Rather than disrupt business by causing servers and other machines to get bogged down, the Frost & Sullivan analysts said advanced threats are designed entirely for stealing information and going undetected. The research firm noted that many organizations are relying entirely on antivirus and perimeter-based technology such as intrusion prevention systems. This not only leaves information vulnerable, but is ineffective in detecting advanced threats.

"What organizations need to understand is that cybercriminals are changing their attack plan. The target is on domain controllers that are essentially the master vault key for the entire enterprise that grants access to confidential assets," said Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Ben Ramirez. "Once they are able to infiltrate and extract the enterprise credentials from the domain controllers, they are able to navigate the network freely while stealing [intellectual property] data under the enterprise’s radar. Even more concerning is the speed and methodology attackers implement in these advanced attacks, which allows them to bypass traditional detection systems for long periods of time."

As the corporate ecosystem incorporates new technology and virtual infrastructures, encryption solutions are likely to become critical for guarding digital assets. As Frost & Sullivan noted, organizations must implement new solutions to protect against evolving threats.

Advanced persistent threats
As cybercriminal tactics evolve, security practices must adapt to protect against them. As a recent TechCentral article pointed out, advanced persistent threats will become a more significant risk in 2013.

"APTs refer to coordinated cyber activities by sophisticated criminals and state-level entities. With the aim of stealing information or compromising information systems, these target governments and corporations which have valuable intellectual property," the article stated.

As the news source noted, there is not a single solution that can fully mitigate the risk presented by this kind of attack. Due to their level of sophistication, organizations must adopt a suite of solutions that work in conjunction with each other, such as implementing reliable, effective network security and protecting digital assets behind the firewall by using data encryption software.