Cyber Mercenaries

Cyber Mercenaries PDF Author: Tim Maurer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108580262
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Book Description
Cyber Mercenaries explores the secretive relationships between states and hackers. As cyberspace has emerged as the new frontier for geopolitics, states have become entrepreneurial in their sponsorship, deployment, and exploitation of hackers as proxies to project power. Such modern-day mercenaries and privateers can impose significant harm undermining global security, stability, and human rights. These state-hacker relationships therefore raise important questions about the control, authority, and use of offensive cyber capabilities. While different countries pursue different models for their proxy relationships, they face the common challenge of balancing the benefits of these relationships with their costs and the potential risks of escalation. This book examines case studies in the United States, Iran, Syria, Russia, and China for the purpose of establishing a framework to better understand and manage the impact and risks of cyber proxies on global politics.

Digital Influence Mercenaries

Digital Influence Mercenaries PDF Author: James (J.F.) Forest
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1682477525
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 143

Book Description
In today's online attention economy, supply and demand have created a rapidly growing market for firms and entrepreneurs using the tactics, tools, and strategies of digital influence warfare to gain profit and power. This book focuses on the more malicious types of online activity such as deception, provocation, and a host of other dirty tricks conducted by these "digital influence mercenaries." They can be located anywhere with an Internet connection--Brazil, China, Iran, Macedonia, Russia, Zimbabwe--and the targets of their influence efforts can be whomever and wherever they are paid to attack. They can do this for state governments willing to pay and provide their targeting instructions (usually in support of foreign policy objectives) and may have specific metrics by which they will assess the mercenaries' performance. Non-state actors (including corporations and political parties) can pay for these kinds of digital influence services as well. And in addition to being paid for services rendered, digital influence mercenaries can also profit simply by manipulating the targeted advertising algorithms used by social media platforms. James J. F. Forest describes in detail the various tools and tactics these mercenaries use to exploit the uncertainties, fears, and biases of their targets including bots, deep-fake images, fake news, provocation, deception and trolling. He also shows how they weaponize conspiracy theories and disinformation to manipulate people's beliefs and perceptions. Forest also highlights how government agencies and social media platforms are trying to defend against these foreign influence campaigns through such tactics as shutting down offending websites, Facebook pages, and YouTube channels; tagging disinformation with warning labels; identifying and blocking coordinated inauthentic behavior; and suspending social media accounts, often permanently. European and North American governments have launched numerous investigations against these mercenaries, and in some cases have brought criminal charges. Forest concludes with suggestions for how each of us can learn to identify disinformation and other malicious efforts and defend ourselves in the future.

Cyber Strategy

Cyber Strategy PDF Author: Brandon Valeriano
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190618116
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
Some pundits claim cyber weaponry is the most important military innovation in decades, a transformative new technology that promises a paralyzing first-strike advantage difficult for opponents to deter. Yet, what is cyber strategy? How do actors use cyber capabilities to achieve a position of advantage against rival states? This book examines the emerging art of cyber strategy and its integration as part of a larger approach to coercion by states in the international system between 2000 and 2014. To this end, the book establishes a theoretical framework in the coercion literature for evaluating the efficacy of cyber operations. Cyber coercion represents the use of manipulation, denial, and punishment strategies in the digital frontier to achieve some strategic end. As a contemporary form of covert action and political warfare, cyber operations rarely produce concessions and tend to achieve only limited, signaling objectives. When cyber operations do produce concessions between rival states, they tend to be part of a larger integrated coercive strategy that combines network intrusions with other traditional forms of statecraft such as military threats, economic sanctions, and diplomacy. The books finds that cyber operations rarely produce concessions in isolation. They are additive instruments that complement traditional statecraft and coercive diplomacy. The book combines an analysis of cyber exchanges between rival states and broader event data on political, military, and economic interactions with case studies on the leading cyber powers: Russia, China, and the United States. The authors investigate cyber strategies in their integrated and isolated contexts, demonstrating that they are useful for maximizing informational asymmetries and disruptions, and thus are important, but limited coercive tools. This empirical foundation allows the authors to explore how leading actors employ cyber strategy and the implications for international relations in the 21st century. While most military plans involving cyber attributes remain highly classified, the authors piece together strategies based on observations of attacks over time and through the policy discussion in unclassified space. The result will be the first broad evaluation of the efficacy of various strategic options in a digital world.

