Five Ways Government Can Help Businesses Fight Nation-State Attacks

Over the past six months, a relatively unsophisticated group of attackers used a variety of remote access Trojans to attempt to grab banking details from companies—a scheme reminiscent of tactics used by cyber-criminals. Yet, these attacks also targeted a number of Russian, Spanish and U.S. government agencies and were more likely the work of nation-state operators, according to an analysis published by network security firm Palo Alto Networks. Unlike many nation-state attacks, the group was not connected to Russia, China, Iran or North Korea, but to the developing cyber capability in Pakistan, just one of an increasing number of nations developing their cyber capabilities. Pakistan has joined more than 30 nations who now have cyber-attack capabilities, according to the United States' annual threat assessment published in February. "The risk is growing that some adversaries will conduct cyberattacks—such as data deletion or localized and temporary disruptions of critical infrastructure—against the United States in a crisis short of war," Daniel R. Coats, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, stated in the report. "Ransomware and malware attacks have spread globally, disrupting global shipping and production lines of U.S. companies."