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Security: The Rise of the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)
2011 has seen a wave of high-profile security breaches, including targets like RSA, Sony, Lockheed Martin, Citigroup, Sega, the IMF, the UK NHS and even the CIA. many of the biggest exploits were perpetrated by the group called Lulz Sec. The group claims to have since disbanded, but that will not bring an end to data breaches.
There’s been so many breaches recently that a new term, Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), has been coined. Wikipedia defines APT’s as Advanced persistent threat (APT) as “a group, such as a foreign nation state government, with both the capability and the intent to persistently and effectively target a specific entity. The term is commonly used to refer to cyber threats, in particular that of Internet enabled espionage, but applies equally to other threats such as that of traditional espionage or attack.”
In 2011, APT’s have jumped to one of the top three security worries by IT groups, ranking higher than even web application vulnerabilities. A survey by nCircle found that 16 percent of IT groups considered APT’s their top security concern.
APT’s are not new, but it appears that the frequency and the sophistication of them has increased over the last year. At Northrup-Grumman, for example, 300 ‘zero day’ attacks were recorded in 2010. In 2011, a typically day at Northrup-Grumman now deals with several such attacks.
At the Gartner 2011 Security and Rick conference, John Pescatore, analyst for Gartner, said that “there is no such thing as the unstoppable attack in cybersecurity. Every attack, in order to succeed, needs to exploit a vulnerability.”
APT attacks are not going to be going away any time soon, but it is clear that they have seized the attention of governments and corporations. In the world of the internet and cloud computing, security will become something which cannot be ignored.