This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends

This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends PDF Author: Nicole Perlroth
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1526629836
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 529

Book Description
WINNER OF THE FT & McKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021 The instant New York Times bestseller A Financial Times and The Times Book of the Year 'A terrifying exposé' The Times 'Part John le Carré . . . Spellbinding' New Yorker We plug in anything we can to the internet. We can control our entire lives, economy and grid via a remote web control. But over the past decade, as this transformation took place, we never paused to think that we were also creating the world's largest attack surface. And that the same nation that maintains the greatest cyber advantage on earth could also be among its most vulnerable. Filled with spies, hackers, arms dealers and a few unsung heroes, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends is an astonishing and gripping feat of journalism. Drawing on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, Nicole Perlroth lifts the curtain on a market in shadow, revealing the urgent threat faced by us all if we cannot bring the global cyber arms race to heel.

Cyberwar

Cyberwar PDF Author: Jens David Ohlin
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198717504
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
Cyber weapons and cyber warfare have become one of the most dangerous innovations of recent years, and a significant threat to national security. Cyber weapons can imperil economic, political, and military systems by a single act, or by multifaceted orders of effect, with wide-ranging potential consequences. Unlike past forms of warfare circumscribed by centuries of just war tradition and Law of Armed Conflict prohibitions, cyber warfare occupies a particularly ambiguous status in the conventions of the laws of war. Furthermore, cyber attacks put immense pressure on conventional notions of sovereignty, and the moral and legal doctrines that were developed to regulate them. This book, written by an unrivalled set of experts, assists in proactively addressing the ethical and legal issues that surround cyber warfare by considering, first, whether the Laws of Armed Conflict apply to cyberspace just as they do to traditional warfare, and second, the ethical position of cyber warfare against the background of our generally recognized moral traditions in armed conflict. The book explores these moral and legal issues in three categories. First, it addresses foundational questions regarding cyber attacks. What are they and what does it mean to talk about a cyber war? The book presents alternative views concerning whether the laws of war should apply, or whether transnational criminal law or some other peacetime framework is more appropriate, or if there is a tipping point that enables the laws of war to be used. Secondly, it examines the key principles of jus in bello to determine how they might be applied to cyber-conflicts, in particular those of proportionality and necessity. It also investigates the distinction between civilian and combatant in this context, and studies the level of causation necessary to elicit a response, looking at the notion of a 'proximate cause'. Finally, it analyzes the specific operational realities implicated by particular regulatory regimes. This book is unmissable reading for anyone interested in the impact of cyber warfare on international law and the laws of war.

Mercenaries and War

Mercenaries and War PDF Author: National Defense University Press
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781678665234
Category : Mercenary troops
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Book Description
Mercenaries are more powerful than experts realize, a grave oversight. Those who assume they are cheap imitations of national armed forces invite disaster because for-profit warriors are a wholly different genus and species of fighter. Private military companies such as the Wagner Group are more like heavily armed multinational corporations than the Marine Corps. Their employees are recruited from different countries, and profitability is everything. Patriotism is unimportant, and sometimes a liability. Unsurprisingly, mercenaries do not fight conventionally, and traditional war strategies used against them may backfire.

The Cyber Deterrence Problem

The Cyber Deterrence Problem PDF Author: Aaron F. Brantly
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1786615665
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Book Description
The national security of the United States depends on a secure, reliable and resilient cyberspace. The inclusion of digital systems into every aspect of US national security has been underway since World War II and has increased with the proliferation of Internet-enabled devices. There is an increasing need to develop a robust deterrence framework within which the United States and its allies can dissuade would-be adversaries from engaging in various cyber activities. Yet despite a desire to deter adversaries, the problems associated with dissuasion remain complex, multifaceted, poorly understood and imprecisely specified. Challenges, including credibility, attribution, escalation and conflict management, remain ever-present and challenge the United States in its efforts to foster security in cyberspace. These challenges need to be addressed in a deliberate and multidisciplinary approach that combines political and technical realities to provide a robust set of policy options to decision makers. The Cyber Deterrence Problem brings together a multidisciplinary team of scholars with expertise in computer science, deterrence theory, cognitive psychology, intelligence studies and conflict management to analyze and develop a robust assessment of the necessary requirements and attributes for achieving deterrence in cyberspace. Beyond simply addressing the base challenges associated with deterrence, many of the chapters also propose strategies and tactics to enhance deterrence in cyberspace and emphasize conceptualizing how the United States deters adversaries.

