Cyberspace

Cyber Brief: White House and Department of Defense Cyber Strategies

Last week the White House and the Defense Department issued new documents on cyberspace strategy. This posting includes the new issuances and presents them with current national security and strategy documents for immediate context as well as past White House and Department of Defense documents tracing the evolution of cyber strategy in the United States Government.

 

Cyber Glossary

The Cyber Glossary is a compilation of specialized terms to help experts and the public alike navigate the complex field of cybersecurity. This resource combines definitions from a variety of government compilations.  Sources for each entry – often multiple definitions exist – are provided, as is a key to allow for further research.  This list will be expanded regularly. Reader suggestions are welcome.

Click on the appropriate letter in the left column or type a word or phrase in the search box at the top right of this page.

Cyber Brief: DOJ's Park Jin Hyok Criminal Complaint and North Korean Cyber Operations

The United States Department of Justice today unsealed a criminal complaint (here) and arrest warrant for North Korean hacker Park Jin Hyok detailing his involvement in numerous cyber operations attributed to the Lazarus Group. Details in this document will likely advance the public’s understanding of how North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) conducts operations in cyberspace.

Joint Task Force ARES and Operation GLOWING SYMPHONY: Cyber Command’s Internet War Against ISIL

Washington, D.C., August 13, 2018 – U.S. Cyber Command’s strategy for curtailing ISIL’s ability to exploit the internet may at least partially be paying off, according to an analysis of recently declassified documents posted today by the nongovernmental National Security Archive.

The new documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by Motherboard and the Archive, center around Operation GLOWING SYMPHONY, a USCYBERCOM activity authorized in late 2016 to deny the Islamic State use of the internet.

Eligible Receiver 97: Seminal DOD Cyber Exercise Included Mock Terror Strikes and Hostage Simulations

Washington, D.C., August 1, 2018 – An early classified Defense Department cybersecurity exercise named “Eligible Receiver 97” (ER97) featured a previously unpublicized series of mock terror attacks, hostage seizures, and special operations raids that went well beyond pure cyber activities in order to demonstrate the potential scope of threats to U.S.

Cyber Brief: GRU Cyber Operations

Robert Mueller, Special Counsel for the US Department of Justice, on Friday, July 13, 2018, indicted twelve Russian intelligence officers for “engaging in cyber operations that involved the staged release of documents stolen through computer intrusions.”  These cyber intrusions, known as Fancy Bear, have together with the Cozy Bear campaign come to be referred to as “Operation Grizzly Steppe.”  Today’s posting explores the US Government’s public conceptualization of Russian cyber operations and highlights the two GRU units suspected of being directly connec

Cyber Brief: Transportation Security

The cyber threat to critical infrastructure (communication, transportation, energy, finance, and vital services) receives a sizeable volume of attention from researchers and policy analysts. This Cyber Brief looks at transportation security in isolation beginning with President Clinton’s Executive Order 13010 and continuing through recent Federal reports on emerging challenges and technologies.