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Cyber defence triage for multimedia data intelligence: Hellsing, Desert Falcons and Lotus Blossom APT campaigns as case studies

Advanced persistent threats (APTs) refer to sophisticated attacks to businesses and individuals in which adversaries use multiple attack vectors to achieve their objectives. The main challenge regarding APT analysis and defence is that all research body about APTs is fragmented; only a few scientific papers have discussed APT features. In order to defend against APTs, it is necessary to have a complete understanding of their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). In this paper, we analyse TTPs of three APT groups, namely Hellsing, Desert Falcons and Lotus Blossom, that actively targeted multimedia data storage and multimedia systems. Adopting three attack attribution models (i.e., Lockheed Martin cyber kill-chain, diamond model and course of action matrix) we provide a comprehensive cyber defence triage process (CDTP) against the considered APTs. The CDTP highlights steps undertaken by these APT groups, uncovers factors that have influenced achieving their objectives and suggests possible mitigations against them.