Participants of the Government Digital Summit to be held in Ottawa in October 2023
Cybercriminals and hostile intelligence agencies pose an increasing risk to the systems, assets, and reputations of organizations in both the private and public sectors. At the Government Digital Summit, IT leaders from around the world identified the keys to security in a dangerous digital world.
Cybersecurity is a “whole-of-society effort that is essential to digital transformation,” said Anne Dunkin. In his role as chief information officer at the U.S. Department of Energy, Mr. Dunkin oversees a complex ecosystem of public and private entities that manage critical elements of America's infrastructure, from nuclear power plants to oil pipelines. I am.
Securing these distributed and diverse systems requires close collaboration across organizational boundaries. In our interconnected world of interdependencies, any weakness can potentially give a hostile attacker access to your entire network. When assessing an organization's vulnerability to cyberattacks, IT leaders “used the analogy of a bear in the woods and said, 'I'm just faster than everyone else,'” she comments. . We can't operate like that anymore. ”
For this reason, “If you look at the National Cybersecurity Strategy that the U.S. government released last year, one of the key points we emphasized is that cybersecurity is a team sport,” Dunkin continued. And she insisted that the central government needed to step up as the national team captain. “Governments and big business have a critical role to play in this process. It's unreasonable to expect small businesses, individuals and local governments to protect us,” she says. “We have to work together, and that responsibility should fall to the most capable.”
Given the global nature of this threat, international relations are key to countering it. And the Government Digital Summit, which Dunkin spoke at late last year, was established in part to build these relationships. The event, which brought together more than 50 senior digital leaders from 15 countries in Ottawa to privately discuss the common challenges facing their countries, featured a wide-ranging discussion of the increasing cyber risks facing public servants around the world. .
No cracks in the armor
The National Cyber Threat Assessment 2023-24, prepared by the host country's Canadian Cyber Security Centre, reveals that the threat from cyber attacks is growing due to a combination of factors. These include the shift to remote working and working from home due to the pandemic, the explosion of connected devices through the Internet of Things, and the expansion of business processes to include external organizations such as cloud suppliers and managed service providers. It is included.
In addition to these growing structural vulnerabilities, the report warns, we see continued efforts by adversaries to undermine and attack the digital enterprises of democracies. “State-sponsored cyber attackers” are “developing the ability to disrupt critical systems in Canada and its allies,” the report said, sometimes by embedding vulnerabilities in national infrastructure. One participant warned about the development of “living off the land” techniques that create vulnerabilities without relying on the types of malware that traditional antivirus technologies can counter.
Meanwhile, the report says these state-backed actors are spreading disinformation “to influence the international community and exploit social divisions.” Russia has been particularly active in this area, and its technology will become even more powerful with the development of AI technology that can create highly convincing audio and video in real time.
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“In 2022, an unknown person posing as the mayor of Kiev secured video calls with several European mayors,” the report said. “The participants in the call did not know that the caller on the other end was a deepfake until the person alleged to be the mayor of Kiev started making suspicious comments.” (For more information, see Global on Foreign Interference in Elections. (See Government Forum's five-part study.)
China also has very active cyber teams, often focused on stealing intellectual property from Western companies and public institutions. The U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing “Chinese state-sponsored cyber attackers” who are conducting industrial espionage in fields including maritime technology, life sciences, IT, and defense, and theft is believed to have “secured China's foreign contracts.” “The aim is to support efforts to In addition to their own research programs, so do state-owned enterprises. ”
However, the biggest threat to Western citizens is cybercrime and ransomware. These are lucrative activities that have developed their own financial networks and supply chains. One participant noted that “ransomware-as-a-service” has become a thriving industry, while the advent of generative AI has provided criminals with a new set of tools.
I was forewarned that I was forewarned.
As the number, scope, and capabilities of adversaries continue to grow, developed countries are presenting adversaries with an increasingly large attack surface. But advocates have an asset to grow, said Neelam Sandhu, then chief elite customer success officer and chief marketing officer at Event Knowledge Partner BlackBerry. “Over the past two to three years, we’ve seen a huge shift across businesses and government where everyone has become more aware of the importance of cybersecurity,” she said. Blackberry, which currently provides secure software for sensitive environments such as cars and phones, has long had security at the heart of its offerings, he said, but “now everyone is putting security first.'' ” he added.
