Despite an increasing number of successful cyberattacks launched by East Asian hackers against companies and government institutions around the world in recent years, Eastern European cybercriminals remain a more sophisticated threat to the global Internet, security researchers say.
"While East Asian hackers dominate cybersecurity-related headlines around the world with high-profile intrusions and advanced persistent threats (APTs), it would be a mistake to conclude that these attackers are the sole or greatest criminal threat to the global Internet today," Tom Kellermann, vice president of cybersecurity at antivirus vendor Trend Micro, said in a report entitled "Peter the Great Versus Sun Tzu."
"After conducting extensive research into the nature of the East Asian and East European underground, Trend Micro has concluded that hackers from the former Soviet Bloc are a more sophisticated and clandestine threat than their more well-known East Asian counterparts," said Kellermann, who until recently served as a commissioner on the Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th U.S. Presidency.
East Europeans are "master craftsmen" when it comes to malware development, Kellerman contends. "East European malware are so elegantly crafted, they have been dubbed the 'Faberge Eggs' of the malware world," he said.
East Asian hackers will use zero-day exploits -- exploits targeting previously unknown vulnerabilities -- and spear phishing in order to compromise a target's computer system, but then will rely on basic malware and third-party tools to maintain and expand their access on a target's network. (See also "Hackers shift tactics, study warns.")
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