Operational Threat Intelligence focuses on providing actionable insights about ongoing attacks, campaigns, or threat actors. It bridges the gap between high-level strategic intelligence and low-level technical intelligence.

It includes detailed, contextual information about how and why an attack is happening, who is behind it, and what tools and tactics they are using. Analysts rely on reports and data that describe current or recent attack campaigns, group activities, and malware operations.

Typical Sources of Operational Threat Intelligence:

Attack group reports: Identify specific threat actors, their motivations, targets, and past operations.

Attack campaign reports: Provide information about organized and ongoing attack campaigns targeting certain sectors or geographies.

Incident reports: Offer real-world case studies and patterns of attacks that have already occurred.

Malware samples: Help analysts understand malware functionality, distribution methods, and associated threat groups.

These sources provide contextual and actionable information that help operational analysts improve detection and response during active threat situations.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

B. Malware indicators, network indicators, e-mail indicators:These are sources of technical threat intelligence, which deals with atomic-level data such as IP addresses, URLs, and file hashes.

C. Activity-related attacks, social media sources, chat room conversations:These are examples of sources used for social media or OSINT collection, not operational analysis.

D. OSINT, security industry white papers, human contacts:These are sources used for strategic threat intelligence, focusing on long-term trends and organizational risk assessment.

Conclusion:

Operational threat intelligence relies on actionable, campaign-specific sources such as attack group reports, incident reports, and malware samples to provide detailed context for active threats.

Final Answer: A. Attack group reports, attack campaign reports, incident reports, malware samples

Explanation Reference (Based on CTIA Study Concepts):

According to CTIA, operational threat intelligence provides in-depth analysis of ongoing or recent campaigns, utilizing reports and samples that describe adversary tools, targets, and motivations.