Cyber Security Magazine
In today’s hyper-connected world, the detailed knowledge of threats is crucial in order to effectively detect and prevent cyber-attacks.
Thales Group and Verint conducted research on cyberattacks landscape and created a cyberthreat manual that offers detailed profiles of the most active groups of hackers.
After an investigation of about a year, analysts from the two companies – market leaders in the field of cybersecurity – have made detailed profiles for more than 60 major groups of hackers, analyzing 490 worldwide attacks.
Analysts at Thales and Verint have defined four major categories of attackers based on the reasons and objectives pursued.
Out of about 60 groups of hackers that have been analyzed, 49% are groups sponsored by states that often aim to circumvent sensitive data from the spectrum of geopolitical interest targets. 26% are ideologically motivated hacktivists, closely follow the cybercriminals (20%), who are motivated exclusively by financial gains. In the fourth position, cyber-terrorists represent 5% of the analyzed groups.
All the economic, political and military powers of the world are the priority targets of hackers. The 12 countries with the highest GDP are the preferred targets, headed by the United States, Russia, the European Union (especially Great Britain, France, and Germany) and China, followed by India, South Korea and Japan.
The most targeted by these major attacks are the States and their defense infrastructures, followed by the financial, energy and transport sectors. Attacks aimed at the media and health industry are rapidly increasing.
Last but not least, an increasing number of hackers are now focusing on harnessing vulnerabilities in the supply chain and, in particular, on smaller partners, service providers that are used as a “horse Trojan “to access major targets.
With the launch of the “Cyberthreat” Handbook, Thales and Verint present data on the attack techniques used, the most frequently targeted sectors, the reasons for the attackers, giving those interesting recommendations for the future.
The Cyber Threat Handbook is an unprecedented report designed to provide a classification and a starting base for further investigation of major groups of hackers, including cybercriminals and cyber terrorists, cyber activists, and state-sponsored hackers.
“The Thales and Verint teams are particularly proud to launch this report today, as a result of co-operation and expertise in this field. Unique through its magnitude and depth, this report is the culmination of several months of research, investigations, rigorous analyses and correlation of relevant data.
As cyber threats spread and evolve, it is increasingly clear the major role of cybersecurity, especially for critical infrastructure providers. It is our obligation to analyze, understand and describe the techniques used by cyber attackers so that our customers and all other companies and organizations are better prepared to detect and anticipate future attacks, ” Said Marc Darmon, vice president of the Executive Communications Security and information systems, Thales.
“By joining forces with Thales, we are increasing each other’s ability to provide comprehensive information about potential threats and thus to ensure the necessary cyber protection,” said Elad Sharon – President Verint Cyber Intelligence Solutions.
The report can be accessed here: Cyber Threat Handbook Thales – Verint.
