Understanding the risk from targeted attacks

As we discussed in Chapter 2, The Human Side of Cybersecurity, all cyber attacks are people attacking people. Understanding the people behind the attacks helps defenders prioritize their investments to protect themselves appropriately. It is not economically feasible for a company to defend itself from every potential attack.

The first threat actor group we will explore are organized criminals. The term organized is used loosely in this context because these actors range from sophisticated groups with defined hierarchies to informal cooperatives of people who have never met outside of dark web forums. While there are multiple types of threat actors, what unites all threat actors are their motivations and tactics. In the following sections, we will learn about the various types of threat actors and the common tactics they use to attack victims.

Organized crime

Organized criminals in cyberspace are no different from organized criminals...