![\"Infosec\"](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2013\/04\/05113801\/infosec2_title1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTo coincide with Infosec, Verizon released its much anticipated 2013 Data Breach Investigations report<\/a> this week. According to the report, China is involved in the manufacturing of almost all known advanced persistent threats (APTs), with a whopping 96% of cyber espionage campaigns monitored by Verizon attributed to threat actors in China. The report states that 19% of those breaches were linked to the Chinese government as they attempt to get hold of sensitive foreign intellectual property.<\/p>\n APTs have compromised many high profile media organizations over the last year, including the New York Times last autumn, and last week the Associated Press\u2019 Twitter account was hacked to a dramatic, but short-term, effect (although this wasn\u2019t necessarily an APT). China may be a key player when it comes to APTs and the theft of intellectual property, but it is by no means the only culprit. Many of the most sophisticated \u2018phishing\u2019 attacks with the sole purpose of stealing money emanate from Eastern Europe, Africa and South America. They are no strangers to cybercrime as these regions are experiencing a boom in cyber. And although the US is a frequent target of APTs, it is also a significant perpetrator of malware attacks, with a high number of financially motivated attacks originating from the States.<\/p>\n As Eugene Kaspersky reminded the audience during his keynote speech on Tuesday, \u2018we can\u2019t predict what\u2019s next, but we can try and deal with what\u2019s out there.\u2019 It might not be possible to protect against all potential attacks, DDoS or otherwise. But we can do our very utmost to protect ourselves from a large number of them. He divided the motivations of today\u2019s cybercriminals into the following categories: financial, political, reputational damage, military and sabotage\/scare tactics.<\/p>\n Fifteen years ago, the chief sources of attack came from hackers of the stereotypical kind \u2013 spotty, lone students operating from their bedrooms motivated only by the desire to cause mischief. This stereotype is now outdated, as today cybercrime is a multi-million dollar industry that\u2019s growing in profitability as organized gangs rake in millions by extorting money from their online victims. It\u2019s the clever guys that stay in the business, Eugene pointed out. And sadly it\u2019s only a matter of time until cyber terrorists use state-sponsored cyber weapons such as Gauss and Flame to cripple critical infrastructure systems. Scott Cruse, Legal Attach\u00e9, FBI, US Embassy London, underlined Eugene\u2019s comments during a panel discussion on how to battle cybercrime on Wednesday. \u2018Cybercrime is fast emerging as the biggest threat on the horizon\u2019 he explained. \u2018It may even surpass terrorism as we know it in terms of the threat it represents to national security.\u2019<\/p>\n Eugene\u2019s advice is simple. Consumers must protect their PCs. If you don\u2019t, quite simply you are feeding the bad guys. And in a worst case scenario, you could even be funding terrorism. Businesses are on the frontline. The cybercriminals will try and get at corporate data to attack enterprises so it\u2019s essential that they have a robust cyber security strategy and policies in place. And governments need to change their critical IT systems and invest more in IT security education.<\/p>\n As the Verizon report illustrates, every business (and therefore individual) is a potential target for some kind of threat: be it from amateur hackers; hacktivists (political activists trying to make a political statement; organized criminal gangs extorting money; or full-blown state sponsored industrial espionage.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n