However, APTs do not limit their acts to cyberespionage they have also engaged in destruction of systems and/or data ( Several cyberespionage campaigns have been attributed toĪdvanced persistent threats (or APTs), which refer to "group with both the capability and intent to persistently and effectively target a specific entity" (Maras, 2016, p. While espionage is not a new phenomenon, ICT have enabled illicit intelligence collection efforts directed and/or orchestrated by other countries at an unprecedented speed, frequency, intensity, and scale (Fidler, 2012), as well as a reduction of risks associated with committing espionage (i.e., being caught by the country that is being targeted by the collection efforts) (Ziolkowski, 2013).
Cyberespionage may also be perpetrated by government actors, state-sponsored or state-directed groups, or others acting on behalf of a government, seeking to gain unauthorized access to systems and data in an effort to collect intelligence on their targets in order to enhance their own country's national security, economic competitiveness, and/or military strength (Maras, 2016). Module 11 on Cyber-Enabled Intellectual Property Crime). 206-207).Ĭyberespionage involves the use of information and communication technology (ICT) by individuals, groups, or businesses for some economic benefit or personal gain (Maras, 2016 for more information on cyberespionage for economic benefit, see Cybercrime He argues that they all encompass the following four elements "(1) the operation involves the gathering, analysis, verification, and dissemination of information of relevance to the decision-making process of a State or States or otherwise serves some State interests (2) the operation is launched by agents of a State or States, or those with a sufficient nexus to the State or States in question (3) the operation targets a foreign State or States, their subjects, associations, corporations, or agents, without the knowledge or consent of that State or those States and (4) the operation involves some degree of secrecy and confidentiality, as to the needs behind the operation and/or the methods of collection and analysis employed, so to ensure its effectiveness" (pp.
Lubin (2018) offers a more nuanced definition of espionage operations. 16 for further information about these camps see, Shulsky and Schmitt 2002 Warner, 2002 Der Derian, 1992). The second camp defines intelligence as warfare by quieter means" (Warner, 2009, p. As Warner argues definitions of espionage operations generally tend to group themselves in one of two camps: "One follows twentieth-century American military nomenclature and holds that intelligence is information for decisionmakers it is anything from any source that helps a leader decide what to do about an adversary. Quite the opposite, there seems to be almost as many definitions of intelligence as there are experts asked to define the term (for a complete survey of possible definitions see Warner, 2002). Nonetheless, even intelligence collection has "no internationally recognized and workable definition" (Sulmasky and Yoo, p. While there is no single, universal definition of espionage, espionage has been described as a method of intelligence collection: particularly, as a "process of obtaining information that is not normally publicly available, using human sources (agents) or technical means (like hacking into computer systems)" (UK MI5 Security Service, n.d.).
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