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Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

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Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#171

Post by bongodongobob »

joquarky wrote: post #169

What's grating on my nerves is that I called out a lot of security concerns in courts & justice software and shortly after was constructively dismissed. I've been unemployed ever since. I'm getting antsy about income and getting no traction on my job search. How many other people are advanced in tech but having some difficulty finding work right now? How tempted will they be to switch to black hat for income? I can't…

It's really bad right now. I've learned to not stir the pot over the years. Unless you're primary role is security it's best to go with the flow. I've seen some massive security holes at every company I've worked at. As long as the boxes are checked for insurance, they don't care.

Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#172

Post by time0ut »

ahubert wrote: post #161
time0ut wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, thank you for the article and discussion. Do you have any thoughts on the role and practicality of deterrence in this space?

No, not really - however, based on this post, several people contacted me with questions like these. I asked around and got recommended https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyber-Persistence-Theory-Redefining... for a more theoretical basis. Haven't read it yet though.

Interesting. I will have to read it. Though from the description it does not sound hopeful. Thank you.

Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#173

Post by simion314 »

5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #149
simion314 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not an anti-Russia alliance, we Romania enter NATO to survive teh eventual Ruzzian invasion, as you can see from Ukraine war our politicians, even the communist regime was sure that a Ruzzian invasion is unavoidable (yeah, makes your mind segfault when you find out that communist Romania had better relations with USA and was preparing to resist a USSR invasion). You need to talk with Russians to understend thei…

I've never heard a single bad word about Romania or its people, and I definitely have a lot more ties to Russia than you do. No idea where you read shit like this, but you should probably avoid those places from now on to keep your sanity.

It is history, maybe read about USSR invasion of Czechoslovakia and Romania refusing to participate and condemning the fact that USSR is tring to force their will on other communist states. It was not enough that USSR forced communism in eastern Europe, they really wanted Moscow to control everything, no different communist approaches were allowed since Moscowites know better what other countries should do.

So Romania built infrastructure to handle an invasion, build roads over the mountains to be able to quickly move the armies, and is a very known fact in Romania that everything was prepared for an USSR invasion like in Czechoslovakia, so first read about the USSR invasions and meddling in communist countries.

Then if you really want to know more , I mean really want to learn and not spread Ruz propaganda I might find for you english documentation of all douzens times Ruzzians invaded Romania lands.

So Romania has very good reasons to enter NATO, all political parties were in agreement, even our president who was a communist and who studied in Moscow was for NATO. Super hard for Ruzzians to admit that all those country that entered NATO had a good reason, and some "special" people in Africa, Asia and West might fall for the ton of propaganda that claims that NATO brainwashed everyone to join them, it is pure Ruzzian projection.

Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#174

Post by dralley »

cpursley wrote: post #159
koonsolo wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what was first, Russia invading neighbors, or neighbors wanting to join NATO? I'll give you the answer: Chechnya. Thinking that Russia would never invade an independent Georgia or Ukraine is very naive, to say the least. If you want a "neutral" country, take a look at Belarus. A neutral country in Russia's eyes only has connections with Russia, not with the West. They make it very clear which countries they want "…

Ukraine will no longer be democratic come May 21st, unfortunately. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/05/16/volodymyr-zelen...

This is a nonsense statement.

Every poll performed on Ukrainians shows that a clear majority doesn't want elections right now, and Ukrainian law permits this during wartime. The logistical challenges are insurmountable particularly when one things about local elections. People are displaced all across the country and to other countries, soldiers that are fighting on the front lines cannot just rotate simply to be able to cast their votes without creating unnecessary chaos and risks, there's the legitimate threat of bomb attacks on polling places.

The UK didn't hold elections during WWII despite being vastly more secure on their island than Ukrainians are.

Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#175

Post by 616c »

Animats wrote: post #124
crocal wrote: post #9

I cannot agree more with the author’s point of view. As an illustration, many people want to use GPS for the safe positioning of trains in the European Train Control Systems. This makes the space sector happy because it justifies the expenditures incurred for putting things like Galileo in orbit. However, in a pre-war check exercise, one immediately come to the conclusion that all European trains would crawl to a sto…

Railroads... Railroads can now outsource train control. Wabtec's "Wabtec Cloud Positive Train Control Communication Solution" - "A complete turnkey hosted office solution for I-ETMS-based Positive Train Control (PTC) systems"[1] (Wabtec used to be Westinghouse Air Brake.) Wabtec has had break-ins, but claims they only involved employee info, not control systems.[2] [1] https://www.wabteccorp.com/digital-intelligence/…

This may be the first time I had that "well, that's enough Internet today ..." reactions on HN from a cybersecurity/cyber-physical protection perspective, and not something gross on Reddit.

