Analysis & Opinions - Harvard Business Review

What the Rise of Russian Hackers Means for Your Business

| May 12, 2017

Preview

"For years major businesses have contended with hackers attempting to break into their networks and steal their data. In the recent past, that threat mostly emanated from China. Now, a new threat has emerged that companies must address: a savvy, resource-rich, risk-taking gang of hackers with ties to Russia. If the Chinese were the drunk burglars of cyberspace (to quote former FBI director James Comey), these Russians are stone-cold sober thugs.

On the geopolitical stage, Russian hackers have been busy: Their targets have included Estonia (using overwhelming denial-of-service attacks), Georgia (supporting ground operations with cyber operations), Germany (achieving unauthorized access to servers in the legislature), and the United States (stealing data from the Democratic National Committee and emails from John Podesta). But with the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) indictment of four Russian hackers for breaching Yahoo, the U.S. government is now on record that Russia’s targets are not just geopolitical — businesses are very much at risk as well.

How does the Russian cyber threat (regardless of the Russian government’s involvement) affect your business, and what can you do about it?..."

For more information on this publication: Please contact Cyber Project
For Academic Citation: Sulmeyer, Michael.“What the Rise of Russian Hackers Means for Your Business.” Harvard Business Review, May 12, 2017.