North Korea joins military cyber sphere alongside Iran

Both Iran and North Korea are the latest additions to the list of countries with military operations in cyber space, says a recent report.

CrowdStrike published its findings in a paper titled ‘Global Threat Intel’, revealing information about  such matters as Iranian, Russian and Chinese threat actors, as well as Lizard Squad, sophisticated ransomware and cyber-espionage.

With regards to threat actors, the report concluded that Russia and China are the more sophisticated countries in terms of cyber-operations.

The report stated:

“China-based adversaries continued to be the most prolific in the targeted intrusion space, but public reporting on a number of actors linked to Iran and Russia show the breadth of the threat from targeted intrusion operators.”

According to CrowdStrike, there are a possible 39 nationalist and state-sponsored adversaries practicing such surveillance methods, and that countries have begun to recognise the worth of intelligence gathering within the information space.

It is thought that China is already making good use of this intelligence, including watching Russia due to its close working relationship with Vladimir Putin.

Cyber threats between nations and governments can appear to make those that target businesses seem like a minor distraction. However, when a firm is affected by a virus or a data breach of some kind, the results can be catastrophic. We cannot just leave it up to the governments of the world to defend against cyber crime. Businesses can do their part too by ensuring that their IT security recruitment campaigns are given the attention they require.