global social movements take on strategic importance that has been underestimated
until now.
The actions that cyberspace uses to carry out malicious or illicit activities include
cyberespionage and cybercrime.
Cyberespionage is a relatively cheap, fast method with fewer risks than traditional
espionage, given the difficulty of attributing authorship. The greatest capabilities are
mainly held by State players (intelligence or military organisations), that fundamentally
operate via what are known as Advanced Persistent Threats (APT). This type of
threat means that the opponent has sophisticated knowledge levels plus resources
and infrastructures so that, by deploying multiple types of attacks, they can interact on
their targets over a long period of time, adapt to defence strategies, and maintain the
interaction level to meet its end.
In addition, a growing trend is now seen in what are known as
hybrid threats, coordinated and synchronised actions aiming to
deliberately attack systemic vulnerabilities in democratic states
and institutions,through a wide range of media,such as traditional
military actions, cyberattacks, information manipulation
operations or elements of economic pressure. State and nonstate players, either directly or through intermediaries, exploit
the Internet’s propensity for disinformation and propaganda
and a generalised interest in obtaining and developing military
capabilities to operate in cyberspace, including offensive capacities in
many cases.
Cybercrime, in turn, is a top-level citizen security issue, representing one of the
widest-spread and generalised threats, continuously arising and increasingly victimising
thousands of institutions, companies and citizens. The term Cybercrime refers to
illicit activities in cyberspace, targeting elements, computer systems or any other legal
property, whenever its planning, development and performance is determined by use
of technological tools; depending on the nature of the actual punishable act, authorship,
Prime Minister’s Office
National Cybersecurity Strategy 2019
25
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