A new White Paper from Trend Micro presents research findings on how highly targeted cyber attacks work. It examines the stages of a targeted attack, and explores trends in the tools, tactics, and procedures used in attacks.
Targeted attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in popular software in order to compromise specific target sets are becoming increasingly commonplace. These attacks are not automated and indiscriminate nor are they conducted by opportunistic amateurs. These computer intrusions are staged by threat actors that aggressively pursue and compromise specific targets. Such attacks are typically part of broader campaigns, a series of failed and success compromises, by specific threat actors and not isolated attacks. The objective of the attacks is to obtain sensitive data.
