Redefining APT
APT has three components that highlight why these threats are different from your average worm, botnet, Trojan.
Adversaries. The authors of these attacks are no longer some pimply faced teenager in Canada (another quote from Mr. Pescatore). The attacks come from your adversary. It could be a competitor, a political opponent, an intelligence service, or a nation state. When you are dealing with an individual or group that has has decided to go after you or your organization the game is played by much different rules. You are not battling the constant flood of random attacks, your are faced with targeted attacks that can go well beyond IT security. Your adversaries treat networks, vulnerabilities, and sophisticated malware as just one set of tools that happen to be easier and cheaper to use than bribery, infiltration, extortion, and blackmail.
Pernicious. These attacks are personal. Friends of friends on Facebook, may be enlisted. New domains are registered and new websites crafted just to infect your computer or your CEO's laptop. Zero day vulnerabilities are pulled out of storage, malware is customized. The attack will take whatever form is needed to get into your networks and steal...
Targets. Your adversary knows what it wants. Your data, source code, customer records, employee records, oil and gas reserve database, F-35 designs, Intellectual Property, financials. You may not know what the target is until it is too late.
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