State Actors and Non-state Actors
Technical Level and Actor Level
Cybersecurity professionals analyze threats made to critical infrastructures in two main categories: the technical level and actor level. The technical level refers to system failures that can prevent critical infrastructures from operating, thereby impacting lives, costs and effective government operations. Despite the importance of the technical level holding a potential risk as an ongoing vulnerability in which cybersecurity professionals need to devote time and resources to managing, most cybersecurity professionals would agree that the actor level poses as much and in some cases a greater risks to critical infrastructures. There are four types of actors effecting cybersecurity: state-sponsored actors, ideological and politically extremists’ actors, frustrated insiders, organized and individual criminal agents. These cybercriminals can be divided into two categories: state and non-state actors. State actors are individuals and organizations who are supported by governments who provide them resources to assist in the implementation of cyber activities. China and Russia are two of the most active state actors, promoting many cyberattacks against the United States and other nations around the world. Cybersecurity professionals analyze state actors for their impact on economic well-being and national security, emphasizing that they often conduct industrial spying and cyberwarfare as their criminal activities against other nations. Non-state actors, on the other hand, do not operate with the support of a government, and their actions often manifest as cybercrime and cyberterrorism.
State Actors
State actors often view their criminal activity as an extension of and precursor to further military action. Often before physical acts of war are enacted, state actors engage in criminal activity in order to gain confidential information about a nation and its military or attempt to take down critical infrastructures. One of the most common cyber threats state actors pose involves industrial spying, or attempts to compromise government networks in order to conduct espionage. Cybersecurity professionals often examine case studies in which states actors like Russia or China will place chips within technologies that they can control remotely in order to collect information shared on government networks, or state actors using worms and malware as an attempt to compromise a system and conduct espionage. One act conducted by state actors, which often serves as a precursor to war, involves the taking down of critical infrastructures as an act of cyberwarfare. Both industrial spying and cyberwarfare are dangerous criminal activities that effect nations in different ways. Both instances could lead to a potential loss of life. If a state actors collects confidential information on another nation’s military activities or government operations, they could discover potential vulnerabilities and prevent the country of conducting its affairs to conducting a cyber or military attack. State actors taking down critical infrastructures can have a more immediate effect on the lives of people within a country; preventing critical infrastructures likes water, energy and transportation could lead to physical casualties of large numbers of people within a nation. Protecting governments and businesses from attacks by state and non-state actors costs the United States between $24 billion and $120 billion each year, and all nations between $300 billion and $1 trillion a year. Studies show that compromises to networks at business on average cost a minimum of $300,000 to patch. State actors’ criminal activity has a direct effect on a target government’s ability to defend itself against attack and conduct its normal operations. In order to combat the impact cybercriminals have to state governments, the United State created the Department of Defense Cyber Command division to handle instances of cybercriminal activity engaged on an international level. For domestic cybercriminal activity, the United States has designated the Department of Defense to handle matters within the country.
Non-state Actors
Non-state actors are often politically, ideologically, or financially motivated to carryout cyberattacks on governments, businesses and individuals within a target nation. Even though they are not supported by a government entity they still possess the resources to cause significant damages to institutions in society and can even effect the lives of people within a target nation. Conducting cybercrime and cyberterrorism, non-state actors often use the common tools hackers use to disrupt systems: phishing attempts, malware, worms and other pieces of malicious code that can disrupt networks. Non-state actors like Al-Qaeda and ISIS use the internet to engage in instances of cyberterrorism in which they use media in order to recruit members into their terrorist networks. Sometimes non-state actors are financially motivated, seeking to collect people’s banking information in order to steal money or take down banking systems. Non-state actors can prevent people from having access to their resources and secure technologies, this can disrupt people from completing tasks and conducting their activities in life in a safe and secure manner. Non-state actors cost individuals and organizations millions each year, and seem to have a greater chance to financially impact individuals than state actors in most instances. Non-state actors have the resources to disrupt the networks and operations of businesses and governments in target nations around the world. Both state and non-state actors are detrimental to counties and its citizens, costing millions of dollars each year to defend against, and in some cases having a direct result in the loss of life and ability for entities to carry out its operations.