Interviews

Best hackers

by Mark Rowe

Russia and China are identified as the countries that produce the most skilled hackers. That is according to a survey by an information security consultancy, MWR InfoSecurity.

About one in three, 34 per cent of UK cyber security people asked believed that the hackers with the highest skills come from Russia, with China in second at 18pc. Almost a third of respondents surveyed at a recent IT conference linked the success of their overseas counterparts to a combination of more investment, better education and political motivations.

Russia has long been recognised for being behind various malware strains and exploits, MWR says. Recently, it was reported that Russian hackers had exploited a bug in Microsoft Windows dubbed Sandworm to perform cyber espionage on NATO and western governments. Meanwhile, the FBI has issued a warning on the threat to businesses of security attacks originating from China.

Martyn Ruks, Technical Director at MWR InfoSecurity, says: “Attribution to a specific nation or group is a very difficult task as attackers will often masquerade their activities in order to hide their real identities. Hackers from both Russia and China are often cited for being behind many of the attacks highlighted in the public domain but it is important we don’t jump to conclusions without solid evidence.”

Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of IT professionals surveyed attributed the success that other countries have with a skilled workforce of hackers to the fact that they’ve spent more on investment (11pc), better education (14pc) are politically motivated (17pc) or a combination of all three (31pc).

Ruks added: “The findings clearly show the perception that hackers in countries like Russia and China are better funded and educated. Regardless of whether this perception is true or not, the UK should take this as an indicator that cyber really needs to start making its way up the socio- and political agendas. Training security consultants so they are armed with the specialist knowledge to protect against today’s threats is vitally important. If we are to keep pace we must understand the nature of attacks in order to best defend against them.”

Just 10pc of respondents thought that the UK produced the most skilled hackers, a statistic that MWR’s Ruks said he would like to see increase. “MWR is proud to sponsor challenges and events that aim to attract and discover talent within the IT security industry. Events such as MWR’s HackFu that bring together the UK’s top talents in information security are specifically designed to teach the skills needed to increase our capability to defend ourselves, something that is vital to our economic well-being.”

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