In the past couple of years, cyber security has become a boardroom issue. You might credit Hollywood for this development. Recall the 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment hack? Sony’s executive suite paid a hefty price in reputational damage but more broadly the event was a wake-up call for all corporate boardrooms.
Many of them now assign information security oversight to a board member as well as invite the CSO or CISO into the board meetings to discuss the latest intelligence and threat assessments.
BAE Systems is helping in this effort in many ways – one of the latest being an awareness campaign aimed at helping organizations and professionals to know their enemy. Our threat intelligence experts recently revealed: “The Unusual Suspects,” profiles of six prominent types of cybercriminals and exposing how they can cause harm to companies around the globe:
- Mules – naive opportunists that may not even realize they work for criminal gangs to launder money
- Professionals – career criminals who work 9-5 in the digital shadows
- Nation State Actors – individuals who work directly or indirectly for their government to steal sensitive information and disrupt enemies’ capabilities
- Activist – motivated to change the world via questionable means
- Getaways – the youthful teenagers who can escape a custodial sentence due to their age
- Insiders – disillusioned, blackmailed or even over-helpful employees operating from within the walls of their own company
Cyber attackers are a distinct brand of criminal. As with any crime, each perpetrator has individual, identifiable motives, modus operandi and levels of effectiveness. In some cases, these attackers can overlap and interact as a team, driving up their effectiveness and efficiency as they strive for new levels of criminality. If we can expose the shadowy criminals that take aim at our society, we can make them vulnerable.