In June 2024, a Global Alliance advisory announced a joint effort between Canada, the United States, Estonia, Japan, Finland, and the United Kingdom to unite cybersecurity agencies. They aim to share details on how foreign threat actors carry out cyberattacks on civil society targets.
The report defines high-risk targets as nonprofit, advocacy, cultural, faith-based, academic groups, and individuals defending human rights and advancing democracy.
Industry reports in the advisory reveal that state-sponsored cyberattacks mainly come from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. These groups are high-risk because:
– Civil society organizations and their staff face serious threats from state-backed hackers aiming to undermine democracy.
– These organizations often lack the resources to defend against cyberattacks, leaving them vulnerable.
The Global Alliance aims to strengthen global cybersecurity efforts.
Global Alliance observations
The San Francisco-based Cloudflare has observed that malicious cyber activity against civil society organizations is “generally increasing.” In Quarter 2 of 2023, NPOs were targeted more than any other industry when looking at malicious traffic. In Quarter 3 of 2023, NPOs and independent media organizations placed second behind the metals and mining industry, with 17.14% of all traffic to NPOs representing denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Similarly, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) found that targeted individuals within civil society were the second most-targeted sector between July 2022 and June 2023.
These threat actors employ personalized tactics that are also highly sophisticated. They invest significant time and resources into researching each target, setting up trojan-style fake apps, and creating online stores housing malicious software. This sophistication allows them to access targets’ personal accounts and devices and even remotely take over a user’s device.
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