In the fight against cyber threats, on one side is you and every organization and on the other side are the bad actors. They are continuously coming up with various TTPs to attack every critical sector. Who’s winning? This time it’s a fight of government agencies against threat actors.
The scoop
The Homeland Threat Assessment report by the DHS stated that the U.S. Census Bureau was attacked by threat actors during the last year. These actors have been unidentified and were found to be conducting vulnerability scans and attempting unauthorized access. However, the report suspects that the 2020 elections will be disrupted by nation-state actors belonging to China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran.
Other recent activities
- As per an affidavit by the FBI, a group of cybercriminals was found conspiring against various state governments. The plan, moreover, included violent actions against a certain politician. The involved individuals organized the plot across Facebook and two other encrypted chat apps.
- The FBI and CISA published a joint alert stating that cybercriminals have gained access to government networks by blending VPN and Windows vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2018-13379 and CVE-2020-1472, respectively. The attackers have targeted federal and SLTT government networks.
- The Bahamut cyber espionage gang has been found targeting government agencies and businesses in South Asia and the Middle East.
What does this imply?
The common aim of nation-state threat actors is cyber espionage, however, North Korea is limited to generation of revenue. Cybercriminals seek to disrupt the infrastructure that a nation works on.
The bottom line
Various government agencies worldwide are being targeted by threat actors on a daily basis. With a motive to steal information and finances, cybercriminals are taking every necessary action to achieve their goals. Thus, it is high time that governments across the world solidify their defenses against such attacks.
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