Cybersecurity Guide

The term Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) was first popularized by the United States Air Force in 2006. It was initially used to describe nation-state actors or groups conducting long-term, targeted cyber espionage campaigns that exhibited a high level of sophistication and persistence.

The term APT was designed to differentiate these types of attacks from more common cyber threats like viruses or opportunistic hackers. APTs specifically refer to well-resourced and highly skilled actors, often state-sponsored, who engage in sustained efforts to penetrate and remain undetected within targeted networks to steal sensitive information or sabotage critical infrastructure.

The concept of APTs gained widespread recognition in the cybersecurity industry and broader public discourse following the Mandiant report in 2013, which identified APT 1 (linked to China’s People’s Liberation Army) as one of the earliest and most prominent examples of an APT. Since then, the term has become central to understanding state-sponsored cyber operations and the strategies used by threat actors to achieve their objectives.