How To Counter Russian Interference? Apparently, Informing The Enemy In Advance Is Now A Thing...

'Telegraphing' once's intent, typically cedes the notion and therefore the advantage of any particular element of surprise to the target of the intent... That state of 'affairs' is not considered an optimal warfighting solution.

"“When the Russians put implants into an electric grid, it means they’re making a credible showing that they have the ability to hurt you if things escalate,” said Bobby Chesney, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “What may be contemplated here is an individualized version of that, not unlike individually targeted economic sanctions. It’s sending credible signals to key decision-makers that they are vulnerable if they take certain adversarial actions.”" - via Ellen Nakashima reporting for The Washington Post

MARFORCYBER And The Marine Corps Cyber Auxiliary

via Nina Kollars & Emma Moore, writing at War On The Rocks, comes this outstanding, sobering analysis of both current and future cybersecurity professionalism & capabilities within the United States Marine Corps MARFORCYBER and the Marine Corps Cyber Auxiliary.

If you are at all interested in Offensive & Defensive Cyberwarfighting capabilities within the Department of the Navy, and more specifically within the Marine Corps, this, my friend, is Today's Absolutely Must Read. Information Security and Cybersecurity Professionals should email cyberaux@usmc.mil for more information or to volunteer with the United States Marines Cyber Auxiliary.

Richard A. Clarke, Interviewed

FastCompany contributing editor Alex Pasternack has written-up a superb interview piece with the highly respected Richard A. Clarke, detailing his warnings of significant attack modalities that we all face as a nation, today, and the extreme danger unfolding around us. Today's Must Read!

"FC: The ransomware attacks seem like an interesting case study in how to respond, because some people are paying ransoms and some aren’t, and at great cost. RC: I think what’s interesting to me about ransomware is it’s picking off the low-hanging fruit. You know there’s that old joke that you don’t have to outrun the bear, you just have to, if there are three or four of you running, you just to run faster than the other guy. Well, that’s kind of the case with ransomware. Ransomware is picking off the slow runners. Ransomware is picking off the people who are spending 3 to 4% of their IT budget on security." - FastCompany contributing editor Alex Pasternack's superb interview of Richard A. Clarke

PCE - Premature Cyber Escalation

via the inimitable Thaddeus T. Grugq comes this superb analysis of clumsily wielded Force Majeure, or Not, and the Long and Winding Path to War, or Not, nearly all of it set in the so-called 'cyber-theatre'. Today's Must Read.

We Are Now On The Offensive... The Target? The Russian Power Grid

via Paul Szoldra writing at Task And Purpose, comes a superlative piece on the United States Cyber Command's cible du jour: The Russian Power Grid. This news, arrives via outstanding reporting of two of the The New York Times' highly respected correspondents and authors, namely - David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth.

"In interviews over the past three months, the officials described the previously unreported deployment of American computer code inside Russia’s grid and other targets as a classified companion to more publicly discussed action directed at Moscow’s disinformation and hacking units around the 2018 midterm elections." - via correspondents David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth reporting for The New York Times'

Lawfare: US Cyber Command Questionable Strategy

via Max Smeets, PhD. a cybersecurity post-doc fellow at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), comes this outstanding (PDF Download) dissection of the issue-ridden US Cyber Command strategic focus. Today's MustRead.

Dark Web Two-Step

Jason Rivera (a Director at CrowdStrike) and Wanda Archy (a Supervisor in RSM's security practice, targeting the Dark Web), writing at Small Wars Journal, in a remarkable tour de force of darkness - in this case, the darkness relates to the so-called Dark Web, and it's apparent suitability for nation-based and non-nation-actor warfare. I can assurte you, Mr. Rivera's and Ms. Archy's paper (in the form of a post) should be considered as today's Must Read.

"Warfare has always and will always continue to evolve – it is therefore prudent for national security professionals to be aware of this evolution and familiarize themselves with the various technological intricacies that will continue to shape the evolution of warfare. The Dark Web, like other emerging technologies, is one of those technological intricacies. " - Jason Rivera and Wanda Archy writing at Small Wars Journal

Alleged Peoples Republic of China Hack Targets 27 Universities, US & Canadian Maritime Military Secrets Ostensibly The Loot

Shannon Liao, writing for The Verge, has posted an interesting piece detailing an alleged Peoples Repbublic of China operation targeting United States Department of Defense data relevant to research at those universities (reportedly, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Washington {in Seattle, Washington} and University of Hawaii were listed as targeted institutions). Originally via Dustin Volz, writing for The Wall Street Journal (Paywall).

"The group has been given various nicknames by security researchers, like Temp.Periscope, Mudcarp, or Leviathan. Its connection to the Chinese government is unclear, but because the group appears to be targeting US military data, analysts believe the Chinese government is a likely sponsor. The same was reportedly behind the hacking of a US Navy contractor last June. " - via Shannon Liao, writing for The Verge

Reddy Kilowatt Says, 'Good Luck With That'

via Lily Hay Newman, plying the scrivener trade for Condé Nast Inc. publication Wired, comes this superlative reportage, detailing the so-called 'Hail Mary Plan to Restart a Hacked US Electric Grid'. Good luck with that.

