Abstract
In this chapter we present our topology of cyberthreats, which we call the Periodic Table of Cyberthreats. We provide a brief history of cyberthreats and cybercrimes, complementing our narrative with the real-world examples. We conclude that the majority of threats, observed today, have existed for decades and what we seem to encounter now are new versions of existing criminal methods. We also distinguish between cybersecurity threats, vulnerabilities, and risks and describe the links and dependencies between them.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cyberthreat for more detail.
- 3.
Derived from multiple sources including NCSC glossary, Cisco comprehensive list of malware. See Cisco Customer Assurance Security Programs (CASP). Specifically, https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/security-center/virus-differences.html. See also Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report, http://www.sans.org/resources/glossary.php; https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-83r1.pdf; https://attack.mitre.org/wiki/Technique/T1067; and https://attack.mitre.org/wiki/Initial_Access.
- 4.
For those who want to know more, articles and monographs by Susan W. Brenner, as well as many other authors, provide a more detailed and comprehensive picture.
- 5.
- 6.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVwLAbMwqQ0 for a brief account of this story.
- 7.
Much later, in 1991, five members of MOD were convicted on conspiracy, wire fraud, computer fraud, computer tempering, and wiretapping charges [1].
- 8.
- 9.
According to some estimates, the damage was caused to 6000 computers (10% of connected computers), yet research shows that these estimates are most probably based on an approximation [2].
- 10.
See https://anonofficial.com/ for more detail.
- 11.
See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34743185 for more detail.
- 12.
This is, however, highly unlikely as even if you do not store customer data, you almost certainly store employee data in the digital form.
- 13.
We discuss actual and perceived probabilities with regard to cybersecurity threats, vulnerability, and risks later in this book.
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Pogrebna, G., Skilton, M. (2019). Cybersecurity Threats: Past and Present. In: Navigating New Cyber Risks. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13527-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13527-0_2
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