While BAE’s role as a supplier of defense and security equipment to the US and UK governments make it an obvious target for agents of certain states, the group said there was evidence that hostile governments were also focusing on companies in other nationally critical sectors such as utilities and communications.
BAE’s comments come as it accelerates a push into cyber security, using techniques deployed in its defense business to create products and services for private sector companies.
BAE’s research shows that cyber criminals are beginning to specialise and even become more professional, offering skills and services, such as money-back guarantees and ‘project management’, to other criminal organisations. Other types of criminal identified by BAE include the so-called ‘mule’, a casual criminal used to launder the proceeds of cyber-crime, or the ‘getaway’ — an adolescent keen to impress peers and who acts safe in the knowledge that he or she is too young to be jailed.
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