MITRE has introduced AADAPT (Adversarial Actions in Digital Asset Payment Technologies), a new cybersecurity framework specifically designed to address vulnerabilities in digital financial ecosystems, including cryptocurrency platforms. AADAPT aims to provide a structured methodology for identifying, analyzing, and mitigating risks associated with digital asset payment technologies such as cryptocurrencies, consensus algorithms, and smart contracts.
Purpose and Importance
With the rapid growth of digital assets and cryptocurrencies, cyber threats like double-spending attacks, phishing, ransomware, and other sophisticated exploits have increased significantly. These threats impact businesses, governments, and individuals. Smaller organizations, local governments, and municipalities often lack the resources to implement strong cybersecurity defenses. AADAPT offers practical guidance tailored to these vulnerable segments. By empowering stakeholders to adopt robust security measures, AADAPT helps safeguard digital assets and fosters trust across the digital financial ecosystem.
Structure and Approach
AADAPT emulates the successful structure of the MITRE ATT&CK framework, a globally recognized knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques used in cybersecurity. The framework categorizes adversarial behaviors into tactics (the “why” behind actions) and techniques (the “how” attackers achieve their goals). This taxonomy helps users understand and respond to threats systematically. AADAPT is built on analysis from over 150 sources, including government, industry, and academic research, ensuring it reflects actual attack methods and vulnerabilities observed in the wild.
Tactics include:
| ID | Name | Description |
| TA0043 | Reconnaissance | The adversary is trying to gather information they can use to plan future operations. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| TA0042 | Resource Development | The adversary is trying to establish resources they can use to support operations. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| TA0001 | Initial Access | The adversary is trying to get into your network. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| TA0002 | Execution | The adversary is trying to run malicious code. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| TA0004 | Privilege Escalation | The adversary is trying to gain higher-level permissions. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| TA0005 | Defense Evasion | The adversary is trying to avoid being detected. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| TA0006 | Credential Access | The adversary is trying to steal account names and passwords. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| TA0008 | Lateral Movement | The adversary is trying to move through your environment. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| TA0009 | Collection | The adversary is trying to gather data of interest to their goal. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| TA0040 | Impact | The adversary is trying to manipulate, interrupt, or destroy your systems and data. View Here at MITRE ATT&CK |
| ADTA0001 | Fraud | The adversary is trying to illicitly create, acquire, or utilize value-form. The adversary may also seek to destroy the victim’s value-form without any personal gain. |
Key Features
AADAPT covers a wide range of cyber threats targeting digital asset systems, including:
- Exploitation of consensus mechanisms
- Smart contract vulnerabilities
- Fraud tactics like counterfeit token generation and market manipulation
- Defense evasion techniques such as reputation damage and cross-chain hopping
It serves developers, policymakers, financial organizations, and cybersecurity professionals by providing actionable knowledge to analyze and secure digital asset management systems, inform engineering and implementation of secure digital payment technologies, and enhance threat detection and mitigation strategies.
