Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Russians Are Here...

The Russians Are Here

Estonia, Georgia and now Ukraine...

The Russian are coming, the Russians are coming!  As a modern day Paul Revere we're shouting at the tops of our lungs the Russians are coming!  But what does all this portend for those in the security and cyber security space?

In the sixties, seventies and so forth we were warned and taught in schools that the Communist were going to take over the world.  We were told they would do it without firing one single shot.  Given our current technology revolution has this become a more resolute reality?  Are we feeding our own eventual demise by participating in this ever interconnected world via the web?      

Well, if we look at Estonia, Georgia and now the Ukraine cyber invasions are most definitely front and center of every single world power and nation-state.  We invite your comments and observations as Russia leverages Crimean networks, telecom, communications capabilities and the gas pipeline infrastructure which feeds most of Europe and is most undoubtedly connected to SCADA systems.

Those of us in the security space would do well to pay close attention to methods of operation and techniques employed for both offense and defense whether as old as the hills or on the new frontier called the bleeding edge.  The global economy is not going away any day soon and we need to understand the threats-scape, our own infrastructure limits and wherein possible the bolstering of defenses to counter those threats as it may lead directly to our bottom line.  Testing to acceptable baseline defenses and offenses will only get you so far...conducting exercises for real resilience in the face of a MOST determined adversary is as they say, a horse of a different color.

We at Integris Security are here to help you prepare, test and evaluate your enterprise operations with an eye on: Can you survive in this global economy if your adversary has your company in their crosshairs?  Is your staff security aware?  Would you know an attack if it started?  Are your employees asleep at the switch, anchored in a serpentine bureaucracy or are they war-fighters listening, looking and revealing, reporting and proactively taking action?

Lastly, if sixty thousand security related alarms went off at your company would you roll over and go to sleep or more appropriately "RESPOND", "INVESTIGATE" and "REPORT"?

Here are a few links:

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240215674/Ukraine-and-Russia-locked-in-a-cyber-stand-off

http://defensetech.org/2008/08/13/cyber-war-2-0-russia-v-georgia/

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240215674/Ukraine-and-Russia-locked-in-a-cyber-stand-off

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26447200

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/ukraine-cyberattack-mobile-phones-russia-parliament-security_n_4895287.html

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/ukraine-and-little-cold-war?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20140304&utm_term=Gweekly&utm_content=re