In this lesson, we are going to focus
on one of the most sophisticated types of threat actors,
that being nation-state actors.
Nation-state actors are groups or individuals
that are sponsored by a government
to conduct cyber operations
against other nations, organizations, or individuals.
These nation state actors are usually a part
of a nation's intelligence or military organizations,
although they may also operate
as independent entities with state-backed resources
so that the country can maintain plausible deniability
for their attacks.
Sometimes, these threat actors
attempt what is known as a false flag attack.
False flag attack refers to an attack
that is orchestrated in such a way
that it appears to originate from a different source
or group than the actual perpetrators,
with the intent to mislead investigators
and attribute the attack to someone else.
For example, one suspected false flag attack
occurred during a malware attack
focused on the 2016 Winter Olympics
that were being held in South Korea.
Initially, indicators seemed to point
towards the North Korean nation-state actors
as being the culprits,
and this assumption was highly probable,
given the historical tension between North Korea
and South Korea over the past 70 years.
During the investigator's initial triage analysis,
they saw that the malware
resembled pieces of previous malware
used by North Korean nation-state actors.
But as the cybersecurity investigators and researchers
dug further into the malware's code,
they discovered some subtle clues that pointed
to the real source of the attack, Russian threat actors
who were attempting to disguise their operations
by mimicking known North Korean state actors' techniques.
This made the attribution especially challenging
for investigators, but it showcases the lengths
that these nation state actors will go
in order to achieve their objectives.
You'll find that nation state actors
are some of the most highly sophisticated
and highly capable threat actors
that you will face as a cybersecurity professional.
Nation-state actors possess advanced technical skills
and extensive resources, and they are capable
of conducting complex, coordinated cyber operations
that employ a variety of techniques,
such as creating custom malware, using zero-day exploits,
and becoming an advanced persistent threat.
An advanced persistent threat, or APT,
is a term that used to be used synonymously
with a nation-state actor
because of their long-term persistence and stealth.
These days, though, organized cybercrime groups
are also sometimes referred to as an APT
due to their high levels of sophistication
and technical capabilities.
Whenever you hear the term advanced persistent threat,
I want you to remember that advanced persistent threat
is a prolonged and targeted cyberattack
in which an intruder gains unauthorized access to a network
and remains undetected for an extended period of time
while trying to steal data or monitor network activities
rather than cause immediate damage.
These advanced persistent threats
are often sponsored by a nation state or its proxies,
like organized cybercrime groups.
For this reason, nation-state actors
and advanced persistent threats
are one of the most dangerous threat actors
that we face out there, because of the amount of resources
and funding available to them.
So what motivates a nation-state actor?
Simply put, nation-state actors are motivated
to achieve their long-term strategic goals.
They're not seeking financial gain.
Instead, these groups are funded by their governments
to conduct cyber operations that can help their governments
to achieve political objectives,
such as gathering intelligence,
disrupting critical infrastructure,
and influencing their political processes.
These nation state actors may also engage in cyber espionage
to steal intellectual property
or gain a competitive advantage in key industries.
Most nation-state actors are not focused
on the financial gain, with the exception
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
or more commonly referred to simply as North Korea.
Due to North Korea's isolated economic position
and the sanctions imposed on it
from numerous countries around the world,
North Korea state actors have been charged
with conducting cyber operations
to gain additional financial resources
to support the Kim regime.
North Korean cyberattacks often target banks,
cryptocurrency exchanges, and other financial institutions
to alleviate economic pressure
and fund their other state objectives.
Another example of a very well-known nation-state attack
was conducted back in 2011 with the Stuxnet worm.
The Stuxnet worm creation has been attributed
to the American and Israeli governments
by cybersecurity researchers.
This worm is a sophisticated piece of malware
that was designed to sabotage
the Iranian government nuclear program
by causing physical damage to the centrifuges
used in their uranium enrichment process.
The Stuxnet worm operated
by exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities
in the Windows operating system
that was used to run the nuclear enrichment centrifuges,
and the worm was able to spread
between machines without detection.
Remarkably, the designers of Stuxnet knew
that the nuclear centrifuges were part of an air gap network
to increase its security,
so all of the sensitive systems were isolated
from unsecured networks,
but Stuxnet was designed to infect USB drives,
with the hopes that an employee at the enrichment facility
would unknowingly transfer the worm
into the secure network environment
by connecting the USB drive to the system
to compromise it from within.
But even technologically sophisticated countries,
like the United States,
aren't immune to nation-state attackers.
You may already be aware that there was a lot of debate
over the highly contested 2016 US presidential election
between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Accounting to independent cybersecurity researchers,
it is suspected that the Russian government
used a wide range of cyber attacks
from across its various nation-state actors
to influence this presidential election.
According to the US government's intelligence community,
a series of cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns
during the election period can be attributed back
to Russian nation-state actors, whose goal was to undermine
the United States' democratic electoral process,
damage Hillary Clinton's candidacy,
and eventually support Donald Trump's campaign
to gain the presidency.
So remember, a nation-state actor is a group or individual
that is sponsored by a government
to conduct cyber operations
against other nations, organizations, or individuals.
Sometimes, they may also operate as independent entities
with state-backed resources
so the country can maintain plausible deniability
for their attacks when conducting a false flag attack.
A false flag attack refers to an attack
that is orchestrated in such a way that it appears
to originate from a different source or group
than the actual perpetrators,
with the intent to mislead investigators
and attribute the attack to someone else.
These nation-state actors represent the significant
and sophisticated cyber threat
that underscores the increasing use of cyberspace
as a battleground for a nation's geopolitical conflicts.