Targeted / Targeting

A cyber actor’s targeting of a particular victim can refer to any aspect of the actor’s attempts to select a system to conduct operations against, learn about, find vulnerabilities, gain access, or conduct other malicious activities. The term also connotes an attempt at conducting malicious cyber activity, without indicating the degree of success an actor achieved. We recommend greater specificity and clarification of the specific usage whenever available intelligence allows.

Source: Cyber Threats to Elections – A Lexicon, Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center & Office of the Director of National Intelligence, https://www.dni.gov/files/CTIIC/documents/CTIIC_2018_Lexicon_without_banner_small_file_for_Post.pdf