Protecting the U.S. defense industrial base against advanced persistent threat attacks

The Defense Industrial Base (DIB) is one of 16 segments of U.S. Critical Infrastructure.Its confidentiality, integrity and availability of information, products and services are of vital importance to the United States national security.Due to the significance of the DIB it is an attractive high value target for nation states wishing to steal technology, disrupt and do harm.The purpose of this research paper is to highlight the imminent danger of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) from four nations states: China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.The author will highlight through literature review the preferred tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of these bad actors in gaining and maintaining persistence in the Defense Industrial Base networks.Research into the nation states APT's and their methodical attack paths will be identified and compared to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.