So, my hat off to you, Internet stranger.

Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#176

Post by alephnerd »

killjoywashere wrote: post #71
crocal wrote: post #9

I cannot agree more with the author’s point of view. As an illustration, many people want to use GPS for the safe positioning of trains in the European Train Control Systems. This makes the space sector happy because it justifies the expenditures incurred for putting things like Galileo in orbit. However, in a pre-war check exercise, one immediately come to the conclusion that all European trains would crawl to a sto…

Not sure I entirely agree? #1 > Or disable a hospital. The entire Ascension Healthcare system of hospitals (142 hospitals, 2600 total facilities) in on divert since 8 May because they had to switch back to paper records. Change Healthcare has lost $872M since it was attacked in February. Maybe it's more like the pandemic: seems like nothing, unless it affects you . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_(healthcare_…

On the hospital system part, there are actual timelines and goals to harden their systems after seeing what happened to the HSE in 2021. The issue is some parts of the chain have been slow on the uptick.

That said, paper based redundancies do exist as a massive ransomware attack is similar in impact to a multiweek power outage.

Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#177

Post by dralley »

5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #149
simion314 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not an anti-Russia alliance, we Romania enter NATO to survive teh eventual Ruzzian invasion, as you can see from Ukraine war our politicians, even the communist regime was sure that a Ruzzian invasion is unavoidable (yeah, makes your mind segfault when you find out that communist Romania had better relations with USA and was preparing to resist a USSR invasion). You need to talk with Russians to understend thei…

I've never heard a single bad word about Romania or its people, and I definitely have a lot more ties to Russia than you do. No idea where you read shit like this, but you should probably avoid those places from now on to keep your sanity.

One of my coworkers, who is Moldovan, is well acquainted with Russian chauvinistic attitudes towards Moldova / Romania.

Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#178

Post by alephnerd »

yardstick wrote: post #148
freehorse wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but there are a lot of disasters where the cables are fine We are talking about war-like situations, and where one state actor has incentive to cause maximum harm to another. Exposing your infrastructure like this is unlike damage that can come from natural disaster. For example, disrupting the communications exactly before the attack. Similar issues (though through lower tech hacking) happened in 7th of October du…

What was the lower tech stuff on Oct 7?

There was a massive DDoS in Israel on 10/7, fake alerts of a nuclear missile launch were sent, and newspapers like the Jerusalem Post were taken down and temporarily defaced[0]

[0] - https://www.axios.com/2023/10/10/hackers-ddos-israel-hamas-c...

Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#179

Post by BLKNSLVR »

Dalewyn wrote: post #105
hughesjj wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The back of my head is screaming "defense in depth! Redundant systems!" The whole idea of the internet (and even some of our infra, like suburbs or highways/rail) is that there's no one single point of failure. Like designed-to-survive-nuclear-war redundant. Definitely incorporate the most advanced tech you can for when things are going smoothly to get that efficency gain, but there's a reason all branches of the mil…

>The whole idea of the internet (and even some of our infra, like suburbs or highways/rail) is that there's no one single point of failure. Like designed-to-survive-nuclear-war redundant. The reality of course is that the internet has turned into a fragile, centralized system of complication that rests on single failure points like Cloudflare, AWS, and Chrome. The internet as envisioned by DARPA would have survived t…

"The Internet" is still there at a lower level than the examples you've given.

It's just how it's been used by the majority for the last couple of decades that's fragile.

Re: Cyber Security: A pre-war reality check

#180

Post by cpursley »

dralley wrote: post #174
cpursley wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine will no longer be democratic come May 21st, unfortunately. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/05/16/volodymyr-zelen...

This is a nonsense statement. Every poll performed on Ukrainians shows that a clear majority doesn't want elections right now, and Ukrainian law permits this during wartime. The logistical challenges are insurmountable particularly when one things about local elections. People are displaced all across the country and to other countries, soldiers that are fighting on the front lines cannot just rotate simply to be abl…

Some of us don’t believe in fair-weather democracy. If they can run a poll, they can run an election. Ukrainians have the right to decide their own future, don’t you think? Or perhaps some are afraid that they might vote “wrong”?
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