Understanding advanced persistent threats

- [Instructor] Over recent years, … there's been an increasing recognition … of the threat posed by nation states … using highly sophisticated malware, … known as Advanced Persistent Threats, or APTs. … This is malware directed at political and military targets, … using multiple vectors to attack. … APTs have a high degree of stealthiness, … and can persist over a long period of time. … There are five key characteristics … which make APTs quite different to rootkits. … The first is that they tend to be highly customized … to a specific target or set of targets, … rather than being a common code module. … An associated characteristic is that they're focused … on targeting the specific system or set of systems … for which they've been designed, … rather than being opportunistic. … They usually have multiple advanced … and often zero-day exploits … through which to exploit the target. … Their deployment is likely to be controlled … or have some level of intervention by humans, … rather than being fully automated, …