The Red Queen of cyberspace: The persistence of advanced persistent threats (APTs) explained through co-evolution

Cyber-based Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are regarded as cyberspace's most capable threat actor groups. Renowned for overcoming obstacles, they are responsible for the most successful cyberattacks. Despite the billions of dollars spent annually defending against them, APTs' success is assured. Rooted in Cyber Realism, this study applies the Red Queen Hypothesis and the General Barrier Theory to APTs within cyberspace. This investigation leverages open-source data from 2012 to 2024, applying examples to the co-evolutionary process, pitting APTs against their intended targets, and constructing a new model, the APT Persistence Model. It explains APTs' persistence from an evolutionary lens, traversing the three planes of cyberspace to achieve state-level goals through cumulative effects. Cyberspace is a highly malleable and chaotic domain that APTs can manipulate. Persistence in the form of iterative processes and aggression is applied against the social, physical, and virtual restraints and barriers, placing defenders in the untenable position of defending everything all the time. With APT's success assured, the increasing threat to existing power differentials in cyberspace requires a new, multi-disciplinary approach. Otherwise, APTs will continue to win the co-evolutionary battle while defenders continue the futile search for a technological answer.