Threat Hunt (TH) Programs Part 4 - Threat Hunt Mission Planning

Threat Hunt Mission Planning - Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

1. Purpose

This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) defines the process for planning Cyber Threat Hunting missions. Effective mission planning ensures threat hunts are conducted in a structured, repeatable, and intelligence-driven manner that maximizes both investigative quality and operational efficiency.

A well-developed mission plan enables the threat hunting team to clearly define objectives, scope investigative activities, allocate resources, and organize analytical tasks prior to execution.

2. Scope

This SOP applies to all Threat Hunt missions conducted by the organization’s Threat Hunting program and covers the planning phase between mission intake and mission execution.

3. Roles and Responsibilities

Threat Hunt Mission Planner / Lead Threat Hunter

Responsible for:

• Developing the threat hunt mission plan

• Coordinating planning meetings

• Defining mission modules and tasks

• Ensuring integration of cyber threat intelligence

• Estimating mission timelines

Threat Hunting Team Members

Responsible for:

• Participating in mission planning

• Contributing intelligence research

• Assisting in the development of hunt modules

• Supporting planning discussions and hypothesis development

Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) Analysts (if applicable)

Responsible for:

• Providing threat intelligence related to the hunt

• Supporting intelligence analysis and actor profiling

• Assisting in developing threat hunt hypotheses

4. Threat Hunt Mission Planning Overview

Threat Hunt mission planning is the most critical stage of a threat hunting operation. The depth and quality of planning directly influence:

• The effectiveness of the investigation

• The efficiency of threat hunt execution

• The ability to communicate progress and results to leadership

The planning process structures the hunt into defined investigative modules and ensures that all necessary intelligence, telemetry sources, and analytical methods are identified before execution begins.

5. Mission Data Storage Initialization

During the Threat Hunt mission intake phase, a centralized storage container must be created to store all mission-related data and documentation.

Examples include:

• SharePoint workspace

• Threat hunt collaboration site

• Case management system

• Investigation workspace within security platforms

The mission container should store:

• Threat hunt planning documentation

• Cyber threat intelligence reports

• Investigation queries

• Threat hunt module definitions

• Results and analysis documentation

This repository ensures all team members operate from a shared and consistent investigation workspace.

6. Mission Planning Process

Threat Hunt mission planning is conducted in a series of structured steps.

Step 1 – Initial Mission Scope Development

The Threat Hunt mission planner develops the initial mission scope and constructs the preliminary mission plan.

This includes:

• Defining the threat actor or threat scenario

• Identifying the investigative objective

• Identifying potential hunt modules

• Conducting a preliminary estimate of mission complexity

At this stage, the mission plan should outline the initial investigative modules required to complete the hunt.

Step 2 – Cyber Threat Intelligence Research

Dedicated time must be allocated to research, collect, and analyze Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) relevant to the threat hunt mission.

This research may include:

• Threat actor intelligence reports

• Industry threat activity

• Known exploitation techniques

• Indicators of compromise (IOCs)

• Malware or tool usage

• Attack infrastructure

The purpose of this research phase is to ensure the mission plan is intelligence-driven and based on real-world adversary activity.

Step 3 – Initial Threat Hunt Planning Meeting

After the initial CTI collection phase, the threat hunting team conducts a mission planning meeting.

The planning meeting is used to refine and finalize the threat hunt mission plan.

The meeting should address the following activities:

3.1 Hypothesis Development

To build an effective hypothesis, the hunter must have:

• A solid understanding of the organization’s systems and assets

• Awareness of current security controls

• Knowledge of relevant threat actors and their TTPs

Building Strong Threat Hunting Hypotheses

There are three key steps in building a meaningful and actionable threat hunting hypothesis:

1. Identify a Relevant Topic

2. Make It Testable

3. Refine Based on Results and Context

Identify a Relevant Topic

This step is all about aligning the hunt with real organizational risks. Ask questions that uncover blind spots, critical systems, and relevant threats:

• Which system or service accounts have access to sensitive or mission-critical data?

