Interested in learning more about security? SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room This paper is from the SANS Institute Reading Room site. Reposting is not permitted without express written permission. Finding the Advanced Persistent Adversary The Advanced Persistent Threat is a commonly used term by sec urity practitioners all over the world. Many believe these threats are in the form of hidden backdoors, stealthy credential stealers, and other crafty hacking tools. This is partially true, but it is a small component of the Advanced Persistent Threat. This generic term would be better described by the term, Advanced Persistent Adversary. It is the actor or groups behind these tools that are t he real problem. Preventative security softwar e will not stop ... Copyright SANS Institute Author Retains Full Rights A D