Shields Up! The Biden Administration Tells Industry to Prepare for Russian Cyber Attacks

Also, Putin’s drones may be using AI, but his deep fake video isn't fooling anyone.

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Shields Up 

The Biden administration is warning of “evolving intelligence that the Russian Government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks” against the United States. Promising to “use every tool to deter, disrupt, and if necessary, respond to cyberattacks against critical infrastructure,” the president also warned, “But the Federal Government can’t defend against this threat alone,” and called on private industry to take aggressive cybersecurity measures: 

If you have not already done so, I urge our private sector partners to harden your cyber defenses immediately by implementing the best practices we have developed together over the last year. You have the power, the capacity, and the responsibility to strengthen the cybersecurity and resilience of the critical services and technologies on which Americans rely. We need everyone to do their part to meet one of the defining threats of our time—your vigilance and urgency today can prevent or mitigate attacks tomorrow. 

No further information about this “evolving intelligence” is available publicly but it’s reasonable to assume we’re seeing preparatory actions by Russian government hackers, Russian government-backed non-state hackers, or both. These preparations could include attempted hacks, prepositioning tools and code on command-and-control servers, and all-source intelligence on Moscow’s intentions and plans.

Last month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence made this assessment:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    I’ll admit, Klon, I’ve seen too many sci fi movies and read too many books to be optimistic about autonomous robots doing the killing.

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    Mike Podhaizer

    Very interesting! Any suggestions on where to read more about the technical details of our defense systems and about infrastructure vulnerabilities of critical systems (including ones that maybe aren't as easily apparent to the layperson)?

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    Brett Myers

    This column needs to move up on the banner. It's now the 2nd place I go.

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  4. Jack Zentrist

    It would be better imo if both sides in this war stopped with the exaggeration, distortion and lying. But not gonna happen.

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  5. Mathew A

    Very interesting and informative article as always.

    Slightly off topic, where I'm really concerned about drones, and surveillance is domestic use. I don't want government use of drones, facial recognition, or any other system of mass surveillance use domestically.

    And I think we need strong laws on the books now to stop this. And also to stop governments from just turning around and buying that info from the private sector. Me choosing to use Google maps doesn't mean the government gets to track me everywhere.

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  6. Mary Stine

    If the Ukrainians are seizing and using abandoned Russian tanks, how will drones know the difference? How easy is it for an enemy to scramble the drone's radar system?
    I have a list of other questions, but I'll pause for now to say thanks to Mr. Kitchen for writing here.

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  7. Elaine Brown

    Very informative. Thank you! And my 10 yo loved the drone pics and info.

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    Arrbee

    Fully automated defenses against hypersonic missiles seems like a reasonable goal, as it's difficult to imagine a friendly incoming object moving at that speed (at least until we have hypersonic aircraft).

    Fully automated killer drones or robots is more problematic. Even with a high rate of accuracy, one mistake that targets innocents instead of hostiles could have international repercussions (the Kabul drone that killed an aid worker and a group of children instead of a supposed ISIS terrorist in Kabul was a failure of intelligence, and in my opinion, an over aggressive administration that was motivated by the need for a political win in the midst of a monumental failure).

    Researchers have proven that even the most sophisticated image recognition systems can be fooled, and with motive, intentionally fooled (see https://www.unite.ai/why-adversarial-image-attacks-are-no-joke/). State actors that don't value human life might intentionally make a civilian target tempting to a drone for propaganda purposes. Actors that use human shields or dictators that target a building housing 1200 women and children with the word "Children" spelled out on both sides would not hesitate.

    Let's keep people in the loop unless, as is pointed out, it's for attacking unique, easily identifiable threats, such as hypersonic missiles.

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    BWG

    Private firms need to toughen cyber security, but we also need to take the attitude that any cyber attack on the US will elicit a cyber response that results in 5x or 10x the damage. Start taking down portions of their electrical grid, first those where the attacks originate, then those that service military bases, then make it more and more punitive.

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    Paul Hoover

    This is yet another very interesting and informative article. Thanks, Mr. Kitchen! I just learned about the Switchblade UAVs the other day, and I hope they prove to be game-changers for the Ukrainians.

    That said, as Token Liberal notes, the prospect of a SkyNet-like awareness is always concerning.

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