ISACA, a global provider of information system assurance and security, surveyed over 1,500 security professionals during the fourth quarter of 2012 to find that around one in five reported that their enterprise had been the victim of an advanced persistent threat (APT). Further, according to the survey, 94% of those respondents said that "APTs represent a credible threat to national security and economic stability, yet most enterprises are employing ineffective technologies to protect themselves."
ISACA has released the results of the survey to show that there is a still-growing threat.
"APTs are sophisticated, stealthy and unrelenting," said Christos Dimitriadis, international vice president of ISACA and head of information security at INTRALOT GROUP. "Traditional cyberthreats often move right on if they cannot penetrate their initial target, but an APT will continually attempt to penetrate the desired target until it meets its objective - and once it does, it can disguise itself and morph when needed, making it difficult to identify or stop."
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However, more concerning (especially amongst so-called security professionals) was the opinion amongst a vast majority of respondents that antivirus and antimalware along with network perimeter technologies such as firewalls were sufficient protection.
They're not.
"APTs call for many defensive approaches, from awareness training and amending third-party agreements to ensure vendors are well-protected, to implementing technical controls," said Jo Stewart-Rattray, director of ISACA and director of information security and IT assurance at BRM Holdich.
The organisation also calls for the recognition that APTs are entirely different to 'normal' threats. As one security expert recently told iTWire (and we paraphrase), "you're either being hit by APTs, or you simply don't know that you're being hit by APTs."
