What is Cyber Espionage?
Intelligence is the collection of information that have military, political, or economic value.
Espionage is a set of intelligence gathering methods.
Cyber is a prefix used to describe new things that are now possible as a result of the spread of computers, systems, and devices, that are interconnected.
Cyber threats can be classified into four main categories: Cybercrime, cyber espionage, cyberterrorism, and cyber warfare.
Cyber espionage involves cyber attacks to obtain political, commercial, and military information.
Cyberspace is a preferred operational domain for many threat actors, including countries, state sponsored groups, the organized crime, and individuals.
In cyber espionage adversaries attack both, systems and persons:
1. Adversaries try to have unauthorized access to systems or devices, to obtain information.
2. Adversaries use social engineering against the persons that have authorized access to systems or devices. The main battlespace is the mind of these persons.
Cyber espionage exploits the anonymity, global reach, scattered nature, interconnectedness of information networks, and the deception opportunities that offer plausible deniability.
Economic and industrial espionage, including cyber espionage, represents a significant threat to a country’s prosperity, security, and competitive advantage.
Cyberterrorism is the convergence of cyberspace and terrorism, that includes politically motivated hacking, and operations intended to cause grave harm, such as loss of life or severe economic damage.
Countries use proxies, like state-sponsored groups, organizations, and the organized crime, as a way to accomplish national objectives while limiting cost, reducing the risk of direct conflict, and maintaining plausible deniability.
So, what can we do in the private sector?
Follow tried and tested practices of the public sector, like the Security Executive Agent Directive 5, even if you work for the private sector.
The Security Executive Agent Directive 5 addresses the collection and use of publicly available social media information.
Identify mission critical roles in your organisation, and understand their exposure to espionage risks.
Find potential targets in your organisation. Identify all the persons that have access to information that adversaries target.
Ensure that all these persons, after proper security awareness and training, understand how adversaries may target them.
Have clear policies and procedures, and ensure everybody is following them.
Implement the need-to-know principle for defining access rights, and establish controls to monitor misuse.
Implement the least privilege principle, and limits users' access to only what is absolutely required for their job. Carefully monitor violations of this policy.
Conduct employee background checks. Monitor changes in standards of living, and foreign trips.
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Cyber Risk GmbH is a company incorporated in Switzerland.
Registered address: Dammstrasse 16, 8810 Horgen, Switzerland.
Company number: CHE-244.099.341.
Cantonal Register of Commerce: Canton of Zürich.
Tel: +41 79 505 89 60
Email: george.lekatis@cyber-risk-gmbh.com
