cyber war

Why We Need A Cyber Doctrine Now

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We’ve heard national security leaders at the highest levels say it repeatedly: we are not prepared for cyber war.

Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, made it clear when he rated America’s readiness for addressing a catastrophic cyber attack “three on a scale of ten.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has discussed the imminent threats of a breach that “shuts down part of the nation’s infrastructure in such a fashion that it results in a loss of life.” And Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has often been quoted saying that a large-scale attack on our critical infrastructure could wreak havoc on a scale “equivalent to Pearl Harbor.” Keep reading →

 /  Published November 27, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Google Chairman Points To Dangerous Gap Between Culture, Technology

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It didn’t take long before discussion about technology and national security Wednesday turned to this week’s Taliban violence on a Pakistani teenager.

“When reached by cell phone the Taliban claimed credit,” said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt referring to critically-injured Malala Yousufzai. “We know their phone number? Hmm. Why don’t we know where they are?” Keep reading →

 /  Published October 12, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Cyber Intelligence Prompts New Warnings For US Banks

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On the heels of a well publicized distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on U.S. financial institutions came a warning about another coordinated and planned cyber attack against this critical infrastructure sector.

Cyber intelligence uncovered a fairly large, coordinated cyber attack that is said to use fraudulent wire transfers as the means of attack. This cybersecurity attack is said to leverage session hijacking in a man-in-the-middle cyber attack.

Man-in-the-middle cyber attack is defined as a compromise where the attacker is able to insert themselves between its target and the system or service in which the target is trying to access or use. An attacker accomplishes this by impersonating the system or service that the target is attempting to connect with by falsely rerouting the traffic to and from the service or by hijacking session data.

This attack is known to be initiated by spam and phishing emails, keystroke loggers as well as Trojans with remote access. A high attack concentration has been seen in the small and medium sized organizations and the transfer amounts have ranged from $400,000 to $900,000.

Multiple cyber intelligence sources have warned that an estimated 30 U.S. based financial services institutions may be the targets of an organized cyber criminal gang that is said to be the entity behind this attack.

Just recently the FBI issued a warning about this threat. Their warning stated that the criminals behind this cyber attack were using multiple techniques to obtain customer log-in credentials. Once the criminals have these credentials, they initiate international wire transfers.

For additional information you should monitor the FBI, in association with the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

Kevin G. Coleman is a long-time security technology executive and former Chief Strategist at Netscape. He is Senior Fellow with the Technolytics Institute weekly blog for Breaking Gov on the topic of cyber intelligence. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 8, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Cyber Intelligence: Conflict In The 5th Domain

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We have entered a new age of modern conflict. This new age is different from those we have experienced in the past and perhaps even more challenging. The military has dubbed cyber as the 5th domain and have embarked on establishing the capabilities for offensive, defensive and intelligence collection and analysis in this domain.

However, many are attempting to address this threat as they did traditional forms of conflict. Some have gone as far as to compare what has been called a cyber arms race to the cold war. Recent conversations and witnessed actions are cause for concern. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 16, 2012 at 9:01 AM

Cyber Intelligence: “Every Classified Database” Compromised?

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It is hard to go online without seeing yet another report about an inappropriate disclosure of classified information and last week was no different.

From an undisclosed location in Canada, Chris Doyon — also known under the hacker handle of Commander X, who is an active member of the group known as Anonymous (and pictured in an FBI photo above) — recently told the Postmedia in Canada: “Right now we have access to every classified databases in the U.S. government. It’s a matter of when we leak the contents of those databases, not if.” Keep reading →

 /  Published May 21, 2012 at 1:58 PM

Cyber Intelligence: What Is The Answer?

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Lately, the most common question I get when doing briefings and presentations about the growing threat of cyber attacks is: What is the answer?

I have been giving that a fair amount of thought and have solicited input from others who are active in the field and have a good understanding of the current state of this threat. So I am going to try and address this question for the first time publicly. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 23, 2012 at 10:46 AM

Cyber Intelligence: The New Heights Of Hacktivism

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Cyber Sit-ins, cyber protests and other forms of demonstration have grown year after year and are now considered formidable method of protests.

How to respond to those new forms of protests, amid other cybersecurity threats, has become a challenge around the world for government elections, politicians, corporations, law enforcement organizations all of which have experienced the wrath of those who oppose their actions. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 26, 2012 at 3:31 PM

Cyber Intelligence: Emergence Of Cyber Iran

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Earlier this year Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran would establish a Supreme Council of Cyberspace. This was the latest action intended to strengthen Iran’s cyber power and defend the country against cyber attacks.

Sources inside of Iran have said that the council will be comprised of high-ranking Iranian officials such as the Iran’s Parliament speaker, Judiciary chief, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, and ministers of Communication and Information Technology, Culture and Islamic Guidance and Intelligence. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 19, 2012 at 11:19 AM

Cyber Intelligence: Countries Move To Address Cyber Defenses

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Countries around the world have awoken to the risks of cyber attacks on their systems launched by criminals, hacktivists, terrorists and rogue nation states.

As of January 2012, we found twenty-two countries have established cyber defense centers in an effort to enhance both their offense, defensive and cyber intelligence capabilities. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 20, 2012 at 10:20 AM

Cyber Intelligence: Cyber Warning From Capitol Hill

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It is hard not to notice the increase in activity and public information about cyber threats that has been in the media lately.

That concern was borne out by testimony during a Feb. 2 hearing in which the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Mike Rogers of Michigan, warned of the severe consequences of a cyber attack on the United States. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 6, 2012 at 12:33 PM
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