Mitigating Advanced Persistent Threats: A Framework for Enhancing Organizational Cybersecurity Posture

Abstract

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are a serious threat to the cyber security of organizations and demand a solution that is not perimeter-centric. The research presents a framework called “Mitigating Advanced Persistent Threats: A Framework for Enhancing Organizational Cybersecurity Posture”. It features governance with a focus on APTs, secure & flexible system architecture, ongoing monitoring, data analysis and incident response according to NIST Cybersecurity Framework and MITRE ATT&CK. The framework is piloted in different large companies, SMEs and public sector companies. The results show that the coverage gaps for APT are reduced by 38% to 45%, Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) is reduced by 25% to 40% and up to a 35% reduction in dwell time. The experts agree in a good consensus with a score of around 4 on a 5-point Likert scale with respect to current best practices. The framework demonstrates the far-reaching effects of a posture-based integration of APT informed approach in the real world of organizations on detection speed, incident response maturity, and overall resilience.

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