APT – Advanced Persistent Threats

Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) are a form of cyberattack in which the attacker uses deception to target the people in an organization in order to compromise systems. This graphic shows APT being used for espionage, but the same concepts apply to sabotage and disinformation APT — APT targets people in order to gain a presence in systems.

APT Kill Chain In APT the attackers use social engineering – the manipulation of people – to infiltrate the data processing systems. The most common form of social engineering is spearphishing. Spearphishing is the use of deceptive emails to trick the user into opening an email, clicking a link, opening an attachment or otherwise disclosing credentials. With the deception completed, the attacker has access to the data processing systems. Estimates are that 95% of cyber-espionage uses spearphishing to infiltrate the targeted system. With remote access established, the attacker is able to engage in espionage, sabotage and disinformation.  SP Guard defends against APT by interrupting the social engineering that attackers rely upon. With SP Guard IT can provide your users with the information needed to fight deception.