What is an Advanced Persistent Threat?

Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) describe sophisticated and targeted cyber attacks that take place over a long period of time. Such attacks by APT groups require a significant level of effort and so tend to be focussed on higher-value targets such as nation-states and large organisations.  Whether advanced malware, social engineering or phishing attacks an APT attack can have destructive consequences for the target network and that organisation’s intellectual property.

The fundamental purpose of an APT attack is to gain ongoing access to a network or system so that the threat actors involved can infiltrate the system and achieve their goals.

5 Stages of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)

APT groups will typically gain access to the system through a network or application vulnerability, or equally through social engineering. Once inside the target network the cybercriminals can use advanced malware to create backdoors in the network and gain access. Once the attack is established within the system the APT group can build an in-depth understanding of the network, devices & vulnerabilities, and harvest the information they need to achieve their goals, whether this is to steal, spy or disrupt. Even if the APT attack is detected, the backdoors left open by the threat actors can mean that vulnerabilities that lead to future attacks remain undetected.

How to detect and defend against an APT

Our APT analysis solutions help our customers to identify vulnerabilities and indicators of compromise in their networks, helping them to protect their intellectual property and sensitive data from APT attacks.

Our digital forensic solutions can help you to monitor your network and visualise real-time threat intelligence to identify and prevent attacks and protect your digital estate.

Our Triton tool and cyber warfare simulation solutions can also be used for penetration testing on your network and endpoints to help you build cyber resilience and take proactive steps to protect your organisation from an APT attack before it has a chance to gain access and establish a foothold.