Alexis works as an incident responder at XYZ organization. She was asked to identify and attribute the actors behind an attack that occurred recently. For this purpose, she is performing a type of threat attribution that deals with the identification of a specific person, society, or country sponsoring a well-planned and executed intrusion or attack on its target. Which of the following types of threat attributions is Alexis performing?
Correct Answer: C
Nation-state attribution involves identifying a specific country or government as the sponsor behind a cyber- attack or intrusion. This type of threat attribution is focused on determining the involvement of state actors in cyber operations against specific targets, which often involves sophisticated, well-planned, and executed cyber campaigns. Alexis's efforts to identify and attribute the actors behind the attack to a specific nation-state fall under this category, as she seeks to uncover the geopolitical motives and the extent of state sponsorship behind the incident. Nation-state attribution requires analyzing a variety of indicators, including technical evidence, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and contextual intelligence. This is distinct from campaign attribution, which focuses on linking attacks to a specific campaign or operation, true attribution, which aims at identifying the actual individuals behind an attack, and intrusion set attribution, which involves attributing a set of malicious activities to a particular threat actor orgroup.References:The Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) certification program includes discussions on various types of threat attributions, highlighting the challenges and methodologies involved in attributing cyber-attacks to specific actors, including nation-states.