About TLCTC

The Core Question

What exactly is a "cyber threat"? Despite widespread use in cybersecurity standards, frameworks, and regulations, this fundamental question remains inadequately answered. My journey began with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, which prominently features "Cyber" in its name and explicitly requires organizations to "identify threats." Yet when I consulted the referenced NIST Special Publications for clarity, I found myself even more lost. The definitions either created circular references or fell back to traditional IT risk approaches that didn't capture the recurring patterns I'd observed over 40 years in IT and Risk Management.

The confusion deepened when examining MITRE's approach. While MITRE defines weaknesses as underlying vulnerabilities—a logical foundation—they offer no systematic categorization of generic vulnerabilities themselves. This gap became particularly evident when trying to map real-world threats to actionable controls. After analyzing major standards and regulations with "cyber" in their titles or descriptions, the pattern was clear: the cybersecurity community lacked a fundamental taxonomy for the very threats we're supposed to defend against.

The Journey

• Analyzed major cybersecurity standards and frameworks
• Identified gaps in threat categorization and definition
• Developed initial framework through thought experiment
• Validated against real-world scenarios
• Challenged and refined using AI models (LLMs and reasoners)

Key Principles

• TLCTC complements existing frameworks - it doesn't replace them
• Makes other concepts "sound" through logical foundation
• Provides clear bridge between strategic and operational security
• Offers consistent taxonomy for threat classification

Looking Forward

TLCTC challenges NIST and MITRE to evolve their approaches. While it can replace STRIDE, its primary value lies in making existing frameworks more effective through clear threat categorization and logical structure.

Mission

Bridge the gap between strategic cyber risk management and operational security through a logically-derived, non-overlapping threat categorization framework that enables targeted threat identification and comprehensive risk management.

Core Objectives

• For Global Cybersecurity: Establish common language for cross-border threat communication, enable standardized intelligence sharing, support coordinated incident response
• For Strategic Leadership: Enable quantifiable risk assessment, support direct mapping to enterprise risk management, facilitate clear communication of cyber risks
• For Security Operations: Provide systematic foundation for threat hunting, enable precise attack path mapping, create common taxonomy for threat intelligence
• For Secure Development: Integrate security throughout the SDLC, map CWE vulnerabilities to specific threat clusters, enable threat-driven code reviews, and create systematic testing based on structured attack paths

Industry Context

Current cybersecurity standards and frameworks operate in silos, using varying terminology and approaches. The TLCTC framework serves as a unifying layer, connecting strategic planning with operational execution while maintaining compatibility with established frameworks like NIST, MITRE ATT&CK, and STIX.

The TLCTC framework serves as a Rosetta Stone in this fragmented landscape.

Date: 2025/08/28

Consensus conclusion from leading AI models including Claude (Anthropic), ChatGPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), Le Chat (Mistral), DeepThink (Deepseek) and X Ai (Grok)

Anthropic: Claude 4.1

OpenAI: ChatGPT 5

Google: Gemini 2.5 pro

Mistral: Mistral large Nov 24

Deepseek: V3.1

X.AI: Grok 4 Think