Cyber Threat Intelligence

Cyber Threat Intelligence PDF Author: Martin Lee
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119861764
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 309

Book Description
CYBER THREAT INTELLIGENCE "Martin takes a thorough and focused approach to the processes that rule threat intelligence, but he doesn't just cover gathering, processing and distributing intelligence. He explains why you should care who is trying to hack you, and what you can do about it when you know." —Simon Edwards, Security Testing Expert, CEO SE Labs Ltd., Chair AMTSO Effective introduction to cyber threat intelligence, supplemented with detailed case studies and after action reports of intelligence on real attacks Cyber Threat Intelligence introduces the history, terminology, and techniques to be applied within cyber security, offering an overview of the current state of cyberattacks and stimulating readers to consider their own issues from a threat intelligence point of view. The author takes a systematic, system-agnostic, and holistic view to generating, collecting, and applying threat intelligence. The text covers the threat environment, malicious attacks, collecting, generating, and applying intelligence and attribution, as well as legal and ethical considerations. It ensures readers know what to look out for when considering a potential cyber attack and imparts how to prevent attacks early on, explaining how threat actors can exploit a system's vulnerabilities. It also includes analysis of large scale attacks such as WannaCry, NotPetya, Solar Winds, VPNFilter, and the Target breach, looking at the real intelligence that was available before and after the attack. Topics covered in Cyber Threat Intelligence include: The constant change of the threat environment as capabilities, intent, opportunities, and defenses change and evolve Different business models of threat actors, and how these dictate the choice of victims and the nature of their attacks Planning and executing a threat intelligence programme to improve an organistation’s cyber security posture Techniques for attributing attacks and holding perpetrators to account for their actions Cyber Threat Intelligence describes the intelligence techniques and models used in cyber threat intelligence. It provides a survey of ideas, views and concepts, rather than offering a hands-on practical guide. It is intended for anyone who wishes to learn more about the domain, particularly if they wish to develop a career in intelligence, and as a reference for those already working in the area. Reviews: I really enjoyed this engaging book, which beautifully answered one of the first questions I had coming into the profession of cyber security: 'What is Cyber Threat Intelligence?' It progressively walked me through the world of cyber threat intelligence, peppered with rich content collected through years' of experience and knowledge. It is satisfyingly detailed to make it an interesting read for those already in cyber security wanting to learn more, but also caters to those who are just curious about the prevalent cyber threat and where it may be headed. One of the takeaways from this book for me is how finding threats is not the most important thing but how the effective communication of it is equally important so that it triggers appropriate actions at appropriate timing. Moreover, as a penetration tester, we are used to looking at the little details so it was refreshing and eye-opening to learn about the macro view on cyber threat landscape. Ryoko Amano, Penetration Tester Cyber threats are a constant danger for companies in the private sector, which makes cyber threat intelligence an increasingly crucial tool for identifying security risks, developing proactive strategies, and responding swiftly to attacks. Martin Lee's new book is a comprehensive guide that takes the mystery out of using threat intelligence to strengthen a company's cyber defence. With a clear and concise explanation of the basics of threat intelligence, Martin provides a full picture of what's available and how to use it. Moreover, his book is packed with useful references and resources that will be invaluable for threat intelligence teams. Whether you're just starting in cybersecurity or a seasoned professional, this book is a must-have reference guide that will enhance your detection and mitigation of cyber threats. Gavin Reid, CISO VP Threat Intelligence at Human Security Martin Lee blends cyber threats, intel collection, attribution, and respective case studies in a compelling narrative. Lee does an excellent job of explaining complex concepts in a manner that is accessible to anyone wanting to develop a career in intelligence. What sets this book apart is the author's ability to collect related fundamentals and applications described in a pragmatic manner. Understandably, the book's challenge is non-disclosure of sensitive operational information. This is an excellent reference that I would highly recommend to cyber security professionals and academics wanting to deepen their domain expertise and broaden current knowledge. Threats indeed evolve and we must too. Dr Roland Padilla, FACS CP (Cyber Security), Senior Cyber Security Advisor - Defence Program (CISCO Systems), Army Officer (AUS DoD) An interesting and valuable contribution to the literature supporting the development of cyber security professional practice. This well researched and thoroughly referenced