Book Image

Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies - Second Edition

By : Tim Rains
3 (2)
Book Image

Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies - Second Edition

3 (2)
By: Tim Rains

Overview of this book

Tim Rains is Microsoft's former Global Chief Security Advisor and Amazon Web Services’ former Global Security Leader for Worldwide Public Sector. He has spent the last two decades advising private and public sector organizations all over the world on cybersecurity strategies. Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies, Second Edition builds upon the success of the first edition that has helped so many aspiring CISOs, and cybersecurity professionals understand and develop effective data-driven cybersecurity strategies for their organizations. In this edition, you’ll examine long-term trends in vulnerability disclosures and exploitation, regional differences in malware infections and the socio-economic factors that underpin them, and how ransomware evolved from an obscure threat to the most feared threat in cybersecurity. You’ll also gain valuable insights into the roles that governments play in cybersecurity, including their role as threat actors, and how to mitigate government access to data. The book concludes with a deep dive into modern approaches to cybersecurity using the cloud. By the end of this book, you will have a better understanding of the threat landscape, how to recognize good Cyber Threat Intelligence, and how to measure the effectiveness of your organization's cybersecurity strategy.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
13
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14
Index

Understanding the difference between attackers’ motivations and tactics

One of the reasons I’ve found so many organizations lack focus and competency around the cybersecurity fundamentals is the way big data breaches have been reported in the news over the last decade. Stories that claim an attack was the “most advanced attack seen to date” or the work of “a nation state” seem to be common. But when you take a closer look at these attacks, the victim organization was always initially compromised by attackers using one or more of the Cybersecurity Usual Suspects that I outlined in this chapter.

There are attackers that operate in the open because they don’t believe there are consequences for their illicit activities, based on their location, legal jurisdiction, or who sponsors their work. This used to be the exception to the rule that they will obfuscate their true affiliations and identities. However, there has been a proliferation...