At times I have a conversation with government agencies that share stories that make my hair stand on end – it is amazing the threats these agencies mitigate as part of their normal day. But this NY Times article suggests that there is a rising tide of criminal state actors trying to steal US business assets:
“This should come as a shock to no one, but President Trump’s confrontational diplomacy has energized state hackers in Iran and China. They are targeting companies and government agencies in the United States with renewed gusto, after a multiyear lull.”
Nicole Perlroth, the reporter for this article, indicates that the attacks have become far more sophisticated and more difficult to track because the attacks often target the internet infrastructure, for what I would assume are man in the middle and DNS attacks. From this vantage point the enemy can target not just communications from the consumer but also B2B, B2G, and G2B traffic which typically carries more sensitive data:
The attacks rattled Homeland Security officials, who triggered an emergency alert during the government shutdown last month. Security researchers say that the attacks have not relented and that they’re hitting American targets with an unnerving success rate.
The news out of China is even more troubling.”
So while our government is distracted by a political mud fight our internet infrastructure is under attack. This means defending against these criminal activities fall squarely on the financial institution itself, but how many are up to the task of defending against criminal nation states?
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group