book provides both practitioners and those studying cyber threats with a sound basis for understanding the threat environment and the intelligence cycle required to understand and interpret existing and emerging threats. It is supported by relevant case studies of cyber security incidents enabling readers to contextualise the relationship between threat intelligence and incident response. Hugh Boyes, University of Warwick A valuable resource for anyone within the cyber security industry. It breaks down the concepts behind building an effective cyber threat intelligence practice by not only explaining the practical elements to gathering and sharing intelligence data, but the fundamentals behind why it’s important and how to assess the usefulness of it. By also providing a detailed history of intelligence sharing across the ages with a rich set of examples, Martin is able to show the value of developing this side of cyber security that is often neglected. This book is equally accessible to those beginning their careers in cyber security as well as to those who have been in the industry for some time and wish to have a comprehensive reference. Stephan Freeman, Director, Axcelot Ltd This book is a wonderful read; what most impressed me was Martin's ability to provide a succinct history of threat intelligence in a coherent, easy to read manner. Citing numerous examples throughout the book, Martin allows the reader to understand what threat intelligence encompasses and provides guidance on industry best practices and insight into emerging threats which every organisation should be aware of. An incumbent read for any cybersecurity professional! Yusuf Khan, Technical Solutions Specialist - Cybersecurity, Cisco "I really enjoyed this engaging book, which beautifully answered one of the first questions I had coming into the profession of cyber security: 'What is Cyber Threat Intelligence?' It progressively walked me through the world of cyber threat intelligence, peppered with rich content collected through years' of experience and knowledge. It is satisfyingly detailed to make it an interesting read for those already in cyber security wanting to learn more, but also caters to those who are just curious about the prevalent cyber threat and where it may be headed. One of the takeaways from this book for me is how finding threats is not the most important thing but how the effective communication of it is equally important so that it triggers appropriate actions at appropriate timing. Moreover, as a penetration tester, we are used to looking at the little details so it was refreshing and eye-opening to learn about the macro view on cyber threat landscape." —Ryoko Amano, Penetration Tester "Cyber threats are a constant danger for companies in the private sector, which makes cyber threat intelligence an increasingly crucial tool for identifying security risks, developing proactive strategies, and responding swiftly to attacks. Martin Lee's new book is a comprehensive guide that takes the mystery out of using threat intelligence to strengthen a company's cyber defence. With a clear and concise explanation of the basics of threat intelligence, Martin provides a full picture of what's available and how to use it. Moreover, his book is packed with useful references and resources that will be invaluable for threat intelligence teams. Whether you're just starting in cybersecurity or a seasoned professional, this book is a must-have reference guide that will enhance your detection and mitigation of cyber threats." —Gavin Reid, CISO VP Threat Intelligence at Human Security

Cyber Security Policies and Strategies of the World's Leading States

Cyber Security Policies and Strategies of the World's Leading States PDF Author: Chitadze, Nika
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1668488477
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Book Description
Cyber-attacks significantly impact all sectors of the economy, reduce public confidence in e-services, and threaten the development of the economy using information and communication technologies. The security of information systems and electronic services is crucial to each citizen's social and economic well-being, health, and life. As cyber threats continue to grow, developing, introducing, and improving defense mechanisms becomes an important issue. Cyber Security Policies and Strategies of the World's Leading States is a comprehensive book that analyzes the impact of cyberwarfare on world politics, political conflicts, and the identification of new types of threats. It establishes a definition of civil cyberwarfare and explores its impact on political processes. This book is essential for government officials, academics, researchers, non-government organization (NGO) representatives, mass-media representatives, business sector representatives, and students interested in cyber warfare, cyber security, information security, defense and security, and world political issues. With its comprehensive coverage of cyber security policies and strategies of the world's leading states, it is a valuable resource for those seeking to understand the evolving landscape of cyber security and its impact on global politics. It provides methods to identify, prevent, reduce, and eliminate existing threats through a comprehensive understanding of cyber security policies and strategies used by leading countries worldwide.
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