Here are a few important trends shaping the APT threat and the efforts to defend against it: - Remote access and devices accessing unknown, unsecured networks increases the need for equipment such as VPN gateways. - Organizations are grappling with the growing threat of voice phishing or “vishing” of remote employees to compromise their credentials or personal devices. - Ransomware groups are shifting their strategy. The success of sophisticated, targeted attacks will cause more major ransomware players to start acquiring APT capabilities. These gangs invest some of the funds from their attacks into advanced tools and attack strategies. - There are more direct, systematic attacks that affect critical infrastructure or are aimed at disruption of secondary systems, exploiting the fact that life is more dependent on technology than ever before. - Companies are taking action against zero-day brokers, who identify vulnerabilities and sell them on the open market. - 5G vulnerabilities are emerging as adoption of this technology increases, and more devices depend on the connectivity it provides. Attackers are searching for and will discover exploitable vulnerabilities. - More countries will use legal prosecution as part of their security strategy. As part of legal charges against APT criminals, prosecutors are exposing APT group toolsets, “burning” them, and preventing other APTs from using them. This can hurt the activity and progress of any APT group using the toolset.