Paper Tigers… Aren’t We All?

Paper Tigers.. Paper Cuts…

A recent post that echo’s others that I have seen in the not so distant past makes a claim that China is about 13th on the preparedness scale for cyber warfare. Now, you may be thinking;

“But Krypt3ia, the news and you have said they are cleaning our clocks and stealin our data!”

Well, yes.. yes they are. However, they may not in fact be number one in “defense” in this sphere as well. Now, I am not saying they are 13th and the article does call into question the methods of gathering data and the questions asked to make this statement (China being 13th most prepared) but, still, they are at 13 here. I personally don’t ascribe to this litmus test that the survey purports to show on the state of affairs in China or anywhere else where cyber strategy is concerned.

After all.. If they asked China or anywhere else, do you REALLY think they are going to give you the God’s honest truth about their programs and readiness?

Duh.

Offense vs. Defense

Lets flip that bit too and think about offense vs. defense here. After all, it is sexier to be offense and easier right? So, how do you really correlate this “study” in any way between the extreme success that China has had with regard to cleaning our digital clock in relation to China’s own defensive posture? One does not really require that the other be commensurate really, and this is a flaw in the logic of the whole story for me. In fact, it is because we here in the US and other countries were so ill prepared for defense on this playing field really, that the Chinese have been so effective at APT types of attacks against us. It has been said in the past, and I would agree, that not all of the attacks from China have been sophisticated…

Because they did not need to be. That’s just how piss poor security has been here.

So, a concerted effort by a cabal of patriotic hackers (assets such as the Green Army) and other spook run operations (corporate/mil/gov) have been successful at ex-filtrating data from our servers here in the West. They used various methods both exotic and not, but the key to this is that they made a “concerted effort” They had operational plans, assets, and patience. All of these things are much more directed and focused than being on the defensive end of the equation. Add to this the fact that defense has been so poorly thought acted upon until now, it becomes clear why the greater story heard here is that of the offense winning the day.

On average, the common corporation has only seen security (up til now in the age of Lulz) as a cost center and because humans lack the ability to sense long term threats well (my contention) we have had a dearth of concern over the security posture of things other than saying “We have a firewall.. it’s all good” In short, because of our lack of forward thinking collectively, we have allowed this scenario to play out until such time as forces outside of the norm have forced us to pay attention…

Something akin to the panther leaping from the tree that we heard growling but decided that it was up to far to jump on us….

We have made our own beds and now, with this study, we see that a majority of the countries out there are not ready for prime time.. And those who are, are likely lying quite a bit about their readiness.

Studies With Subjective Questions and Results

Meanwhile, the “researchers” out there are making faulty suppositions using data that should not be trusted because it cannot be empirically validated. It makes me crazy to see this kind of claptrap being touted on the interent and in the news as fact, though this report did call this into question (yay them!) However, this does not stop others from doing just as shoddy work and then making great claims about how China may in fact be less of a threat because they are not as prepared on defense.

Bollocks.

China, Russia, Israel etc etc are all key players in the espionage world which now includes the 5th battlespace of information warfare carried out on the internet and within computer networks. To think anything else because someone asked them just how prepared “they” were for “cyberwar” is just appallingly stupid. From now on people, if you see these types of reports or studies, do try to think critically about the datum that is being presented.

A Brave New World

It’s a brave new world out there. We are in the age of Lulz and “cyberwar” *booga booga booga* all things that we really do not collectively have a firm grasp on as import and repercussions. There is so much going on between the Anonymous/Antisec/Anarchy as well as the manipulation of them by the likes of China and other world powers that you really need a primer to understand just what is really going on. Even then, its all so internecine and confused at times that you never really will likely have a clue of the real truth.. Ever.

We are at the cusp of so much that could go so horribly wrong and we unfortunately have people in charge who are ill equipped to understand and deal with it in our government(s) You all have seen my screeds a thousand times about all of this so you all know too. All I can really say is try and protect your little piece of digital landscape..

That’s all you can do really.

If the archology of the internet is going to be beset by crackers, spies and villains, well, there isn’t much you can do about it. Certainly not trust the government or the corporations to do the right thing.. Or even really know what to do.

You Know Who You Should Fear? Coders…

Nope, all in all, I would have to say in the end is that you need to fear the coders. The coders and the companies that they work for that are creating vulnerable software. Of course all software I think is potentially vulnerable, but, it seems that the standards out there are not being adhered to. We could be coding more securely and more keenly in the sense of not having Turing machine programs out there available to subversion but, we just aren’t there yet collectively to understand this and stop it.

The genie is out of the bottle.. No way to get it back in… We will die in the end from a thousand paper cuts…

Get your lemons out and enjoy the burn…

K.