2.1.1 THREATS 2.1.1.1 Cyber criminals This strategy deals with cybercrime in the context of two interrelated forms of criminal activity:  cyber-dependent crimes – crimes that can be committed only through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) devices, where the devices are both the tool for committing the crime, and the target of the crime (e.g. Infectious and Malicious codes for financial gain, hacking to steal, damage, distort or destroy data and/or network or activity); and  Cyber-enabled crimes – old-fashioned crimes which can be increased in scale or reach by the use of computers, computer networks or other forms of ICT (such as cyber-enabled fraud and data theft). These criminals are primarily responsible for developing and deploying the increasingly advanced malware that infects our computers and networks across all sectors. The impact is dispersed throughout, but the cumulative effect is significant. These attacks are becoming increasingly aggressive and confrontational, as illustrated by the increasing use of ransomware, phishing, and threats of distributed denial of service (DDoS) for extortion. Whilst criminals may pose a significant threat to our collective prosperity and security, equally of concern is the continuing threat from acts of less sophisticated but widespread cyber-crimes carried out against individuals or smaller organizations. Financial and personal data, industrial blueprints and government secrets are not safe except countermeasures are installed to manage such. 2.1.1.2 States and state-sponsored threats We are conversant with regular attempts by states and state-sponsored groups to penetrate sovereign networks for political, diplomatic, technological, commercial and strategic advantage, with a principal focus on the government, defense, finance and other critical national infrastructures. The capacity and impact of these state cyber programmes varies. The most advanced nations continue to improve their capabilities at pace, integrating encryption services into their tools in order to remain covert. While they have the technical capability to deploy sophisticated attacks,