Cybersecurity is the discipline of risk. This module gives an overview of the threats that matter most for individuals, organisations and states.
6.1Ransomware
Ransomware encrypts data and demands a ransom, often with an added threat of publication: double extortion. Favourite targets are SMEs, local authorities, hospitals and organisations that cannot afford a long interruption.
Paying is never a guarantee and feeds the criminal ecosystem. Defence relies on backups, segmentation, detection, crisis exercises and fast restoration.
6.2Social engineering in the age of deepfakes
Phishing remains a major intrusion vector, but AI changes the quality of the attack: personalised messages, cloned voices, deepfake video calls. The defensive rule: anything that rushes you, isolates you and demands a transfer or a code must be verified through another channel.
6.3Data breaches
Massive leaks durably expose identities, emails, phone numbers, health data or financial information. The practical consequence: treat your personal data as partly public and protect yourself downstream: MFA, unique passwords, vigilance against targeted phishing.
6.4The supply chain
Attacking a supplier to reach its customers: SolarWinds, MOVEit, XZ Utils. Security no longer stops at the organisation's borders; this is precisely what NIS2 requires to be written into contracts.
6.5The state threat
ANSSI ranks espionage among the major threats to France. To this are added pre-positioning in critical infrastructure, sabotage, information operations and states financing themselves through digital theft.
6.6Emerging risks
- Shadow AI: use of unapproved AI tools, data leakage and lack of governance.
- AI agents: new non-human users to authenticate, monitor and constrain.
- Quantum: the "harvest now, decrypt later" strategy: intercept today to decrypt tomorrow.
Going further: the library
French-language books and publications
Panorama de la cybermenace
ANSSI
The official French reference, free.
La Cybersécurité
Nicolas Arpagian
Que sais-je?, an accessible synthesis.
Cybersécurité
Solange Ghernaouti
The reference French-language textbook.
Technopolitique
Asma Mhalla
Technology, power and the hybrid nature of the threat.
Revue stratégique de cyberdéfense
SGDSN
A French doctrine document.
Babel Minute Zéro
Guy-Philippe Goldstein
A French cyberwar novel.
International books
The Cuckoo's Egg
Cliff Stoll
The first hacker hunt, still a cult classic.
Ghost in the Wires / The Art of Deception
Kevin Mitnick
Social engineering by its master.
Countdown to Zero Day
Kim Zetter
The definitive investigation into Stuxnet.
Sandworm
Andy Greenberg
NotPetya and Russia's military hackers.
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends
Nicole Perlroth
The zero-day market.
Click Here to Kill Everybody / A Hacker’s Mind
Bruce Schneier
Thinking about digital risk.
Sources
ANSSI, Panorama de la cybermenace (cyber.gouv.fr); IBM, Cost of a Data Breach; Verizon, Data Breach Investigations Report; ENISA, threat landscape.
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