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Cyber Risks · Unit 42 Palo Alto Networks

Adversaries and Their Motivations (Part 2)

Summary: Unit 42's second post in its adversary-motivation series covers Cyber Espionage, Cyber Crime, and Cyber Hacktivism, noting that most attackers under these motivations do not use advanced capabilities and instead rely on social engineering and simple malicious payloads. It defines the modern APT as any actor engaged in longer-term espionage-oriented computer network exploitation against one or more focal targets, and notes that zero-day exploits and advanced tools are typically held in reserve for high-value strategic or tactical targets.

What's compelling: The post states that the term APT is a misnomer because most attackers under the espionage motivation apply only sufficient resources to achieve their objectives, with social engineering and simple payloads continuing to serve them well. For hacktivists, defenders face a different stake: attackers only need to affect public perception to send their message, rather than confirm quantified damage.

Read the original at Unit 42 Palo Alto Networks ↗

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Malware
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