01 / Reframe the work
A PIR is not a watchlist. It is a decision question.
Field manual · Declassified for practitioners
Make yourintelligence matter.
A Practical Guide to Building Intelligence-Driven Security Operations, turning business risk into the sharp questions that focus collection, analysis, and every decision that follows.
Written for CTI analysts, SOC managers, and security leaders who are done collecting intelligence that goes nowhere.
The field manual · Out now
Plan with purpose✦Collect what matters✦Analyze in context✦Disseminate for action✦Learn through feedback✦
Plan with purpose✦Collect what matters✦Analyze in context✦Disseminate for action✦Learn through feedback✦
The central idea
More data is not the same as more intelligence.
You already have feeds, dashboards, alerts, and reports. PIRs answer the question underneath all of them: what must we know to make the next good decision?
02 / Create focus
Stop chasing every signal.
Prioritize the intelligence that maps to your assets, risks, stakeholders, and operating choices.
03 / Prove value
Make impact visible.
Review relevance, timeliness, and outcomes - then tune the requirement as the threat landscape and the business change.
Inside the guide
A field guide for the full intelligence cycle.
The book keeps PIRs grounded in real program work: stakeholder needs, monitoring perimeters, analysis, outputs, and the feedback loop that makes a program better.
What Are Priority Intelligence Requirements?
Day one of your journey: defining your Priority Intelligence Requirements.
PIRs and the Threat Intelligence Life Cycle
PIRs runs through every phase of the threat intelligence life cycle.
The Threat Model and Priority Intelligence Requirements
Leverage the threat model to build high-quality PIRs, and vice versa.
Defining PIRs: Who, What, When, and Why
Defining PIRs is not a solo activity for the intelligence team. It requires structured engagement with stakeholders across the organization.
Stakeholder Engagement and Information Gathering
PIRs cannot be defined in isolation. They require structured engagement with the people who understand the organization’s risks, assets, and decision-making needs.
Configuring PIRs in a Threat Intelligence Platform
Once PIRs have been defined, they must be translated into concrete platform configurations.
Types of Intelligence and How They Answer PIRs
The main types of intelligence and their mapping to specific PIRs.
Integrating PIRs into Security Operations
Feeds and platforms are not enough if the intelligence remains within those channels without being properly utilized and leveraged.
Measuring PIRs Effectiveness
If you can show that a specific PIR led to a specific action that prevented a specific harm, the value of threat intelligence becomes concrete and defensible.
PIRs at Scale: Large Organizations and Groups
Large enterprise groups face intelligence challenges that are qualitatively differentfrom those of single organizations.
The Practical Implementation Roadmap
A week-by-week plan covering the first 12 weeks of implementation.
Ethical Considerations and Privacy in Threat Intelligence
A well-designed PIR program enforces proportionality and focus, which are the foundations of ethical intelligence collection.
Frameworks, Standards, and the Intelligence Ecosystem
Organizations must build PIR programs that are aligned with industry best practices.
Building the Threat Intelligence Team
A threat intelligence program is only as strong as the team that runs it.
How AI Can Support the Definition and Life Cycle of PIRs
Artificial intelligence is now part of the reality of modern threat intelligence.
Reassessing PIRs in a Rapidly Changing Geopolitical Landscape
The world does not stand still, and neither should Priority Intelligence Requirements.
The SATAYO Community and its usefulness in the context of PIRs
A community membership is not a supplementary activity but a core operational discipline.
Case Studies & Templates
The operating model
From planning to feedback. Then back again.
PIRs sit at the planning and direction stage, but they are never a one-time form. They guide collection, analysis, production, dissemination, and the review that keeps the whole program useful.
PlanSet priorities with stakeholders.
CollectGather relevant internal and external data.
ProcessTransform raw data into structured, enriched, and usable information.
AnalyzeTurn information into an answer.
DisseminateGive the right output to the right team.
Provide feedbackTest relevance and improve the next cycle.
01clear question
06life cycle stages
∞better decisions
Massimo Giaimo · AuthorWritten from inside the work
Practical structure, credible habits.
Massimo Giaimo, Head of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Würth IT, wrote this guide for practitioners who have to make intelligence useful in the real world: with imperfect data, competing priorities, busy stakeholders, and decisions that cannot wait for a perfect picture.
It pairs a repeatable structure with the habits that make an intelligence program trustworthy - clarity, context, timely delivery, and honest feedback.
Built with the teams behind
Ready to sharpen the signal?
Build the intelligence program your decisions deserve.
Start with the question that matters. Use the book as your practical companion for making PIRs part of how your organization understands and manages cyber risk.
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