Cybersecurity Glossary
Advanced Persistent Threat
A well resourced attacker who gets in quietly and stays for a long time.
What Advanced Persistent Threat means
An advanced persistent threat is defined by patience rather than by tooling. The attacker establishes access, remains undetected for months, moves gradually across the network and takes what they came for slowly. Many such groups are state aligned or targeting intellectual property.
Why Advanced Persistent Threat matters for small businesses and nonprofits
Small organisations are frequently the entry point rather than the destination, because they supply, host or advise a larger target. Being small is not protection when you hold credentials to something bigger.
What to do about Advanced Persistent Threat
- Retain logs long enough to investigate, since these intrusions predate their discovery by months
- Watch for unusual outbound traffic and unusual working hours on accounts
- Know which of your clients or partners would make you a stepping stone
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