A review of threat modelling approaches for APT-style attacks

Matt Tatam; Bharanidharan Shanmugam; Sami Azam; Krishnan Kannoorpatti

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e05969

A review of threat modelling approaches for APT-style attacks

Heliyon. 2021 Jan 16;7(1):e05969. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e05969. eCollection 2021 Jan.

Authors

Matt Tatam¹, Bharanidharan Shanmugam¹, Sami Azam¹, Krishnan Kannoorpatti¹

Affiliation

¹ College of Engineering, IT and Environment, Charles Darwin University, NT, 0810, Australia.

Abstract

Threats are potential events, intentional or not, that compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and/or availability of information systems. Defending against threats and attacks requires actionable threat intelligence. Using this intelligence to minimise risk, requires a systematic methodology or framework that recognises every possible threat scenario. This can be done with Threat Modelling (TM), which assists with identifying, understanding and providing visibility of threats affecting an organisation. The focus of this study is to determine TM limitations, strengths, and any perceivable gaps. It has also focused on identifying any possible enhancements that may improve TM performance and efficiency when modelling sophisticated attacks such as Advanced Persistent Threats (APT).

Keywords: Advanced persistent threats; Cyber threat model; Intelligence; Threat modelling.

Publication types

Review