"But while the situation was manufactured, the conditions of the exercise were all too real. Researchers built their test grid off of the already isolated power grid on Plum Island, a Department of Homeland Security animal disease research facility at the tip of Long Island's North Fork." - via Lily Hay Newman reporting for Wired Magazine, comes this outstanding story detailing the so-called 'Hail Mary Plan to Restart a Hacked US Electric Grid'

José de Arimatéia da Cruz and Travis Howard's 'The Feet of the Masters: Lessons on Irregular Cyber Warfare'

Dr. José de Arimatéia da Cruz, PhD and Lieutenant Commander Travis Howard's singularly definitive scrutiny of irregular cyberwar is today's Must Read. If you read anything else today targeting Cyberwar, you should read it. Now.

"What lessons could strategic warfare masters tell us about 21st century insurgent cyber warfare, where superpowers could be brought low by small cells of cyber warriors with limited funding but lots of time? This article distills the wisdom of two military strategists: Chinese General and 6th century Taoist military philosopher Sun-tzu, and Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz, Prussian general and theorist of psychological and political aspects of warfare" - José de Arimatéia da Cruz and Travis Howard at Small Wars Journal

The Sanger Attestation, 'The Age of Cyberwar is Here...' →

via David E. Sanger (author of 'The Perfect Weapon') comes this frank discussion of the true nature of war - in this case, cyber-war) and the effect (some might say 'affectation') of certain population groups (whether dis- or en- franchised) therein. Certainly, this week's Must Read.

"In my national security reporting for the New York Times, I’ve often been struck by the absence of the kind of grand strategic debates surrounding cyber that dominated the first nuclear age. Partly that is because there are so many more players than there were during the cold war. Partly it is because the United States is so politically divided. Partly it is because cyberweapons were created by the US intelligence apparatus, instinctively secretive institutions that always err on the side of overclassification and often argue that public discussion of how we might want to use or control these weapons imperils their utility." - via The Perfect Weapon by David E. Sanger

The Next Battleground

via Rob Knake, writing at the Council on Foreign Relations' online outlet: Foreign Affairs and in the Snapshot section, comes this astute examination of the co-called cyberwarfare space's soft underbelly - power generation. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt aside: Successful attacks on electrical power generation and equally crucial power distribution capabilites would relegate vast swaths of the population into feudal vassals of regional political power (not too mention the demoralization of those populations). Today's Must Read.

"The digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warned starkly last week. Most commentators took his declaration that “the warning lights are blinking red” as a reference to state-sponsored Russian hackers interfering in the upcoming midterm elections, as they did in the 2016 presidential election. But to focus on election interference may be to fight the last war, fixating on past attacks while missing the most acute vulnerabilities now. There’s reason to think that the real cyberthreat from Russia today is an attack on critical infrastructure in the United States—including one on the power grid that would turn off the lights for millions of Americans." - via Rob Knake, writing at Foreign Affairs

ICS/SCADA, The Protectors →

Superb journalism in the form of an article posted by Ellen Nakashima and Aaron Gregg of The Washington Post detailing critical work of United States National Security Agency trained malware hunters - now the co-founders of Dragos, a highly respected cybersecurity firm. If you read anything today on public infrastructure security read Ellen Naksshima and Aaron Gregg's important piece at The Washington Post. You'll be glad you did.

The cyber threat hunters had honed their chops at the National Security Agency — the world’s premier electronic spy agency. And last fall, they were analyzing malware samples from around the world when they stumbled across something highly troubling... - via Ellen Nakashima and Aaron Gregg of The Washington Post**

The Best Strategy for Cyber-Conflict May Not Be a Cyber-Strategy →

Terrific post at War On The Rocks, with an intriguing theory: The Best Strategy for Cyber-Conflict May Not Be A Cyber-Strategy, via Benjamin Runkle, . There's that pesky 'Cyber' thing again... At any rate, the discussion in this case, revolves around the leveraging of electronic, computational information warfare (perhaps also known as cyberwar) by the previous administration (President Obama). Elected (of course) - as today's Must Read, and watch out for 'them cybers'!

'We will respond in a time and place and manner of our choosing, and when we do so, we will consider a full range of tools, economic, diplomatic, criminal law enforcement, military, and some of those responses may be public, some of them may not be. One analyst derided the vice president’s pronouncements on the topic as “Biden threatening to threaten Russia.”' - via Benjamin Runkle at War On The Rocks

Orange Trumps Bear →

via Graham Cluely, comes this superb tale of how the Kingdom of the Netherlands' intelligence agency AIVD tracked and reported on nefarious Russian infiltrators into the election systems (and others) of the United States of America. Those Dutch!

The Ten Thousand →

Mai Ngoc Chau, writing at Bloomberg, tells the tale of the ten thousand, in this case that's ten thousand cyber warfare specialists in-the-midst of standing-up as a unit to combat what the Vietnamese now define as 'Wrongful Views'... Enjoy!

North Korean Dingus of Mass Disruption →

Erudite write-up by Adam Meyers (opining at 38North) in which, Adam details the cyberweapons of mass disruption (in this case the primary weapons discussed are WannaCry, the Wiper Attack and who-can't-forget the electronic Bonnie-and-Clyde aka the 2016 SWIFT attack on the Bank of Bangladesh). Enjoy!

"North Korean offensive cyber operations have been conducted to collect sensitive political and military intelligence information, to lash out at enemies who threaten their beliefs and interests, and most interestingly, to generate revenue." - Adam Meyers writing at 38North)

Gadi Evron, 'The First Internet War in Estonia' →

via Gadi Evron, Founder and CEO at Cymmetria comes this unique retrospective view of the world's first internet-based war fought within Estonia, now, a decade removed. An outstanding historical view and well-crafted thought piece - well worth your time to read. Most Certainly, Todays' Must Read