Nation-State / APT Advanced Persistent Threat

 Nation-State Threat Actor

A nation-state threat actor is a government-affiliated hacker who carries out malicious activities on behalf of a country or nation-state. These actors are often motivated by political or economic interests and can be tasked with a variety of objectives, including:

• Disrupting critical infrastructure
• Stealing industrial secrets
• Gaining access to policy discussions
• Taking down companies that offend leaders
• Conducting disinformation or propaganda campaigns
• Influencing elections
• Disrupting a country's security, economy, or government departments

Nation-state actors are often well-funded and can use sophisticated cyberattacks and advanced persistent threats (APTs) to operate undetected in a victim's network. APTs can be challenging to detect and expensive, allowing threat actors to infiltrate computer systems, steal data, and escalate privileges.

Some examples of nation-state threat actors include:

Camaro Dragon

This threat group from China is also known as the Mustang Panda, Bronze President, Earth Preta, Luminous Moth, Red Delta, and Stately Taurus.

Gamaredon

Also known as Primitive Bear, UNC530, ACTINIUM, Shuckworm, UAC-0010, and Aqua Blizzard, this is a threat group from Russia.

RedHotel

A threat actor reportedly backed by the Chinese government has targeted the space industry and other critical sectors.

 Competitor Threat Actor

Competitors can be threat actors, using malicious strategies to gain access to a company's systems and steal information. Competitors can be a significant threat because they have the resources and sophistication to bring down a company's systems.

Competitors may use a variety of strategies to harm a company, including:

Espionage: Competitors may try to gain access to insider information

Disruption: Competitors may try to disrupt a company's services to cause problems for its customers

Stealing customer information: Competitors may try to steal customer information

Corrupting data: Competitors may try to corrupt a company's data to prevent it from functioning

Shutting down during busy times: Competitors may try to shut down a company during its busiest times

 Insider Threat Actor

An insider threat actor is someone who uses their authorized access to an organization's systems or network to cause harm, intentionally or unintentionally. Insider threat actors include current or former employees, contractors, or business associates.

Insider threats can be challenging to detect because the threat actor already has legitimate access to the organization's systems. Some examples of insider threats include:

Malicious insider

Also known as a Turncloak, this actor intentionally abuses their access to steal information for personal or financial gain.

Careless insider

This actor unknowingly exposes the system to outside threats through mistakes like leaving a device exposed.

Collaborator

This actor works with a third party to harm the organization, such as a competitor, nation-state, or criminal network.

Some signs of an insider threat include Logging into the network at odd hours, Accessing information unrelated to their job, Downloading large amounts of data, Copying data to personal devices, and Creating unauthorized accounts.