From Protest to Power Plant: Interpreting the Role of Escalatory Hacktivism in Cyber Conflict

Since 2022, hacktivist groups have escalated their tactics, expanding from distributed denial-of-service attacks and document leaks to include targeting operational technology OT. By 2024, attacks on the OT of critical national infrastructure CNI had been linked to partisan hacktivist efforts in...

The Impact of AI on the Cyber Offense-Defense Balance and the Character of Cyber Conflict

Unlike other domains of conflict, and unlike other fields with high anticipated risk from AI, the cyber domain is intrinsically digital with a tight feedback loop between AI training and cyber application. Cyber may have some of the largest and earliest impacts from AI, so it is important to...

Iran and Hezbollah Hackers Launch Attacks to Influence Israel-Hamas Narrative

Hackers backed by Iran and Hezbollah staged cyber attacks designed to undercut public support for the Israel-Hamas war after October 2023. This includes destructive attacks against key Israeli organizations, hack-and-leak operations targeting entities in Israel and the U.S., phishing campaigns...

A hack in hand is worth two in the bush

The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has also extended into the digital domain. The involvement of hackers highlights the evolving nature of warfare in the 21st century, where traditional military operations are complemented by sophisticated cyber tactics, and where the boundaries betwee...

The Limits of Cyber Operations in Wartime

Interesting paper by Lennart Maschmeyer: "The Subversive Trilemma: Why Cyber Operations Fall Short of Expectations": Abstract: Although cyber conflict has existed for thirty years, the strategic utility of cyber operations remains unclear. Many expect cyber operations to provide independent utili...

The Digital Citizen’s Guide to Navigating Cyber Conflict

As security professionals, we are currently being bombarded with warnings and alerts of a heightened threat level due to the possibility that Russia will start to more aggressively leverage cyberattacks as part of their offensive. If you are feeling the pressure of getting everything done, check...

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m giving an online-only talk on “Securing a World of Physically Capable Computers” as part of Teleport’s Security Visionaries 2022 series, on January 18, 2022. I’m speaking at IT-S Now 2022 in Vienna on June 2, 2022. I’m speaking...

A Hacking Spree Against Iran Spills Out Into the Real World

Hackers have targeted the country's trains, gas stations, and airline infrastructure, as cyber conflict with Israel continues to escalate...

Threat Source newsletter (Jan. 23, 2020)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. Despite tensions starting to fizzle between the U.S. and Iran, people are still worried about cyber conflict. What would that even look...

Beers with Talos Ep. #70: Semper Vigilantes - Strategic Defense in a Cyber Conflict

By Mitch Neff. Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 70 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Recorded Jan. 6, 2020 There is a looming cyber conflict on the horizon between the U.S. and Iran. We use a...

UN Secretary-General: US-China Tech Split Worse Than Cold War

In an interview with WIRED editor in chief Nicholas Thompson, António Guterres says the world's next major conflict will start in cyberspace...

Wanted: Cybersecurity Imagery

Eli Sugarman of the Hewlettt Foundation laments about the sorry state of cybersecurity imagery: The state of cybersecurity imagery is, in a word, abysmal. A simple Google Image search for the term proves the point: It's all white men in hoodies hovering menacingly over keyboards, green...

“Cyber Conflict” Decoy Document Used In Real Cyber Conflict

This post was authored by Warren Mercer, Paul Rascagneres and Vitor VenturaUpdate 10/23: CCDCOE released a statement today on their websiteIntroductionCisco Talos discovered a new malicious campaign from the well known actor Group 74 aka Tsar Team, Sofacy, APT28, Fancy Bear…. Ironically the decoy...

Model Predicts Optimal Timing of a Cyber Conflict

Security researchers from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan have published a mathematical model they said will produce the proper timing for the delivery of offensive cyberweapons. Defenders can also make use of the model to understand attackers and when an targeted...

Growing market of zero-day vulnerability exploits pose real threat to Cyber Security

NSS Labs issued the report titled "The Known Unknowns" to explain the dynamics behind the market of zero-day exploits. Last week I discussed about the necessity to define a model for "cyber conflict" to qualify the principal issues related to the use of cyber tools and cyber weapons in an...

Former NSA Director Calls Stuxnet "Good Idea"

Former National Security Agency NSA Director Ret. General Michael Hayden called the sabotaging of Iran’s nuclear program with Stuxnet a “good idea” during an interview with ‘60 Minutes.’ Hayden served as NSA director from 1999 to 2005, and was also director of the CIA from 2006-2009. During the...

Charlie Miller now working with DoD for Cyber Security

Charlie Miller is a former hacker who has become an information security consultant now working with Department of Defense DoD for helping out with cyber security. He was invited to the conference on cyber conflict held by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence in Tallinn, where ...

50 More Websites Hacked By PCA (BanneD™ And <=Shak=>)

50 More Websites Hacked ByPCA BanneD™ And Pakistan Cyber Army once again target 50 more Indian websites . This Time the hacked sites include the most domains from Mumbai. List of Hacked sites and Mirrors are posted by hacker here. Visitor to these sites can see Pakistani Flag on the Homepage. The...