President Biden declared his support for a cease-fire between Israel and Palestine during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel claims to be targeting Hamas locations and a tunnel network used by the terrorist organization via airstrikes, however, the moves have caused rising civilian casualties as well as power outages and resource shortages.…
Several governments including the United States recognize the criticality of protecting critical infrastructure as a national security priority. But there is little headway in determining what, if any, operations against critical infrastructure are acceptable. Without such consensus, nation states are left to their own devices, opting to use sanctions or retaliatory cyber strikes to register…
One of the critical factors which needs to be evaluated in any technical due diligence is the concept of Technology Debt. This report provides insights into technology debt from the perspective of an enterprise CTO turned due diligence professional. These lessons can help companies preparing for a future transaction to better position themselves for optimal…
In early April 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted the Department of Justice the authority to disrupt the exploitation of Microsoft Exchange server vulnerabilities. This authority empowered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to “hack” into private sector computers without having to notify those organizations. The intent was to…
The business environment in China has changed over the last year. Changes in China’s behaviors include new approaches to diplomacy, new aggressive moves by the Chinese military, new compliance requirements for companies seeking to do business with China, and increased punishment of corporations that are seen to be behaving in ways not supportive of China’s…
Beijing appears to be engaging in political warfare where it is attempting to fester animosity between foreign governments that show favor to Taiwan, a threat to the long-standing policy of “One Country, Two Systems” with regard to the island. In a recent instance, a fake announcement appeared to be from Taiwan’s Presidential Office on Facebook…
Max de Groen is a managing director at Bain Capital Private Equity (one of the world’s leading PE firms with over $130 billion of assets under management), where he focuses on investments in infrastructure, cybersecurity, and application software as well as internet and digital media. This means is is well positioned to help us understand…
On 15 April the Biden Administration formally attributed the Solar Winds attacks to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR. Soon thereafter they issued several directives implementing sanctions against Russia and some Russian related business leaders. The fall out from these actions is still underway and we will continue to track and assess how these matters…
For those of us practitioners in the cybersecurity space who have tracked policy concepts, one that has been around forever is the idea that good guys from government may one day need to take action in privately owned computers. Since the late 1990’s, concepts have been considered like the idea of a self propagating piece…
Beijing’s March 2021 China and Arab States Data Security Agreement is supposed to strengthen cooperation in communications and information technology. While details have yet been published, the document focuses on ensuring the integrity of data and production chains that drive the digital economy. This is not the first time that China and the Arab nations…
OODA CTO Bob Gourley is joined by technologist and national security expert Dan Gerstein from Rand Corporation. Dan is also the author of the recently released book entitled “The Story of Technology”.