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Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Start your day with intelligence. Get The OODA Daily Pulse.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Google’s Cybersecurity Action Team was launched in early October of this year, as part of the company’s $10 billion pledge to strengthen cybersecurity, all of which grew out of the launch in August, by CISA Director Jen Easterly, of the CISA JCDC (Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative). Google is a partner company with CISA in the JCDC. The Cybersecurity Action Team’s efforts begin with Google Cloud. They recently released their first publicly available intelligence offering – Threat Horizons, Cloud Threat Intelligence, November 2021, Issue 1.
Game theory, the study of competition and conflict, tells us there are two types of games: Finite Games and Infinite Games. Knowing which one you are playing is key to making optimal decisions. Finite games are those that have a beginning and an end. The objective of a finite game is to win. The game ends when all sides know who the winner is. Examples of finite games include most battles in a traditional war; they end when there is a decisive victory. Sporting events are examples of more peaceable finite games. For more see: Cybersecurity, like Espionage, Is an Infinite Game
The technology of ransomware has evolved in sophistication and the business models of the criminal groups behind it have as well. The result: The threat from ransomware has reached pandemic proportions.
This post provides an executive level overview of the nature of this threat. It is designed to be read as an introduction to our accompanying post on how to mitigate the threat of ransomware to your organization. See: Ransomware, an update on the nature of the threat
In an article entitled “The international environment and countermeasures of network governance during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period” by Xu Xiujun (徐秀军) in the February 27, 2021 edition of China Information Security, we see the continuation of China’s concerns over Weaponized Interdependence and China’s desire to shape a global technology and economic environment that is less influenced by Western power. Xiujun identifies concerns in several interconnected areas including cybersecurity, economic centralization, and advancement in technologies like AI, Quantum, and 5G. See: China’s Plan for Countering Weaponized Interdependence
As the U.S. government parses through the Solar Winds software supply chain breach, many questions still remain as to the motive, the entities targeted, and length of time suspected nation state attackers remained intrenched unseen by the victims. The attack stands at the apex of similar breaches in not only the breadth of organizations compromised (~18,000), but how the attack was executed.
See: If SolarWinds Is a Wake-Up Call, Who’s Really Listening?
While the Ware Report of 1970 codified the foundations of the computer security discipline, it was the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection report of 1997 that expanded those requirements into recommendations for both discrete entities as well as the nascent communities that were growing in and around the Internet. Subsequent events that were the result of ignoring that advice in turn led to the creation of more reports, assessments, and studies that reiterate what was said before. If everyone agrees on what we should do, why do we seem incapable of doing it? Alternately, if we are doing what we have been told to do, and have not reduced the risks we face, are we asking people to do the wrong things? See: Solar Sunrise to Solar Winds
The SolarWinds hacks have been described in every media outlet and new source, making this incident perhaps the most widely reported cyber incident to date. This report provides context on this incident, including the “so-what” of the incident and actionable insights into what likely comes next.
Russian Espionage Campaign: SolarWinds
NASA is enabling another giant leap for humanity. With the Artemis program, humans will return to the Moon in a way that will enable establishment of gateways to further exploration of not just the Moon but eventually the entire solar system. The initial expenses of the program will return significant advances for scientific understanding and tangible economic returns. As Artemis continues, the project will eventually deliver improvements for humanity that as of yet have only been dreamed of. But there are huge threats. For more see: The Cyber Threat To Artemis
The last decade has seen an incredible increase in the commercial use of space. Businesses and individual consumers now leverage space solutions that are so integrated into our systems that they seem invisible. Some of these services include: Communications, including very high-speed low latency communications to distant and mobile users. Learn more at: OODA Research Report: What Business Needs To Know About Security In Space Also see: Is Space Critical Infrastructure, and the special report on Cyber Threats to Project Artemis, and Mitigating Threats To Commercial Space Satellites
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence