Leveling Up Survey of How Nation States Leverage Cyber Operations to Even the Playing Field

This research analyses how nation-states have shifted their focus to using cyber operations to level the playing field and understand the cyber threat landscape and the requisite defenses to protect against these actors’ attacks. This research focuses on the techniques, tactics, and procedures used by nation-state actors to conduct electronic espionage and asymmetric warfare at a scale on par with countries traditionally considered global superpowers. Sources will include existing research into advanced persistent threat (APT) activity, disclosures by government and private enterprises of nation-state attacks, and interviews with modern threat researchers who specialize in tracking the cyber activity of nation-states. The investigations center on the activity of countries whose GDP falls outside of the global top 10, with specific attention on the offensive capabilities of Vietnam, Iran, and North Korea. In recent years, these adversaries have escalated their volume of targeted incursions to exploit the much lower barrier to entry offered by conducting cyber operations. This endeavor seeks to answer the question; How do countries with fewer resources try to compete in a world where espionage, subterfuge, and in some cases, war have traditionally been conducted with spies, expensive infrastructure, and armies of soldiers?