.

He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Connecticut, an MBA from the University of Tennessee, and an Masters in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College, and has help his CISSP since 2019. Outside of work, Ruel is an avid blacksmith and knifemaker. He resides in Knoxville, Tennessee with his fiancé and two sons.

Ivan ‘Ajay’ Menendez is a cybersecurity educator, practitioner, and workforce development leader with more than 35 years of experience across enterprise technology, infrastructure, cybersecurity operations, consulting, and technical education. His professional background includes systems administration, networking, storage engineering, cybersecurity architecture, threat intelligence, security information and event management, and hands-on technical instruction.

He is the founder of Black Tower Academy and Black Tower Security. Through these organizations, his work focuses on practical cybersecurity education, workforce readiness, managed security advisory services, and translating complex technical subjects into operationally useful training. He has taught cybersecurity, networking, Linux, cloud computing, threat intelligence, and related technical subjects for universities, colleges, bootcamps, private organizations, and government audiences.

Menendez holds a degree in psychology with an emphasis on applied behavioral and learning principles. This background shapes his approach to curriculum development, technical instruction, learner performance, and cybersecurity workforce development. His instructional philosophy emphasizes clear mental models, hands-on practice, operational decision-making, and the development of job-ready skills.