Additionally, there is now “a desire to be more agile in deploying new technologies, including when fighting adversaries in the cybersecurity space,” Sandu said. For example, Blackberry is applying his AI to develop a “predictive cybersecurity” system that can discover and respond to cyberattacks before new viruses are identified and appropriate patches are distributed. Masu.
However, to take advantage of this increased awareness and ingenuity, digital leaders must recognize some of the tensions in their approach to cybersecurity and change their behavior as necessary. For example, Sandhu said there is a perception that protecting security inconveniences users, resulting in “people prioritizing user experience over cybersecurity.”
Balancing convenience and resilience
Security requirements that appear to interfere with the day-to-day operations of public servants are likely to fail. One participant commented: “People will bypass the best security measures if they don't agree to accomplish their work objectives.” But there's no need for conflict here, Sandhu responded. “Security should be built into any architecture, not something bolted on,” she said. “There should be no need for trade-offs.”
This worried Alison Pritchard, the UK's deputy national statistician. “Technically, we are at a stage where we can link a lot of data together. But that increases the risk considerably,” she said. “Given the realistic prospect that risks will continue to increase, should we temper our ambitions for innovation and data use?”
“When security comes to the forefront, it may slow down the adoption of some innovations,” Sandhu responded. “But the real problem is that cybersecurity issues have moved too far downstream. While it is seen as the responsibility of IT teams, it puts even more pressure on manufacturers of assets such as software solutions and endpoints. We need to take steps to move the problem upstream. Innovations can be implemented more quickly if they are delivered in a more secure way in the first place.”
One problem here, Dunkin points out, is that “rewards are misaligned.” Commercial incentives reward users who are first to market with new technologies, rather than the most secure products. “Being a first mover is more valuable than being a safe first mover,” she commented. At least until a vulnerability allows a disastrous cyber attack.
However, no matter how carefully manufacturers, developers, and IT administrators work to build security into their systems, improper use by staff can always open the door to threat actors. “There are two types of insider threats, one that is intentional and malicious, and one that is accidental.And the risk of an accidental insider threat is even higher. I think so,” Dunkin said. This risk applies even among the most senior and digitally savvy staff. One participant noted that mobile phones are a “really easy target” for foreign intelligence and cybercriminals, and urged senior officials to carry a “burner phone” and use a VPN when traveling to high-risk countries. urged them.
This means quality training and careful employee management are required. Otherwise, your organization may find itself building an impregnable fortress and your staff may accidentally leave a back door open. Meanwhile, digital leaders need to collaborate across borders and share information and solutions. And somewhere in between, we need more cooperation in both the public and private sectors.
Collaboration confuses scammers
“The need to partner to address cybersecurity risks is very clearly understood,” Sandhu said. “And these partnerships exist within government as well. But I think the private sector can do a better job of making sure the technologies interoperate and the lessons learned are shared.”
He added that “governments have tremendous influence over industry,” and that public sector leaders should “push back on vendors, encourage them to build security into their solutions, and promote the need for industry to collaborate.” He claimed that.
Dunkin said the U.S. Department of Energy has found ways to bring together public and private stakeholders to support closer cooperation on cybersecurity issues. Its Integrated Collaborative Cybersecurity Coordination Center collects and shares information across the energy ecosystem and intelligence community, provides cybersecurity services, and catalogs ongoing cyber projects.
At a recent symposium focused on cyber risks in renewable energy, researchers and industry participants delved into a variety of challenges and opportunities, she recalled. She highlighted her interesting experience in which six different laboratories collaborated to demonstrate the vulnerability of wind turbines and uncover the potential that collaboration can create.
This story clearly illustrates the power of working partnerships. The symposium was “so well received that we've been asked to put together something similar for quantum computing in the future, and our AI office will be recreating that for AI,” Dunkin said. Ta. Along with generative AI, quantum computing is likely to become the next frontier in cyber warfare.
If governments win their wars, it will be because they recognize the power of sharing. It’s the power of all of us working together,” Dunkin said. Cybercriminals and adversarial states each have their own advantages, she added. “They're faster and more agile. They don't have a board. They just go, go, go!” But they lack coordination and communication skills.
“One of my favorite people on the radio says, “None of us are as smart as all of us,'' Dunkin concluded. “All we need is that unity of effort.'' is.”
Although Government Digital Summit sessions are held behind closed doors, GGF produces these reports to highlight the priorities and concerns of national digital leaders to a global audience, and to ensure participants are happy with the citations. Check if there are any before publishing. Our four reports of her cover four daytime sessions.
