otherwise unremarkable day in Tallinn
Estonia the lights went out the internet
stopped and the world would never be the
same the era of cyber warfare had begun
in 2007 the Director of National
Intelligence for the United States
released an annual survey of threats to
the world nowhere on that list was any
mention of cyber security or cyber
warfare by 2008 cyber had made its way
on the DNI threat assessment by 2013 it
became the number one item a position is
held ever since leave his and gentlemen
you may have a question why the cyber
warfare matter to you more importantly
how does it affect your everyday life
well there is the general intangible
collective threat that we all face much
like nuclear proliferation or terrorism
what sniper poses a unique set of risks
and challenges for you the average
citizen now what is cyber warfare to
understand we have to look to history to
contrast since man first wielded weapons
battles were fought in clearly
discernible locations between clearly
discernible parties and by the end it
was a clearly discernible winner and
loser for example in the Battle of
Waterloo in a field ten miles south of
Brussels stood a Napoleon opposite the
Duke of Wellington and after
protracted day of bloody combat the
ester the Victor and the vanquished in
cyber almost none of these principles
hold true the field of combat is the
very same place and resource that we use
every day in our lives the Internet in
differentiating between actors tribute
and conduct determine who’s a red coat a
blue coat a green coat of pink coat an
orange coat it’s an almost impossible
task
simply put demarcating between war and
peace is impossible so your presence in
this field of combat makes you an
unwitting participant in cyber warfare
now what does that mean well cyber
warfare can be anything from the
large-scale attack on our critical
infrastructure taking out our power grid
financial institutions even a nuclear
reactor can lead to the loss of power
across the country the loss of untold
sums of money and even mass casualty
events leading to countless lives lost
but cyber warfare can be less than that
it can be economic espionage political
sabotage the things we see in our
headlines each and every day but cyber
warfare can even get you in your home
rogue states use malware not for some
grand nefarious scheme but to use your
computer’s processing power to mine for
now traditionally fell on the shoulders
of government to keep us safe to protect
us to provide for the common defense in
the nuclear era brave men and women sat
deep in the Sheyenne mountains watching
waving and defending at NORAD the
without them global nuclear that
catastrophe would have been all got
certain in cyber the government try as
it does and believe me it does they
cannot provide for the common defense
they cannot protect you that
responsibility lands squarely on your
shoulders you are front line of defense
in this global era that is a lofty
responsibility but let’s understand what
that responsibility means and why till
now you’ve been failing at it it’s not a
responsibility to man a garrison and
it’s not a responsibility to watch a
terminal waiting for a missile to pop up
rather it’s a responsibility to develop
a cyber hygiene an ability to defend
yourself and protect yourself from
threats what is a cyber hygiene well how
many of you here brush your teeth wash
your hands take showers usual examples
of personal hygiene but be honest with
me how many of you haven’t clicked on a
link from a suspicious email how many of
you haven’t ignored an update on your
computer you probably should have done
how many of you haven’t regularly backed
up your data as good as your personal
hygiene might be your cyber hygiene is
just not up to snuff I’m sure I know
what you’re thinking right now
China’s not coming after my data it
Ron’s not targeting me I’m not a target
I have nobody that could not be further
from the truth that’s for two main
reasons
one’s called the six degrees of
separation and the second
is it cyber criminals bad actors they
are becoming increasingly creative in
figuring out how to exploit and benefit
off of your unprotected systems to the
first point the six degrees of
separation is a maxim some of you may
have heard of it holds that any two
people on earth all seven point six
billion of us can be connected through a
maximum maximum of six relationships so
while your data may not be important
while your systems may not be important
their identity ie
you as the undefended target might be
the first step in a big chain of events
targeting someone you know or even
someone you don’t the chains can get
very long and very complex and for the
second point bad actors have led to call
them it become incredibly creative
figuring out ways to find profit and
benefit off of your undefended unpatch
unprotected systems for example in May
of last year a global ransomware
campaign called wanna cry crippled
hundreds of thousands if not millions of
computers ransomware as its name might
imply is a type of malware the include
Sir David takes it hostage tries to
ransom it back off to you how it was
people saw this screen locking them
informing them of the ransom demand now
who was behind wanna cry his attack that
cost the world billions and billions of
dollars wasn’t a cyber criminal it was
North Korea a nation-state attack
Jules businesses and multinational
organizations not for some political
motive not to declare war to seek
financial gain and are important lessons
who wanna cry
keeping your systems updated engaging in
regular backups but the real fundamental
lesson that underlies the attack is that
the line between public defense and
private security scum the government
could provide no vest at no defense for
those affected people those affected
entities only goals that were prepared
to defend themselves were able to avoid
now it’s important to recognize what a
cry was a global attack but it still hit
home right here on Long Island a photo
studio photographed a wedding on a
Sunday afternoon it was a lovely affair
but back at the studio download the
photos came in Monday morning saw this
screen and they had to make a choice pay
thousands in ransom or lose their
clients photos wedding photos
irreplaceable even valuable wedding
photos of choice now what does this mean
for you how do you develop your cyber
hygiene how do you protect yourself well
unfortunately there’s no silver bullet
there’s no magic checklist I can give
you today that you can follow and be
secure cyber security is a dynamic
ongoing process that requires your
active participation but there are
resources available good
resources that you can use to educate
yourself learn what you should be doing
what Brooks for your systems what works
for your world works for you but it is
incumbent on you to take advantage of
those resources to use them to develop
your hygiene to develop and secure
yourself now
before I take my leave I hope I was able
to impart with you few things about
cyber warfare the importance complexity
and the urgency we need you our
frontline defenders to begin taking
action to begin defending yourselves
ladies and gentlemen the resources are
here you are aware is now incumbent on
you to provide for the security
well-being and the protection of our new connected world