Collaborate Disseminate
Countries like the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada are adopting the U.S.’s proactive cyber strategy to anticipate and mitigate vulnerabilities, reflecting a shift away from deterrence.
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In an interview with CyberScoop, Nate Fick also discussed the structure of his office and regions of emphasis.
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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are clamoring for the U.S. government to better communicate what it’s doing to fend off foreign hackers, a concern that has come front and center in recent days as Americans have queued up at gas stations following a ransomware attack against a major U.S. pipeline company. Colonial Pipeline, the largest pipeline in the country, temporarily had to shut down operations earlier this month in response to a ransomware attack impacting its IT networks. The company shut down operations to prevent the malicious software from spreading to its operational networks. The incident has raised questions about the fragility of U.S. critical infrastructure cybersecurity, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., indicated Friday she wants the U.S. government to tell the American people more about what it’s doing to try to prevent these kinds of attacks in the first place. ”It is so hard to explain to the American public […]
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The Justice Department is undertaking a four-month review of its approach to combatting a range of malicious cyber activity from foreign governments and criminals amid a spate of ransomware attacks and supply chain compromises. “We need to rethink … and really assess are we using the most effective strategies” against such hacking, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Friday at the Munich Cyber Security Conference. The review of Justice Department policies, which began this week, will cover the cryptocurrencies that cybercriminals use to cash in on ransomware, along with the “blended threat of nation-states and criminal enterprises, sometimes working together, to exploit our own infrastructure against us,” Monaco said. The policy review is an acknowledgement that, despite the Justice Department and FBI investing heavily in efforts to indict and arrest criminals and take down hacking forums, cyberthreats to U.S. businesses and government agencies remain unrelenting. The 120-day Justice Department review […]
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The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian intelligence operatives for their alleged interference in the 2020 U.S. election, and on Russian companies for allegedly supporting Moscow’s extensive cyber-espionage operations. The Treasury Department sanctioned 32 organizations and individuals for their alleged influence operations aimed at the U.S. election. The White House said it was part of an effort to “disrupt the coordinated efforts of Russian officials, proxies, and intelligence agencies to delegitimize our electoral process.” As part of the crackdown, Treasury sanctioned six Russian tech firms for allegedly providing support to Russian intelligence services’ hacking operations by developing malicious software or setting up IT infrastructure. U.S. officials also made official what had long been rumored: They believe with “high confidence” that Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, carried out the hacking campaign that has exploited software made by contractor SolarWinds and other vendors to infiltrate nine U.S. agencies […]
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Over the course of the next 20 years, nation-states will see a rise in targeted offensive cyber-operations and disinformation in an increasingly “volatile and confrontational” global security landscape, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment. The U.S. intelligence community’s Global Trends report, issued on Thursday, notes many of theses offensive cyber-operations will likely target civilian and military infrastructure. Nation-states will likely increasingly favor tools that allow them to operate below the level of armed conflict in order to avoid the geopolitical and resource costs that come with violence and traditional warfare, the report adds. Countries also will leverage proxies such as hackers or military contractors to disrupt their adversaries, according to the assessment, which is issued by the National Intelligence Council, which reports to the Director of National Intelligence. “Proxies and private companies can reduce the cost of training, equipping, and retaining specialized units and provide manpower for countries with […]
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U.S. and European law enforcement agencies last week conducted an extraordinary crackdown on Emotet, a botnet of infected computers that has defrauded victims of millions. The operation involved officials from nine governments, but one move was decisive: Dutch police used their cyber authorities to infiltrate Emotet infrastructure. They slipped a software update onto the servers that cut off communications between infected computers and the botnet, halting its spread. For the FBI, it was a lesson in how its foreign allies are sometimes better positioned than the bureau to make an arrest or even deploy offensive cyber capabilities. The bureau had tracked Emotet since 2017, when it caused more than $1.4 million to a North Carolina school’s computer systems. The Department of Homeland Security has estimated that it cost an average of $1 million to clean up after each Emotet incident, though officials were not more specific in how they came […]
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Joe Biden has his work cut out for him. Biden will be sworn into office on Jan. 20 with a long list of challenges ranging from the coronavirus pandemic to re-considering America’s place on the world stage. There’s also the fallout from a far-reaching hacking campaign that the U.S. has suggested is the work of the Russian government. Yet the next American president has also chosen top advisers, including his picks to lead the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA, who appear to view digital security as an integral part of policymaking. Their thinking on these issues, and whether they succeed or fail in the face of deep-seated challenges to internet security, could affect the trajectory of Biden’s presidency. Here’s a closer look at three of the more pressing cybersecurity challenges the administration will encounter. Cleaning up the SolarWinds mess, then getting proactive Biden has vowed to get to […]
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While dealing with a massive cyber-espionage campaign against the U.S. government, the FBI is trying to quietly implement a new strategy aimed at better tracking foreign hackers. FBI officials last spring gave the head of the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF) — a group of intelligence, law enforcement and defense officials who track hacking threats — a more senior role within the bureau, according to Tonya Ugoretz, deputy assistant director in the FBI’s cyber division. The result is that a senior FBI official now leads an interagency group whose work could lead to offensive cyber-operations, sanctions or State Department démarches — or all three. Herb Stapleton, the former head of the FBI’s the head of FBI’s Cyber Crime Operations, is filling that role. The goal of the strategy, which the FBI unveiled in September, is to disrupt foreign cyber operations against U.S. assets by “changing the risk calculus” of adversaries, as […]
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Prevention lies somewhere between avoidance and protection, and preventative methods can belong to either. For example, what is stopping outsiders from entering your country or state or town in order to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus? Some m… Continue reading Cybersecurity Lessons from the Pandemic: Prevention