As a business owner you have two main things to protect – your assets and your employees. This makes you a prime target for people who are set on obtaining what it is you hold so dear, and the advancement in the technology sector has also resulted in an advancement in cybercrime.

How Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) Really Works

One of the most dangerous forms of cyber-crime comes in the form of advanced persistent threats, also known in the tech world as APTs. The techniques used to acquire this precious information are more sophisticated than ever before; using a “low and slow” almost stealth-like approach and getting everything they want before you have the chance to react and change passwords or install new preventative software.

A lot of the most effective advanced persistent threats (APTs) have worked over a period of several months, burrowing their way into the systems through a series of internet malware infections, physical malware infections and external exploitation; and going undetected throughout.

Having done the “background work”, the cyber criminals can then secretly steal all of your most valuable details from the credit card details of your clients to your own payroll information and intellectual property.

If you’re a business owner reading this and you’re currently quaking in your boots because you don’t know what advanced persistent threats are, let me try and break it down for you. There is no set definition, because as the tech industry changes and develops, the cyber criminals and their strategies adapt with them. Instead, we can break down the definition into sections to try and make it clearer:

Advanced

The criminals working on the theft of your vital information are almost ‘professional.’ Certain parts of the cyber attack might not be the most complicated of procedures for those involved, but the combination of the numerous small attacks can be highly complex, allowing them to access more and more.

Persistent

The “low and slow” approach mentioned previously sums this up perfectly. The criminals won’t just go straight in and extract everything in one go, potentially leaving tracks behind; instead they’re likely to implement a number of attacks that go almost undetected.

Threat

The people carrying out the attack are clearly determined to access their target and the more and more they can gain access to, the bigger threat they become. Once they get a taste of what they can obtain, they’ll want more.

The best way that you can prevent APTs is to implement a tiered form of defense, ensuring that whatever the cyber-criminals try, they have to be highly skilled to actually obtain your valuable data. Simply installing anti-virus software is not the only answer, you’ll need to work out the best and most trusted system out there, something that is capable of breaking the infection process and stopping the criminals in their tracks.

What are the other prevention methods that we can use to secure our data against Advanced Persistent Threats from hackers? Do you have any idea to contribute or have questions to ask? Please endeavor to ask those questions and add to the discussion below. Thanks