In the world of cybersecurity, companies must today face a new, more direct threat with the exploitation of digital information to organize targeted physical attacks.
Cyber as a vector of physical action
The recent various facts show that digital technology serves as a lever to concretely disrupt personality life, especially in crypto, but also industrial, logistical and event operations. There are many examples, kidnappings and sequesters, organized flights of drug pallets, sabotage of public events, economic pressure on managers via the disclosure of sensitive information.
In most documented cases, criminal or activist groups used leaks from Dark Web but also social networks and media to plan physical actions. They thus had access to confidential logistical journeys, identifying the weak points of an industrial site thanks to hacked surveillance plans, or even identity usurpation based on stolen contracts.
New targets of digital surveillance
The usable leaks go far beyond the data from identifiers and passwords. Today, attackers are interested in confidentiality contracts (NDA), internal bank statements, quotes, legal disputes or delivery routes. Each document, torn from the information system of a company or its providers, becomes a potential weapon, often left involuntarily within their reach.
The case of a luxury brand victim of repeated flights of handbags illustrates this phenomenon, after compromise of the IS of its logistician, the cybercriminals have mapped the container routes and organized precise robberies, with an knowledge of the equal, even superior ground, to that of the carriers.
From prevention to operational anticipation
Faced with this dynamic, simple securing of internal systems is no longer enough. It becomes imperative to monitor external ecosystems, in particular suppliers, lawyers and partners, where sensitive data can leak without direct control.
Solutions like Aleph Alert Now offer an active watch in Dark Web and Deep Web, operating as a digital surveillance camera, with daily alerts on the appearance of sensitive elements, the qualification of risk in real time, and documentation allowing possible legal action. The objective is not only to detect a leak after the fact, but to detect upstream the weak signals that can precede a physical attack.
This capacity becomes all the more critical of the entry into force of European regulations as Dora And Nis2which require companies not only to protect their own information system, but also to monitor all third parties manipulating critical data.
Towards a new security paradigm
The stake greatly exceeds the cyber sphere and this tilting requires safe and cybersecurity managers a close collaboration. The threat is no longer born only from a computer intrusion or a physical risk, but from the merger between the two.
