Analysis of the Asymmetrical Relationships between State Actors and APT Threat Groups

During the Cold War era, countries with asymmetrical relationships often demonstrated how lower-tier nation states required the alliance and support from top-tier nation states. This statement no longer stands true as country such as North Korea has exploited global financial institutions through various malware such as WANNACRY V0, V1, V2, evtsys.exe, and BRAMBUL WORM. Top tier nation states such as the U.S. are unable to use diplomatic clout or to retaliate against the deferrer. Our study examined the affidavit filed against the North Korean hacker, Park Jin Hyok, which was provided by the FBI. Our paper focuses on the operations and campaigns that were carried out by the Lazarus Group by focusing on the key factors of the infrastructure and artifacts. Due to the nature of the cyber deterrence, deterrence in the cyber realm is far complex than the nuclear deterrence. We focused on the Sony Picture Entertainment's incident for our study. In this study, we discuss how cyber deterrence can be employed when different nation states share an asymmetrical relationship. Furthermore, we focus on contestability and attribution that is a key factor that makes cyber deterrence difficult.