Living in the Shadow of the Advanced Persistent Threat

Enterprise buyers of business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, and cloud services have a new security bogeyman to worry about, the so-called Advanced Persistent Threat (APT). APTs are agencies of sovereign nation-states that aim to penetrate enterprise defenses and steal valuable proprietary information, and can soon be expected to set their sights on outsourcing providers as well.

APT actors differ significantly from conventional attackers in both their goals and methodologies – they are generally much more sophisticated, better-funded, and, above all, willing to relentlessly attack specific targets over a period of years. Thus, buyers need to gain some assurances that their providers are taking appropriate measures to counter this new threat.

In this report, HfS Research explains the hows and whys of APT attacks, examines their differences from conventional security threats, and identifies the countermeasures that buyers should seek in their BPO, ITO, and cloud services providers to minimize the risk of a successful APT attack.