Monday, June 24, 2013

Advanced Cyber Threat Environment

APT or Advanced persistent threat is usually associated with governments or organised groups of hacktivists.

It is no secret however, that in the Digital Age Organised Crime has established its own presence in cyberspace. Conventional Street gang’s strength depends on their access to disposable foot soldiers willing to take the greatest risks.

Organised crime specialising in cybercrimes recruit hackers in place of foot solders. Countries with high unemployment, low wages, immature legislation and incompetent law-enforcement are breeding grounds for them. While these groups can become a gun-for-hire and be involved in APT, they normally operate on “the cash must flow” principle. This means, they must move on to another target when unsuccessful at hacking for a ‘reasonable’ period of time. The effort and persistence usually depends on the complexity of hacking or potential reward.

Having access to the skilful hackers makes these groups capable of launching sophisticated attacks, but these attacks are less persistent compared to hacktivism motivated or .gov sponsored attacks. The problem is that organised cybercrime groups are attracted to the potentially high reward targets. As a result, the different and uncoordinated groups of hackers constantly attack these targets, creating an Advanced Cyber Threat Environment (ACTE) for successful businesses and financial institutions.

Smaller and less successful businesses are also operating in ACT Environment in these countries *. In the Wild West era, it used to be a Colt, but these days DDoS attacks are often invoked by the competition as its most convincing argument. The effective DDoS attack protection relies on expert knowledge and good understanding of the company’s core business, not software or hardware. Small businesses don’t normally have the capacity.

I haven't specifically named the countries with Advanced Cyber Threat Environment and left this for you to decide.