EXPLAINED: Not all cyber threats are equally worrisome
WASHINGTON — West Virginia reported unusual cyber activity targeting its election systems. The Texas governor said the state was encountering attempted “attacks" at the rate of “about 10,000 per minute" from Iran. Information technology staff in Las Vegas responded to an intrusion, though the city says no data was stolen.
Yet as the recent spate of reports makes clear, not all suspicious cyber activities are equally troublesome, the work of a foreign government or a precursor to the type of Russian interference seen in the 2016 election on behalf of President Donald Trump.WHAT SORT OF ACTIVITY IS THIS? The culprits are doing the cyber equivalent of wiggling a doorknob, said Ferrante, the global leader of the cybersecurity practice at FTI Consulting.
In general, though, when it comes to poking around a network, “I would certainly put it in a less severe category of threat activity than, say, an intrusion," said Luke McNamara, a principal analyst at FireEye, a cybersecurity firm. “That might be evidence of a more targeted effort. It may be that one of those is going to get through, and all you need is one," said Suzanne Spaulding, former under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security.
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