How has Wikipedia's Advanced persistent threat article changed?

Wikipedia's first sentence called it "stealthy threat actor". Today it says "stealthy cybersecurity threat". We saved the article's opening at 5 moments between 2010 and 2025, and every claim links the exact revision.

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How Wikipedia rewrote the Advanced persistent threat article

The opening as it read in 2010

Advanced Persistent Threat " ( APT ) refers to advanced and normally clandestine means to gain continual, persistent intelligence on an individual, or group of individuals such as a foreign nation state government. While the APT is more commonly thought of as being an article of the computer era, it has existed since the realization of the benefits of intelligence gathering and long before the invention of the computer or internet. In the computer security community, it is used to specifically refer to a sub-set of such threats, in a long-term pattern of targeted sophisticated hacking attacks aimed at governments, companies and political activists, and by extension, also to refer to the groups behind these attacks. A common misconception associated with the APT relates to its specificity to the targeting of Western governments. While examples of technological APT's against Western governments may be more publicized, this is incorrect, and the technological ('cyber') APT has been used by actors in many nations as a means to gather intelligence on individuals, and groups of individuals of interest. Some of the groups involved in the APT have been alleged by numerous sources to be affiliated with, or agents of, nation-states . Definitions of precisely what an APT is can vary, but can be summarized by their named requirements below: Advanced – Operators behind the threat utilize the full spectrum of intelligence gathering techniques. These may include computer intrusion technologies and techniques, but also extend to conventional intelligence gathering techniques such as telephone interception technologies and satellite imaging. While individual components of the attack may not be classed as particularly “advanced” (e.g. malware components generated from commonly available DIY (Do It Yourself) construction kits, or the use of easily procured exploit materials), their operators can typically access and develop more advanced tools as required. They combine multiple attack methodologies and tools in order to reach and compromise their target. Persistent – Operators give priority to a specific task, rather than opportunistically seeking immediate financial gain. This distinction implies that the attackers are guided by external entities. The attack is conducted through continuous monitoring and interaction in order to achieve the defined objectives. It does not mean a barrage of constant attacks and malware updates. In fact, a “low-and-slow” approach is usually more successful. Threat – means that there is a level of coordinated human involvement in the attack, rather than a mindless and automated piece of code. The operators have a specific objective and are skilled, motivated, organized and well funded.¹

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 368596332.

The opening as it stood in 2015 17 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

An advanced persistent threat ( APT ) is a set of stealthy and continuous computer hacking processes, often orchestrated by human(s) targeting a specific entity. APT usually targets organizations and/or nations for business or political motives. APT processes require a high degree of covertness over a long period of time. The "advanced" process signifies sophisticated techniques using malware to exploit vulnerabilities in systems. The "persistent" process suggests that an external command and control system is continuously monitoring and extracting data from a specific target. The "threat" process indicates human involvement in orchestrating the attack. APT usually refers to a group, such as a government , with both the capability and the intent to target, persistently and effectively, a specific entity. The term is commonly used to refer to cyber threats, in particular that of Internet -enabled espionage using a variety of intelligence gathering techniques to access sensitive information, but applies equally to other threats such as that of traditional espionage or attacks. Other recognized attack vectors include infected media, supply chain compromise, and social engineering. The purpose of these attacks is to place custom malicious code on one or multiple computers for specific tasks and to remain undetected for the longest possible period. Knowing the attacker artifacts, such as file names, can help a professional make a network-wide search to gather all affected systems. "The changing threat environment ..." Command Five Pty Ltd .

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 668868277.

The opening as it stood in 2020 10 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Set of stealthy and continuous computer hacking processes An advanced persistent threat ( APT ) is a stealthy computer network threat actor, typically a nation state or state-sponsored group, which gains unauthorized access to a computer network and remains undetected for an extended period. In recent times, the term may also refer to non-state sponsored groups conducting large-scale targeted intrusions for specific goals. Such threat actors' motivations are typically political or economic. Every major business sector has recorded instances of attacks by advanced actors with specific goals seeking to steal, spy or disrupt. These sectors include government, defense, financial services, legal services, industrial, telecoms, consumer goods and many more. Some groups utilize traditional espionage vectors, including social engineering , human intelligence and infiltration to gain access to a physical location to enable network attacks. The purpose of these attacks is to place custom malicious code on one or multiple computers for specific tasks. The median "dwell-time", the time an APT attack goes undetected, differs widely between regions. FireEye reports the mean dwell-time for 2018 in the Americas is 71 days, EMEA is 177 days and APAC is 204 days. This allows attackers a significant amount of time to go through the attack cycle, propagate and achieve their objective.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 958234824.

The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Set of stealthy and continuous computer hacking processes An advanced persistent threat ( APT ) is a stealthy threat actor , typically a state or state-sponsored group, which gains unauthorized access to a computer network and remains undetected for an extended period. In recent times, the term may also refer to non-state-sponsored groups conducting large-scale targeted intrusions for specific goals. Such threat actors' motivations are typically political or economic. Every major business sector has recorded instances of cyberattacks by advanced actors with specific goals, whether to steal, spy, or disrupt. These targeted sectors include government, defense , financial services , legal services , industrial , telecoms , consumer goods and many more. Some groups utilize traditional espionage vectors, including social engineering , human intelligence and infiltration to gain access to a physical location to enable network attacks. The purpose of these attacks is to install custom malware (malicious software) . APT attacks on mobile devices has also become a legitimate concern, since attackers are able to penetrate into cloud and mobile infrastructure to eavesdrop, steal, and temper data. The median "dwell-time", the time an APT attack goes undetected, differs widely between regions. FireEye reported the mean dwell-time for 2018 in the Americas as 71 days, EMEA as 177 days, and APAC as 204 days. Such a long dwell-time allows attackers a significant amount of time to go through the attack cycle, propagate, and achieve their objective. "Privacy-preserving personal data operation on mobile cloud—Chances and challenges over advanced persistent threat". Future generation computer systems . 79 : 337– 349.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1177840386.

The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Set of stealthy and continuous computer hacking processes An advanced persistent threat ( APT ) is a stealthy threat actor , typically a state or state-sponsored group, which gains unauthorized access to a computer network and remains undetected for an extended period. In recent times, the term may also refer to non-state-sponsored groups conducting large-scale targeted intrusions for specific goals. Such threat actors' motivations are typically political or economic. Every major business sector has recorded instances of cyberattacks by advanced actors with specific goals, whether to steal, spy, or disrupt. These targeted sectors include government, defense , financial services , legal services , industrial , telecoms , consumer goods and many more. Some groups utilize traditional espionage vectors, including social engineering , human intelligence and infiltration to gain access to a physical location to enable network attacks. The purpose of these attacks is to install custom malware . APT attacks on mobile devices have also become a legitimate concern, since attackers are able to penetrate into cloud and mobile infrastructure to eavesdrop, steal, and tamper with data. The median "dwell-time", the time an APT attack goes undetected, differs widely between regions. FireEye reported the mean dwell-time for 2018 in the Americas as 71 days, EMEA as 177 days, and APAC as 204 days. Such a long dwell-time allows attackers a significant amount of time to go through the attack cycle, propagate, and achieve their objectives. "Privacy-preserving personal data operation on mobile cloud—Chances and challenges over advanced persistent threat".

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296579279. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.

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