Fifth generation cyberattack

A fifth generation cyberattack is a type of cyberattack that emerged beginning in 2017, which take advantage of information and tools leaked from government entities like the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency to rapidly spread around the world, impacting global businesses and communities.
Computer security experts generally describe cyberattacks in terms of , tracking their evolution from simple computer viruses in the early 1980s, and growing in sophistication and scale in the decades since. The NotPetya and WannaCry ransomware attacks of 2017 marked the beginning of what is now described as the fifth generation.
In recent years, the scale and robustness of cyberattacks has increased rapidly, as observed by the World Economic Forum in its 2018 report: "Offensive cyber capabilities are developing more rapidly than our ability to deal with hostile incidents." Researchers found that 2017's WannaCry and NotPetya represented a growth in the frequency, sophistication and malice of cyberattacks on businesses.
Shortly after the WannaCry attack, it was identified by the UK National Crime Agency as a "signal moment" for awareness of the impact of cyber crimes. Commentators were hopeful that organizations would respond with a more serious approach to security. The European Police Commission highlighted the tendency of organized crime to adopt new technology. In October 2017, Bad Rabbit, a variant of NotPetya, spread across Europe.
Defining characteristics
* Fifth-generation attacks are multi-vector, meaning that they target computers and devices controlled by multiple related organizations.
* They leverage leaked government information about security vulnerabilities, including the 2017 Vault 7 leak.
* They are large-scale and worldwide.
* In addition, an important characteristic is that they are polymorphic, meaning that the malware changes its form rapidly to avoid detection. This characteristic is shared with and inherited from fourth generation cyberattacks.

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