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Unit 1 Discussion: Addressing Advanced Persistent Threats

Addressing the advanced persistent threat (APT) involves identifying, evaluating, treating, and reporting threats and campaigns. APTs have specific characteristics that are different than traditional attacks. An APT also has several stages based on the actors' objective and goals. For example, many of us are familiar with Stuxnet, a well-known APT. It was a computer worm initially aimed at Iran's nuclear facilities. It later spread to other industrial areas, targeting programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in machinery. Discovered in 2010, it gained attention as the first virus capable of physically damaging hardware. It is thought to be jointly developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, CIA, and Israeli intelligence.

Managing and defending against the APT includes many activities and requires specific cybersecurity skills.

When making your initial post, consider what is being asked, perform a critical analysis of what is being asked, and add substantial thought to the subject area. Reading the resources in your classroom will help you tremendously to understand what is being asked and how to critically think about answering the question.

Initial Post

Please choose one of the following questions to answer:

1. When addressing the advanced persistent threat (APT), what are the unique characteristics that an APT has over a traditional attack?

2. Describe the stages of an APT. What are the mitigation and prevention techniques associated with each of the stages?

3. Describe an example of a different APT than Stuxnet that occurred in the real world, highlighting the characteristics of the attack that fit an APT and the impact on the company or organization. From a retrospective angle, were there any insights or lessons in the post-mortem that should have been implemented?