THE NEW IT COLD WAR
Historically, The Cold War was an era of ideological and geopolitical tension between the Western and Eastern blocs, primarily between the United States and the former Soviet Union. It came to an end in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR. Now there is the threat of The New IT Cold War, one that has the potential to paralyze IT networks, prevent internet access, catalyze massive fraud and much more. The New Cold War may well be characterized by covert digital attacks that could shut down a power grid, bring the operation of financial institutions to a halt, hinder medical services, undermine public trust, or sway opinions and ideologies.
LOW AND SLOW
The name of the game of The New IT Cold War is straightforward – to undermine the enemy and not get caught. Cybercriminals from many nations, including the United States, the UK, Russia, India, China, and North Korea, use stealth hacking to compromise networks, steal data, and commit identify theft. The attacks are often termed ‘low and slow’ and hacking often goes unnoticed. All the while, data is being stolen and these persistent hackers are becoming increasingly difficult to identify and even harder to attribute. And these hackers aren’t selective. It doesn’t matter whether you are IBM or the corner shop chippie, they are coming for you.
ADVANCED PERSISTENT THREATS
Hackers come in many shapes and sizes. On one end of the spectrum, you have the seemingly harmless cybercrook who simply wants to get up to some criminal mischief by infiltrating a computer or IT system, nothing more. Then there are those who aren’t hacking for the fun of it. Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) are specialized teams of highly skilled hackers that execute cyber warfare. An APT is typically a country or a country-sponsored group that gains unauthorized access to a network or IT infrastructure, remaining undetected for a prolonged period.
A BIG-TICKET OPERATION
Cyber warfare is a big-ticket operation. With nations having active cyber capabilities using that use digitized tactics, techniques, and procedures, the cyber warfare market had a valuation of approximately $21 billion in 2019. Experts predict that this will jump to $35 billion by 2025. IT espionage using Denial of Service (DOS) is fundamental to a cyber warfare attack. But how do you stop DOS is its tracks?
ETHICAL HACKING
Some say that the only way to beat a hacker is to become a hacker. This is where ethical hacking comes into play. Ethical hacking, also called penetration testing, is the authorized exploitation of an IT system or network to determine its vulnerabilities and weak points. It is an effective way of testing and validating the cybersecurity status and IT integrity of your business. To combat The New IT Cold War, companies and organizations are increasingly testing their own IT networks with hardware and software designed to find holes in their IT security which can then be fixed. Contact Zhero for the most reliable vulnerability assessments and penetration tests on the market. Don’t delay, secure your IT today.
Download your free eBook here.
