70 Editorial
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Harnessing cyber-intelligence
February’s Mandiant report on the cyber espionage group APT1 shone a spotlight on the large scale of cyber threats to enterprises. The report shows that modern cyber-attacks are concerted and team- structured efforts. Without a comprehensive defensive setup and a cyber intelligence strategy, the enterprise can easily fall prey to an attack.
In fact, recent events have shown that even technologically advanced organisations, such as Facebook and Apple, with significant defensive systems in place, can still be successfully attacked. But they have also shown that early detection is crucial and that companies can learn from attacks. Currently, when a workstation is hacked, the data gathered from the event is not usually analysed and shared with the rest of the organisation, meaning that other departments’ workstations cannot be hardened and the business remains vulnerable to a replica attack. It is clear, however, that by using this type of intelligence, the rest of the organisation can better prepare to detect and deal with similar threats. But such information is rarely gathered or shared inside the organisation that monitored the threat – it is even less likely to be shared outside of the organisation.
Knowledge is power
While there are bodies that deal with cyber-crime, today enterprises are independently responsible for the security of their organisation and need to restructure their approach to combat threats posed by hackers. For this to happen, we must consider sharing data relating to attacks. After all, hackers
share information about successful tactics and vulnerabilities, so why shouldn’t the targeted organisations share information?
With concerns about compromising competitive information, unfortunately, today such data is rarely shared, and when it is shared, it is only within small communities of trust, such as at industry events. Even the small amount of data available from these communities indicates that sharing has proven beneficial, and it can be done without revealing confidential information.
The cyber-intelligence landscape today Many feel that regulation is inevitable and governments need to be involved in monitoring internet traffic, including identifying anomalous behaviour and providing attack intelligence. However popular opinion around issues such as freedom of speech and the intrinsic global nature of the internet makes this an unrealistic option. In the meantime, there are organisations that are working on providing solutions, including: 1. Information Sharing and Analysis Centres (ISAC) are used in particular by the financial services sector, as they enable banks to securely share information about when and where they have been attacked. Armed with this knowledge, banks are able to strengthen the areas where they are most likely to be at risk and neutralise threats more efficiently.
2. Another arm through which information can be shared is Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTS). These are departments that organisations set up in order to analyse data around cyber-attacks and react to problems when they occur.
3. Specialists in incident response, such as
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