Cyber-attacks launched by nation-states are becoming more proficient and more aggressive. This was the message from Admiral (ret.) Michael S. Rogers at the NetDiligence Cyber War Webinar Series. Speaking at the online event, Admiral Rogers, the former Director of the National Security Agency and Commander of US Cyber Command who is on the board of directors at cyber risk analytics specialist CyberCube, said that the breadth of activity by states including Russia and China had increased following a lull after the impact of 2017’s allegedly Russian ransomware attack, NotPetya. He also stated that the boundaries between nation-states and criminal gangs were blurring as some states employed organised cybercriminals to launch attacks on their behalf.
Talking about the recent resurgence of nation state-inspired cyber-attacks, Admiral Rogers said, “We went through a period between about 2011 and 2017, during which nation-states increased levels of activity. This includes the NotPetya hits in the summer of 2017, probably the largest global event we've ever seen. And after that, given its repercussions, there seems to have been a bit of a step back.”
