CyberTalk

Nation-state actors burrow into critical systems

Computer malware concept art

Dec. 13th – U.S. government officials and cyber security experts are concerned about recent nation-state backed attempts to infiltrate critical infrastructure, including American power, water, and transportation systems.

Cyber criminals who appear to be affiliated with China have wormed their way into computer systems belonging to roughly two dozen critical infrastructure organizations across the past year.

It is believed that the intrusions are part of wider efforts to sow panic, create chaos and snarl logistics in the United States, should a war break out in the Pacific or between the U.S. and China.

State-sponsored hacking

This recent reporting aligns with previous Microsoft reporting around nation-state backed efforts to disrupt U.S. Asian communication networks, in preparation for a human-engineered crisis.

Targets of these types of activities have included communications, manufacturing, utilities, construction, government, information technology, education, and utilities entities.

A joint cyber security advisory from the ‘five eyes’ nations describes the tactics, techniques and procedures that are commonly employed in the aforementioned state-sponsored attacks.

Prevent nation-state threats

Keep nation-state hacks from becoming large-scale breaches. There are several approaches that organizations can take in order to make themselves into more challenging targets for threat actors. For example:

 

 

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