A good article, and one that will (to quote my sainted grandmother) “scare the pee-water right out” of anyone responsible for corporate-level security. But the main reason I wanted to mention it was for the excuse to put the amusing phrase “your panties in a bunch” into a blog title. 😉
I’d think the more garden-variety security threats are a more common problem, they can infect literally millions of machines for a botnet with them alone, no need to have a whole lab-full of trained people trying to break-in a hardened facility.
Sure they’re more common, but I think you’re missing the point. That article was written for corporate computer-security types. Large corporations already have defenses against garden-variety attacks. This is a completely different kind of threat to them, and one that’s extremely difficult to prevent — and extremely lucrative to the attackers when successful.
Yeah, I guess this is a big concern for the Googles of the world, who do business in China or the like where corporate espionage is a common practice. (Or at least, those who still do business in China.)
It’s a big concern for any profitable company. Where there are profits, there are parasites sniffing around to try to get some of them, “by hook or by crook” as the saying goes. And what’s only happening to the big boys today will often be happening to medium-sized companies in a few years, and might even filter down to small companies after that, as the larger ones get harder to crack.