Mitigating Targeted Attacks Requires an Integrated Solution

Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot Advanced Persistent Threats (APT), and how such threats require a different class of protection in order to be managed effectively.

There can be no doubt that APT attacks are a real threat. Such threats are unpredictable in nature, could lead to devastating consequences, and could affect just about any organization. The recent work from ISACA on the 2012 Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Awareness Study shows 63% of security professionals said they were or could be a target for APT attacks. That alone says that people in the know are taking this threat seriously.

But that survey also showed that fewer than 10% of those surveyed understood that these threats are significantly different from traditional threats. Awareness of the problem is a good start. But there’s work to be done to increase awareness around solutions.

As part of our ongoing work to help educate people about threats as well as solutions, we’ve partnered with Forrester Research on a new study: Mitigating Targeted Attacks Requires an Integrated Solution. This study surveyed 350 IT enterprise security decision-makers in the US, UK, France, and Germany, asking them about their technology expectations for targeted threat detection and response. It outlines some of the effective steps organizations are taking to protect themselves from APT attacks. In addition, it also highlights some areas of caution too: most notably that a number of organizations are still focusing resources in the wrong direction to protect against APT attacks.

Our findings further validates the points we raised in our blog entry, Understanding Targeted Attacks: What Are We Really Up Against?. In the entry, Director for Threat Research Martin Roesler tackled how attackers have vast resources like tools and intelligence, which aid them in conducting their attacks. He also talked about how, contrary to known belief, enterprises cannot determine how the attack will be carried out, given that they have no intel as to how much information an attacker knows about the organization.

Enterprises need to understand the nature of APTs to better protect their networks against APTs. This study is a good resource to further help build your understanding of these threats and appropriate solution assessment. To know more about APTs, you can also visit our Trend Micro APT portal.

Post from: Trendlabs Security Intelligence Blog – by Trend Micro

Mitigating Targeted Attacks Requires an Integrated Solution