APT Sophistication Outstripping Cyber-preparedness

Even though organizations are increasingly being targeted by hackers that use a snowballing amount of sophistication in their attacks, businesses are just as unprepared to detect and protect against malicious activity as they were a year ago. FireEye’s Mandiant M-Trends report found that notably, the tools and tactics of advanced persistent threat (APT) actors have evolved significantly over the last year. For instance, threat actors impersonating the IT department has become an even more popular tactic. IT-posing phishing emails comprised 78% of observed phishing schemes that it saw in 2014, versus just 44% in 2013.