Advanced Persistent Threats (APT)


Security budgets of many organizations are being stretched by APT, a form of cyberattack that has been around for years, but which has been growing in occurrence and getting increasingly sophisticated.

APT, as the name indicates is a persistent kind of attack as distinct from a one-off assault by a passing hacker. In an APT attack, the hacker employs stealthy techniques, hangs in there for long periods of time, launches monitoring and intrusive software and generally persists towards achieving the target. Normally, the target is to steal sensitive or otherwise valuable information, often intellectual property. For a more complete description of APT, check this article.

The incidence of APT reportedly arose from the activities of certain foreign interests, notably but not exclusively from China and Russia.

A recent survey indicates that security budgets have gone up by 6 - 10% among 32% of the respondents and by more than 10% by others, showing that APT is being taken seriously by those organizations and their executive. For more on the survey, check this link.