# Security Attack Behavioural Pattern Analysis for Critical Service Providers
## 6 Discussion  
### Implications within the Realm of Cyber Physical-Systems  
Research question (RQ1): upon analysing classifiers, it is clear that the primary direct impacts on the cyberinfrastructure of major service providers are denial-of-service and disruption. The incidence of these attacks has escalated during the surveyed timeframe. Many recorded cases of denial-of-service attacks explicitly attribute the cause to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Furthermore, a multitude of documented attacks suggest that the objective was to intentionally disrupt the resources of the website. Some denial-of-service attacks and disruptions have been associated with cyberinfrastructure intrusions, misuse of resources, and installation of malicious software. When evaluating the efficacy of denial of service attacks, 94% of them resulted in different levels of disruption.  
A prior analysis suggests that a substantial proportion of denial-of-service attacks consist of distributed attacks targeting the resources of websites. Website disruptions may only affect external access, while internal informational resources for employees remain unaffected. Furthermore, attacks have the potential to result in denial-of-service. Although there is a declining pattern, social engineering attacks continue to be reported frequently. When compared to other types of attacks, social engineering and attacks that take advantage of insufficient authentication did not have a significant impact on the cyberinfrastructure of major service providers.  
The trend may be due to the organisations' increased awareness of initial access attempts, as previously discussed. While the use of social engineering to illegally access user accounts has decreased, it still remains a significant part of reported malicious incidents for major service providers. Intrusions resulting in improper resource utilisation and denial-of-service attacks were common, while web compromise was less common. Nevertheless, this study fails to specify the exact length of time or the specific services that are most profoundly affected by these disruptions. Disruption was the top reported impact, followed by disclosure, with 16% citing a malicious event. More often than breaches of integrity or confidentiality, service disruptions or degradation occurred. Criticism of this study may point to bias in the criteria for reporting incidents by organisations.  
Despite the assumption that service providers are vulnerable, this study demonstrates that many cyber incidents targeting an organisation's infrastructure do not have any reported impacts on the organisation or its stakeholders. There are multiple factors that can contribute to this situation. Major service providers show the necessary abilities to minimise both the direct and indirect impacts of an attack. Furthermore, strong services or institutions within society have the capability to effectively alleviate the negative effects of numerous reported incidents. The analysis uncovered a small number of incidents that led to the destruction of information assets, suggesting that threat actors do not specifically focus on targeting them. This implies that critical service providers hold the capability to effectively avert such occurrences. While these findings do not definitively prove the futility of cyberattacks, they substantially challenge the idea that critical service providers and society in general are overly vulnerable to malicious attacks.