One-fifth of businesses have been hit by nation state attackers.
A third of organizations believe that they. or others they know. have been impacted by nation-state threat actors targeting supply chains to try and insert malicious hardware or firmware into devices.
According to a survey of 803 IT and security decision-makers, also found 19% of those surveyed said they had been impacted by nation-state threat actors targeting physical PC, laptop or printer supply chains.
Also, 51% of decision makers are concerned that they cannot verify if PC, laptop or printer hardware and firmware have been tampered with during transit.
“If an attacker compromises a device at the firmware or hardware layer, they’ll gain unparalleled visibility and control over everything that happens on that machine,” comments Alex Holland, Principal Threat Researcher in the HP Security Lab. “Just imagine what that could look like if it happens to the CEO’s laptop. Attacks that successfully establish a foothold below the OS are very difficult to remove and remediate, adding to the challenge for IT security teams.”
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
