Friday Brief for 7 January 2022

Putin's cyber plans for Ukraine; Hacking-for-hire business is booming; & Beijing targets the algorithms

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Heads Up

I sat down with AEI’s big boss, Robert Doar, to chat about tech, culture, & national security. He asks me about “big tech”, fake media, and Chinese aggression. You can listen to our conversation here.

Tech Terms

Air Gap — The physical separation or isolation of a system from other systems or networks.

Anticipating Russia’s Use of Cyber in Ukraine

What’s New: Russian President Vladimir Putin is positioned for a military invasion of Ukraine and cyber capabilities are likely to feature heavily in any future conflict.

Why This Matters: Russia has been hitting Ukraine with cyber attacks for years but we should expect a dramatic escalation of these efforts before and during a military incursion.

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  1. Gerald McCallister

    I have been on calls where there is a bank under a DDoS attack, and the IP addresses are all coming out of the Ukraine; yet, they have customers in Ukraine, and it comes down to a decision between briefly losing Ukraine or losing the firewall. In reality, the attacks are coming out of IP addresses from the Crimea, and it is really Russia.

    Usually, when I am on DDoS calls though, it is China. I have encountered a few admins/security engineers who did not think to begin blocking Hong Kong.

    Another insight on geography. I see so many attacks coming out of the US. I believe the culprits are seeking to avoid CIA and NSA oversight since those organizations are not supposed to scrutinize domestic internet traffic; this is for good reason as such powers would inevitably infringe on civil liberties. I think a solution to this, and some other problems with our federal law enforcement, is to create a Federal Internal Affairs and add a cyber-division while giving other agencies the ability to address illegal cyber attacks using US territory.

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    Bradley Alpert

    The discussion about Russia's cyber attack capabilities applied against Ukraine makes me wonder to what extent the U.S. is prepared to defend against those capabilities.

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  3. Mike Kevitt

    If government thinks it is only defending peoples' "honor" when it takes action against hacking and cyber theft, it is bound to drag its feet about it when it is taking action against lots of other activity which it sees as actual crime. But hacking and cyber theft are crimes, not mere violations of peoples' honor, and government should be proactive against it, not foot dragging. After paying taxes, etc., people shouldn't have to also hire private entities and pay them. The government should do what it is there for and paid for. Mike Kevitt

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      Klon Kitchen

      The use of “honor” was tongue-in-cheek.

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