Network Security Threat Landscape

Today’s threat landscape is both complex and ever-changing. This makes working in network security a challenging yet never boring experience! This section provides a look at the motivations behind network attacks, who is being targeted, and how organizations can protect themselves.

With so many organizations and, more importantly, devices connected to the Internet, it is no surprise that there is no lack of sources of network threats and an abundance of malicious threat actors looking to take advantage of these threats. So, what are the motivations behind all of these threat actors?

Financial: There are several different means in which attackers can make financial gains through their malicious actions. They can compromise a point-of-sale (PoS) system at a retail organization and siphon off millions of credit/debit cards, which can subsequently be sold on the online black market. Threat actors can also penetrate financial organizations for the sole purpose of compromising user accounts and transferring money to accounts of their choosing.

Disruption: Unfortunately, many individuals and groups exist solely to cause disruption to the core business of many organizations and institutions. This disruption is created for several reasons:

To protest the actions, decisions, or behaviors of an enterprise

To serve as a distraction while the malicious actors plant something within the network to be leveraged at a future point in time

To gain media attention for the actions of the malicious group or individual

Geopolitical: Not surprisingly, there are groups affiliated with certain nation states that leverage the Internet to engage in cyber warfare. In addition, there are groups of malicious actors, with no direct connection to any individual nation, who use the Internet to launch attacks against countries who they believe do not have their best interests at heart or whose ideals conflict with those of the malicious actors.