A new study says the US must develop cyber intelligence as a new and better coordinated government discipline that can predict computer-related threats and deter them.
The report by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) says the dramatic expansion of sophisticated cyber attacks has moved beyond acceptable losses for government and businesses that simply threaten finances or intellectual property.
“The impact has increased in magnitude and the potential for catastrophic collapse of a company has grown,” said the report, which is slated to be released later this month.
It adds that it is not clear that the business community understands or accepts that.
The report comes amid growing worries that the US is not prepared for a major cyber attack, even as hackers, criminals and nation states continue to probe and infiltrate government and critical business networks millions of times a day.
INSA, a non-partisan national security organization, says the US must develop strategies beyond the current “patch and pray” procedures, create cyber intelligence policies, coordinate and share intelligence better among government agencies and businesses and increase research on attack attribution and warnings.
And it says the US must develop effective cyber intelligence so officials can assess and mitigate the risks.
Many of the report’s observations echo sentiments expressed by Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security officials who have been struggling to improve information sharing between the government and key businesses. However, efforts to craft needed cybersecurity legislation have stalled in Congress.
INSA’s report also lays out the growing threats from other nations — including those who are friendly, corrupt or just unable to control hackers within their borders.
While it does not name the countries, it says that failed states provide opportunities for hackers, as they do for criminals and terrorists, while other nations tolerate the criminals as long as concentrate their activities beyond their borders.
US officials have long pointed to Russia and China, as well as a number of eastern European nations, as some of the leading safe havens for cyber-criminals or government-sponsored or tolerated hacking.
At the same time, the report says the US has also outsourced much of the design and maintenance of computer technology to other countries where potential adversaries can easily insert themselves into the supply chain.
“The present situation is as dangerous as if the United States decided to outsource the design of bridges, electrical grids and other physical infrastructure to the Soviet Union during the Cold War,” said INSA, which is headed by Frances Townsend, who was homeland security adviser in the administration of former US president George W. Bush.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not