• What systems represent single points of failure?

• Which adversary TTPs pose the most risk to our organization?

• Do we have Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) aligned with our tech stack or industry?

• What are our “crown jewels” and how are they accessed?

• What logs and telemetry are available for those assets?

• Which behaviors deviate from user or system baselines?

• What threats have been missed or repeated in past incidents?

• What are our known visibility gaps?

• How might an attacker persist in our environment?

• Are there misconfigured or exposed services vulnerable to external compromise?

These questions don't just build hypotheses—they also illuminate gaps in security posture, visibility, and controls.

Make the Hypothesis Testable

To be effective, a hypothesis must be:

• Specific – Clearly define what you’re looking for

• Measurable – Determine how you’ll identify success or failure

• Falsifiable – Be open to disproving the hypothesis through evidence

“If true, what would we see? If false, what would we expect instead?”

Additionally, be aware of biases in your threat hunt hypothesis development

• Don’t default to hunting only where data is available.

• Avoid cherry-picking favorable data and ignoring contradictory evidence.

• Confirmation bias

• Anchoring bias

• Availability bias

Refine the Hypothesis

Hunting is iterative. You’ll likely need to adapt your hypothesis as:

• You discover new systems or data sources

• Visibility gaps prevent certain analyses

• New TTPs or threat actor campaigns emerge

Refinement is not failure, it's growth. Use feedback loops to evolve your approach and tailor it to your organization's environment.

3.2 Threat Hunt Module Development

The team expands and refines the threat hunt modules that will make up the investigation.

Each module should define:

• Investigative objective

• Data sources required

• Analytical queries

• Expected outputs

3.3 Reuse of Existing Threat Hunt Modules

Where possible, the team should reference previous threat hunt modules or investigations.

Reuse of prior modules improves efficiency by leveraging:

• Existing queries

• Previously analyzed behaviors

• Baseline organizational activity patterns

3.4 Mission Rescoping Based on Intelligence

Additional CTI analysis may require adjusting the scope of the threat hunt mission.

Possible changes include:

• Adding new investigative modules

• Removing low-value investigative areas

• Adjusting time estimates

• Expanding or narrowing the investigation scope

7. Threat Hunt Module Planning

Threat Hunt missions should be broken down into individual investigative modules, each representing a specific investigative task.

Each module should contain:

• Task description

• Investigation methodology

• Estimated time for completion

Example Threat Hunt Mission Modules

Module	Task	Estimated Time
Module 1	IP IOC sweeps	4 hours
Module 2	URL IOC sweeps	4 hours
Module 3	File hash IOC sweeps	4 hours
Module 4	Binary abuse analysis (certutil)	8 hours
Module 5	Binary abuse analysis (curl)	8 hours
Module 6	Additional binary abuse analysis	8 hours
Module 7	Initial access TTP analysis	12 hours
Module 8	Persistence TTP analysis	12 hours
Module 9	Command and Control (C2) analysis	12 hours

These modules allow the investigation to proceed in a structured and trackable manner.

Step 4 – Investigation Workspace Preparation

Before threat hunt execution begins, investigation containers must be created within the tools used by the threat hunting team.

This may include:

• SIEM investigation folders

• Threat hunt query repositories

• Notebook environments

• Investigation dashboards

These containers will be expanded throughout the threat hunt mission but must be initially created during the planning phase.

The purpose of this step is to establish:

• Standardized query storage locations

• Naming conventions for queries

• Structured investigation documentation

Establishing these structures early ensures consistent organization and repeatability across threat hunt missions.

8. Transition to Threat Hunt Mission Execution

Once the following elements are completed:

• Mission scope definition

• CTI research and analysis

• Threat hunt module development

• Investigation workspace preparation

The threat hunting team proceeds to the Threat Hunt Mission Execution phase, where investigative queries, behavioral analysis, and threat detection activities are performed according to the defined mission plan.