Without a doubt, threat intelligence has gone from being a nice-to-have for top security teams to something that every company, no matter what size or field, needs to do. However, while the value of threat intelligence is widely acknowledged, the costs associated with implementing and maintaining a full-fledged program often deter smaller teams and budget-conscious companies from building one. That is a missed opportunity.

A well-structured threat intelligence program doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, some of the most effective threat detection strategies are grounded in smart resource management, community collaboration, and leveraging existing tools. With the right mindset and approach, even a modestly funded security operations centre (SOC) can benefit from timely, relevant, and actionable threat intelligence. Here is how to start or strengthen a threat intelligence program, even with limited resources, by focusing on clarity, practicality, and prioritisation.

Define clear objectives and scope

You do not need enterprise-grade platforms to kickstart your threat intelligence work. The open-source ecosystem has matured significantly, offering tools that cover everything from indicator ingestion to threat sharing and analysis. MISP (Malware Information Sharing Platform), TheHive, and Wazuh are just a few examples of tools used by teams globally, many of which are maintained and supported by the cybersecurity community itself. For example, MISP can act as a central hub for collecting IOCs (Indicators of Compromise), mapping them to campaigns, and enriching them with additional context. Combined with scripting or automation tools like Python or CRON jobs, you can build repeatable intelligence workflows that run with minimal overhead.

However, these tools are not always 100% free in practice. While the software might have no licensing cost, hidden costs emerge when scaling usage across a larger team or moving to cloud infrastructure. For instance, The Hive can become resource-intensive depending on the number of analysts or integrated sources, and its paid support options may be necessary in production environments.

Wazuh, often used as a free alternative to commercial SIEMs, offers great visibility and threat detection capabilities, but its deployment can be complex depending on whether you’re hosting it on-premises or in the cloud, and support might come with a price tag if you opt for managed services.

It is important to evaluate these tools not just for their capabilities but also for their operational demands. Setting realistic expectations around support, infrastructure, and long-term maintenance helps avoid surprises and keeps the program sustainable.

Join the community of threat intelligence

Budget constraints do not mean you’re alone. The cybersecurity community thrives on collaboration, especially when it comes to threat intelligence. Participating in information-sharing communities, like ISACs (Information Sharing and Analysis Centers), threat-sharing Slack groups, or even X feeds, can offer tremendous value at zero cost.

Even better, community-driven platforms often offer high-quality indicators, analyst insights, and early warnings about ongoing campaigns. If you are in a specific sector like healthcare or education, there are often niche communities that provide targeted intelligence specific to your field. Just listening to what others are reporting can improve your detection logic and speed up your response time.

Start small and iterate

Instead of trying to boil the ocean from day one, focus on building a minimum viable threat intelligence capability. Start by collecting and curating a small number of indicators that align with your objectives, such as suspicious IP addresses, domain names, or file hashes that have been seen in recent attacks. Track their relevance and adjust as needed.

Over time, incorporate feedback loops. For example, if your SOC analysts are routinely overwhelmed with false positives, you may need to refine your feeds, adjust correlation rules, or create custom detection logic tailored to your environment. Threat intelligence should evolve alongside your detection rules. If data isn’t translating into action, reconsider how it is being delivered or whether it aligns with actual use cases. Continuous tuning and iteration, especially of rules and alert logic, are key to maintaining relevance, and it costs nothing but time.

Make threat intelligence actionable

Collecting indicators is just one part of the equation; making them useful is where real value is generated. Threat intelligence that does not lead to action, or at least to better decision-making… is just more noise. You want to ensure that the data you are collecting can be used to improve detections, automate blocking actions, or enrich investigations.

This might involve integrating your intelligence feeds with your SIEM, SOAR, or EDR tools; even basic integrations can go a long way. For example, you might set up a simple pipeline to feed known malicious IP addresses into firewall rules or block lists. Or use email enrichment scripts to flag domains linked to phishing kits. These steps don’t require massive investments, just thoughtful implementation and testing.

Measure impact, not quantity

It’s easy to get caught up in metrics like the number of indicators ingested or sources subscribed to. But in a lean program, volume isn’t the goal; impact is. Focus on how threat intelligence is improving your organization’s security posture. Are detections happening faster? Are SOC analysts spending less time chasing false leads? Are you better informed about the threats relevant to your environment?

Set up basic tracking to answer these questions, whether through incident postmortems, detection coverage analysis, or analyst feedback. Demonstrating the value of your program, especially in measurable ways, can help justify its continuation or even expansion in future budget cycles.