Critical Challenges in Cybersecurity
There are a number of critical challenges in the field of cybersecurity today. Some of these challenges are known as “pervasive threats” or “advanced pervasive threats” (APTs) because bad actors (hackers, criminals) are constantly upgrading or modifying their malware tools. New malware tools are difficult to detect until enough suspicious activity piques the interest of investigators and they undertake forensic measures to analyze systems to determine the reason for incorrect processing or data corruption.
APTs are usually malware tools which can adapt to their environment, sensing anti-virus, monitoring, and firewall tools used to counter them. APTs can go dormant or take evasive action when their sensing algorithms detect countermeasures. Some malware can even modify itself when needed, or when propagating to other machines.
The Department of Homeland Security , the FBI, and US-Cert websites maintain a list of current cybersecurity threats. Sometimes their information also divides the threats into operating system platform types (MacOS, Linux/Unix, or MS-Windows).
Vendors, such as Microsoft in its developer network, post similar information. The Kaspersky anti-virus site also has information on malware types. These sites will provide focused information on cybersecurity threats as you consider the requirements of this assignment, to write a short research paper that originates from a research questions and working hypothesis.