State-sponsored cyberattacks have increasingly targeted small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to Proofpoint, which analysed telemetry data from more than 200,000 SMB customers over the past year. Proofpoint found a rise in phishing campaigns by advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, particularly those serving Russian, Iranian and North Korean interests. SMBs are compromised so that attackers can impersonate them in other attacks and abuse their infrastructure. “Skilled threat actors are well-funded entities associated with a particular strategic mission,” said Proofpoint’s researchers. The end goal of the attacks included espionage, intellectual property theft, financial theft and disinformation campaigns.
