An Escalating Threat: Hacking By A New Generation Of Nations

As if digital threats from the main U.S. cyberspace adversaries weren’t enough, U.S. officials and researchers are increasingly worried about hacking dangers posed by a slew of other nations including Vietnam, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The fears are upending a half decade during which U.S. cybersecurity worries focused on four main adversaries — Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

And they’re signaling that cyberspace is about to get far more complicated and dangerous.

“The threshold for entry to have a cyber program has dropped so low because you don’t need to figure out how to build your own program. You can just buy it as a service and that worries me,” a senior FBI cybersecurity official told reporters during a roundtable discussion.

In some cases the nations are developing hacking capabilities in-house, such as in Vietnam, where government-backed hackers are reportedly stealing information from rival governments and companies in key sectors including the auto industry to gain a competitive advantage.