Digital Forensics Dispatch

Most Organizations Think They’ve Faced a Nation-State Cyber-Attack

April 12, 2022

James Coker,  of Infosecurity magazine, recently published an article about a new study that was done by Trellix and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The research surveyed 800 Information Technology decision makers in Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UK, and the US.

The study found that 86% of organizations are convinced that they have been targeted by a nation-state threat actor. Also, 92% of the respondents say they faced a nation-state cyber-attack in the last 18 months or think they will in the future.  

According to the researchers, Russia and China were recognized as the most likely suspects behind the attacks. Coker stated, “Two-fifths (39%) of organizations that believe they have been targeted by a nation-state-backed cyber-attack in the past 18 months suspect the attack was by Russia, while 44% of those expecting to face nation-state threats in the future identified Russia as the most likely perpetrators. For China, the figures were 35% and 46%, respectively.”

In addition, over 90% of the respondents stated that they are pleased to share information on nation-states sponsor attacks, but not with full details of the outcomes. The report also showed that most of the organizations have a hard time discovering if a cyber-attack is linked to a nation-state.

The IT decision makers gauged the total financial impact of a nation-state cyber attack to be roughly $1.6 million. Shockingly, of the organizations studied, about 10% admitted to still not having a formal cybersecurity strategy set up to help protect their data and infrastructure.

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