Why Threat Intelligence: A Conversation With Unit 42 Interns

Unit 42’s interns Gabrielle Calderon and Sakthi Vinayak share how the 12‑week programme broadens practical threat intelligence skills, from automated data workflows to hands‑on reverse engineering. Sakthi, a Threat Research Intern, describes automating data ingestion and enrichment to free time for deeper analysis, while Gabrielle, a Malware Reverse Engineering Intern, explains her focus on automating identification of malware families and indicators of compromise.

Their experiences span working with professionals across teams and applying classroom knowledge to real‑world cybersecurity challenges, with Sakthi noting projects that include mechanising the data ingestion workflow, implementing a fidelity scoring framework and building a knowledge‑repository dashboard to identify trends and gaps. Gabrielle highlights two tracks in her role—assessing malware tickets for appropriate responses and developing tools to automate IOC extraction.

The piece, published on 2 September 2025, also underscores the supportive, trust‑driven culture at Unit 42 that encourages problem‑solving and innovation, according to Unit 42.