The Strategic Edge: Significance of Geopolitics and Language in Threat Intelligence

Threat intelligence researcher at the Deutsche Cyber-Sicherheitsorganisation (DCSO) focusing on Russia linked threat activity, with a background in defensive cyber operations and International Relations.

Understanding geopolitics and languages are not always thought of as being integral to fields like cybersecurity. However, having a good grasp on both of these is imperative in threat intelligence. Geopolitics helps add context to activity in cyberspace, giving analysts a better understanding of actor and state motivations and perhaps a more informed ability to make predictions about the future behaviour of threat actors in the cyber threat landscape. Language, in turn, helps researchers dig deeper, provides higher degree of confidence in attributions, and allows them to better grasp the cultural factors driving the actors they study.