Nation-State Cybecriminals and Economic Disruption

Nation-state cybercriminals from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are attacking all parts of US society. They are attacking anything and everything that will disrupt our economy. They will attack our businesses and steal their intellectual property or spear-phish their executives. They will try to disrupt our distribution, manufacturing, and inventory control system. Now they are targeting our industrial control systems with digital sabotage– yes our electrical grid, our water distribution, and oil and gas refineries, voice and internet systems. Currently, it is the Iranian hacker group APT33 to whom we have to focus our attention. One of their favorite but a crude tactic is called password spraying, where they blast common across thousands of organizations. Using long and strong passwords on every account negates this tactic.