It used to be that data breaches were all about cyber-crooks hacking computer systems to steal personal information, followed by an affected company sending regretful notification letters offering a year or two of complimentary credit monitoring. Not anymore. Now, state-sponsored attacks threaten to wreak havoc on companies’ essential IT systems, Internet devices, software, and all manner of critical infrastructure in private sector hands. Recently, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney General described a takedown of a Russian government-sponsored botnet called Cyclops Blink before it was weaponized and caused damage. That case is one reflection of a wave of state-sponsored attacks that can transform routine “incident response” into more dramatic corporate cyber crises.
In this article, Alan Charles Raul, Joan Loughnane, Stephen McInerney, and Laura Sorice detail a few observations about nation-state-sponsored attacks.
Reprinted with permission from the May 6, 2022 edition of the New York Law Journal © 2022 ALM Global Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-256-2472 or reprints@alm.com.
