Abstract
Anecdotally, the distinction between fast “Smash-and-Grab” cyber-attacks on the one hand and slow attacks or “Advanced Persistent Threats” on the other hand is well known. In this article, we provide an explanation for this phenomenon as the outcome of an optimization from the perspective of the attacker. To this end, we model attacks as an interaction between an attacker and a defender and infer the two types of behavior observed based on justifiable assumptions on key variables such as detection thresholds. On the basis of our analysis, it follows that bi-modal detection capabilities are optimal.
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Notes
- 1.
A typical example is an analytics capability scanning through a large number of log files generated periodically by the system, checking them against predefined (mis)use cases or rules.
- 2.
The activity level parameterizes in an abstract and general way the number of actions performed during the attack per unit time. A concrete value depends on the details of the attack and the system. E.g., it may be the rate of data exfiltration from the defender’s network.
- 3.
This assumption takes into account loss occurring within any time interval after an attack. Not only incidents with a direct financial loss result in value loss for an organization. Also indirect impact in the form of lost investments and future income, as well as the consequences of (so far) unnoticed attacks usually lead to value loss for the defender in the long term.
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Acknowledgements
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement ICT-318003 (TRESPASS). This publication reflects only the authors’ views and the Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
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van Wieren, M., Doerr, C., Jacobs, V., Pieters, W. (2016). Understanding Bifurcation of Slow Versus Fast Cyber-Attackers. In: Livraga, G., Torra, V., Aldini, A., Martinelli, F., Suri, N. (eds) Data Privacy Management and Security Assurance. DPM QASA 2016 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9963. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47072-6_2
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