Hacking: The Next Generation

Chapter 9. Hacking Executives: Can Your CEO Spot a Targeted Attack?

Next-generation attackers will start to break away from traditional opportunistic attacks and begin to focus on targeting their victims. In the past, attackers were more opportunity-focused, stumbling on their victims by looking for targets that had a specific vulnerability.

It is very likely that attackers will move away from this traditional method and begin working in the opposite direction, choosing their victims and then constructing an attack based on their victims’ environment. Attackers are concerned with one thing—generating the most money possible with the least amount of effort—and reversing their current methods may prove beneficial to them.

When attackers start to move away from traditional methods and begin to focus their attacks, whom will they target? Obvious targets are the executives of large corporations. These are the “C Team” members of the company. Examples include chief executive officers (CEOs), chief financial officers (CFOs), and chief operating officers (COOs). Not only are these executives in higher income brackets than other potential targets, but also the value of the information on their laptops can rival the value of information in the corporation’s databases.

Fully Targeted Attacks Versus Opportunistic Attacks

Attackers could choose one of two different approaches when targeting executives: an opportunistic approach or a fully targeted approach. Opportunistic attacks are attacks in which ...