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**