From Business Insider: While US cybersecurity and intelligence officials trained their attention on securing the 2020 election, foreign hackers took the opportunity to wedge another door wide open, carrying out a devastating and unprecedented cyberattack.
Details of the SolarWinds cyber attack have emerged over the last couple of weeks in what could be the world’s largest concerted effort to undermine a nation state. The United States is reeling from a sustained attack over many months that has gone to the heart of government. Even nuclear weapons installations have been threatened. The attack has also targeted many other countries as well as leading technology providers including Microsoft and Cisco. It may be many years before everything comes to light.
Again from Business Insider: “This was the most pristine espionage effort, unlike anything we’ve seen in a very long time,” said Karim Hijazi, a former intelligence community contractor. “Everyone in the cybersecurity community is freaking out, because we don’t know where this could stop.”
But what’s this got to do with the person in the street? Everything. Nation state cybersecurity is a hige threat to gelpolitics, it affects everyone yet we rarely talk about it.
According to Sam Curry, Cybereason, ‘From the last few years it’s clear that cyber is the preferred tool adversaries use against one another for financial and political gain. Nation state actors have a unique advantage over other adversaries since they have arguably unlimited resources to accomplish their mission.’
That’s why, earlier in November CyberNorth, with Exponential-e, put on a webinar to raise awareness of the issue:
‘As we find ourselves amid a global pandemic with cyber-criminals taking full advantage of phishing and malware attacks, preying on users and the simple but lethal user errors, we mustn’t forget about other online attacks. Geopolitical issues and nation-state cyber-attacks are also on the rise and it’s important to be aware they are indiscriminate, with the attackers becoming more refined and more skilled. Taking steps to protect your organisation has never been more important.’
To find out more about the ever changing and emerging threats from cybersecurity in geopolitics and how developing technologies will eventually trickle down to affect us all, you can watch the video from the event here.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 