Nation State Cyber Threats pose an increasingly significant challenge to the global cybersecurity community. They don’t just jeopardise the digital security of precious assets, they’re also capable of severely impacting national security of countries they’re adversaries of.
In this blog, we describe the capabilities and damage that Nation State Threat Actors can cause and how to respond to a sophisticated Nation-State Coordinated Cyber Attack. Our own certified course, Cyber Incident Planning & Response, has detailed guidance to ensure you are better prepared to detect and respond to advanced nation-state attackers.
Topics covered in the blog:
1. What are Nation State Threat Actors?
2. What makes Nation State attacks so intimidating?
3. How to Respond to a Coordinated Nation State Cyber Attack?
Before we get into the details, here’s a quick reminder. If you prioritise being prepared for cybersecurity incidents throughout the year and focus on consistently improving your cyber incident response capabilities, you are already a step closer to resilience in the face of Nation-State threats.
While they can be highly malicious and persistent in nature, with the right cybersecurity protocols, infrastructure, and rigorous staff training, you will be as prepared against them as you can possibly be. The next thing left to be done is to educate yourself about Nation-State actors, who they are and what their tactics and techniques are for easier identification and better response. And that’s precisely what the next section covers.
The US CISA defines Nation State Cyber Actors as adversaries who pose an elevated threat to national security with their Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) activity. Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors are highly funded, organised and sophisticated.
They carry out complex cyber attacks aimed at specific targets with the intention of maintaining long-term access to networks or systems. The goals of APTs can range from espionage and stealing data to disrupting or even destroying networks and systems.
Several organisations in the cybersecurity community conduct research on APT actors. However, it doesn’t help when each of these organisations gives different names to the same APT. One of many examples is of a threat actor group from Iran which has at least eight different names: (The vendor's name are in brackets)
For more of these APT listings, you should check out:
Note: Our NCSC Assured Training in Cyber Incident Planning & Response not only lays bare the detailed tactics of advanced attackers but attendees learn the core principles of ensuring you can detect and deny these advanced threat actors effectively.
You’ve got an understanding of what Nation State Threat Actors are and what they can do. Now let’s look at some specific reasons that make them so feared. It’s important to remember here that APT actors may be out to damage critical infrastructure and/or government services. However, they can impact you or your business directly if that helps them achieve their larger end-goal.
Here’s a look at how and why:
1. Sophistication and Resources: Nation-state actors have access to significant financial, technical, and human resources. This allows them to develop and deploy advanced cyber attack techniques.
This level of sophistication enables them to create custom malware that is highly malicious in nature. They also often exploit zero-day vulnerabilities and play on recent political or cultural events to lure targets. Essentially, they employ a range of tactics that are difficult to detect and counter.
2. Strategic Objectives: Unlike the regular cybercriminal whose primary motivation is often financial gain, nation-state actors pursue politically-motivated interests. These can include theft of sensitive government or corporate data.
Disruption of critical infrastructure, influence over other nations' political processes, and preparation for potential cyber warfare are often amongst their main objectives. Their pursuit of these objectives means their coordinated attacks can have far-reaching implications for national security, economic stability, and international relations.
3. Prolonged Operations: Nation-state actors often engage in long-term cyber operations. Their campaigns can last months or years, during which they quietly infiltrate and maintain a presence within a target's networks. They continuously monitor, extract data, or lay the groundwork for future attacks. This persistence allows them to deeply entrench themselves in the target's environment, making detection and removal challenging.
4. Complexity and Stealth: These threat actors use complex methods to avoid detection. They often use encrypted channels, leveraging legitimate network tools for malicious purposes. Plus, they constantly evolve their tactics to stay ahead of cybersecurity defences.
5. Global Impact: The actions of nation-state cyber actors can have a global impact, affecting not just targeted organisations or governments but also the general public. Attacks on critical infrastructure, such as power grids, water supply systems, or financial markets, can disrupt lives and economies on a large scale.
As you’ve probably figured by now, APT or Nation State attacks are particularly formidable because of their vast resources and their ability to remain undetected for prolonged periods of time. Responding to an attack by a Nation State cyber threat actor requires extremely high levels of vigilance and preparation.
If your organisation operates in critical infrastructure or handles sensitive information, you need to develop a highly effective cybersecurity incident response, detection, remediation and recovery process. Below is a structured approach that you must have in place for responding to a coordinated attack by a Nation State actor:
The fight against nation-state cyber threats isn't just a business concern. It's a global one. International laws and cooperation play a critical role in managing this massive threat. However, organisations like yours can often become easy pawns in a larger political war.
It is essential, therefore, to stay informed on the latest threats and threat actors and strengthen defences to beat them. Building a culture of continuous vigilance and cybersecurity awareness is critical. Deploying advanced monitoring tools and prioristing cybersecurity incident response protocols are sacrosanct in the fight against Nation-State Cyber Threats.