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This article was originally published by the Council on Foreign Relations on 8 June 2020.
In early May, it was reported that Germany’s federal prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Dmitriy Badin, the Russian hacker behind the 2015 cyberattacks targeting the Bundestag. Despite this, it is unclear what steps the German government has taken to pursue Badin internationally and how Germany and the United States will manage their separate efforts to arrest him.
Image courtesy of TheDigitalArtist/Pixabay.
This article was originally published by RealClearDefense on 9 May 2020.
On April 7, the Australian Minister of Defense acknowledged – for the first time ever – that the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) used its offensive cyber capabilities to disrupt foreign cybercriminal infrastructure responsible for malicious cyber activities exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic.1 While details on the operation are sparse, what we do know is that ASD “stopped the criminals from accessing their own systems and prevented them from accessing information they stole.”2 What we do not know is the how, the where, the when, and what exactly triggered ASD into action.
Image courtesy of Franklin Ramos/DVIDS.
This article was originally published by Lawfare on 28 May 2019.
Much has been written about the fundamental changes in U.S. cyber strategy. U.S. Cyber Command’s vision of “persistent engagement” and the Department of Defense’s new strategy of “defend forward” have, in particular, led to numerous critical remarks about the risks of escalation between the U.S. and its main adversaries in cyberspace.
This blog belongs to the CSS’ coronavirus blog series, which forms a part of the center’s analysis of the security policy implications of the coronavirus crisis. See the CSS special theme page on the coronavirus for more.
Millions are now working from home with unfamiliar software, providing massive opportunities for malicious actors. In response, volunteers from the information security sector have formed collaborative initiatives to disseminate urgently needed information to the public. This post examines how the current crisis conditions enabled the formation of the COVID-19 Cyber Threat Coalition (CTC), the largest of these initiatives, based on an interview with the founder. It also identifies an opportunity to institutionalize a similar, need-based threat information platform through government action.
This graphic provides an overview of the nations in which major cyber theft incidents were initiated, as well as the countries affected by these attacks between 2000 and 2018. To find out what this highlights about the eclipse of Western military-technological superiority, read Michael Haas’ chapter for Strategic Trends 2019 here. Strategic Trends 2020 is out on 30 April.