Total Risk Awareness & Control Ecosystem
TRACE is an open, community-driven threat taxonomy framework designed to standardize how organizations identify, classify, and communicate about security threats. Built on Creative Commons principles, TRACE empowers the global security community with a shared language for threat intelligence.
Our Mission
To democratize threat intelligence by providing a free, open, and standardized taxonomy that enables organizations of all sizes to speak the same security language.
Global Standardization
Create a universal framework that transcends organizational and geographical boundaries, enabling seamless threat intelligence sharing.
Community Driven
Built by security professionals, for security professionals. The taxonomy evolves through community contributions and real-world application.
Free & Open
Licensed under Creative Commons, ensuring the taxonomy remains freely available for commercial and non-commercial use alike.
Why a Common Taxonomy Matters
In the fragmented landscape of cybersecurity, organizations often struggle to communicate effectively about threats. Different teams use different terminology, frameworks, and classification systems, leading to:
- Miscommunication between security teams, vendors, and stakeholders
- Inefficient threat intelligence sharing due to incompatible formats
- Duplicated effort as organizations reinvent classification systems
- Inconsistent risk assessments making it difficult to prioritize threats
TRACE addresses these challenges by providing a hierarchical, well-defined taxonomy that organizations can adopt, extend, and contribute back to the community.
The TRACE Hierarchy
Built on Industry Standards
TRACE integrates with established security frameworks to provide comprehensive threat context and mapping.
NIST CSF 2.0
Map threats to NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 controls for comprehensive risk management and compliance alignment.
STRIDE
Leverage Microsoft's STRIDE threat modeling methodology to categorize threats by their security impact.
DFD Elements
Associate threats with Data Flow Diagram elements for visual threat modeling and architecture analysis.
How Organizations Use TRACE
From startups to enterprises, TRACE provides value across the security spectrum.
Threat Intelligence Teams
Standardize threat classification across analysts, enabling consistent reporting and improved collaboration with external partners and ISACs.
Risk Management
Build comprehensive risk registers using a proven taxonomy, ensuring consistent risk identification and assessment across business units.
Security Training
Educate security professionals with a structured approach to threat classification, accelerating onboarding and ensuring team alignment.
Security Tool Development
Build security products with built-in taxonomy support, enabling interoperability with other tools in the ecosystem.
Incident Management
Categorize and classify security incidents using a standardized taxonomy, enabling better trend analysis, reporting, and post-incident reviews.
Security Playbooks
Map TRACE threat events to response playbooks, ensuring your team has predefined procedures ready for each type of threat scenario.
Open Source License
TRACE is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, ensuring it remains free and open for everyone.
CC BY 4.0
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
You Are Free To
- ✓ Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- ✓ Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial
Under These Terms
- ! Attribution - You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made
- ! No additional restrictions - You may not apply legal terms that restrict others from doing anything the license permits
How to Attribute
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Join the Community
TRACE grows stronger with every contribution. Here's how you can help shape the future of threat taxonomy.
Provide Feedback
Report issues, suggest improvements, or request new threat categories through our feedback system.
Submit Feedback →Use & Share
Adopt TRACE in your organization and share your experience with the community.
Explore Taxonomy →Follow the Roadmap
Stay updated on planned features and vote for the improvements that matter most to you.
View Roadmap →Ready to Get Started?
Explore the TRACE taxonomy and see how it can help standardize threat intelligence in your organization.