Israel Announces Increased Cyber Security Measures For Communications Companies

On April 2, the Israeli government announced its intention to significantly enhance the cybersecurity of Israeli communications networks in an attempt to construct an “Iron Dome” of cyber defense. At a press conference, Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel stated, “We are trying to put the right standard on communications companies in order to protect Israel and create a kind of ‘Iron Dome’ from cyber security attacks. We are suffering from thousands of cyber attacks every year.” Recent cyberattacks against Israel have been conducted through communication networks, which enable the hacker to share information or shut down essential services. Illustrating the danger of unsecured communications networks, Hendel stressed, “There isn’t a vital infrastructure that’s not connected to a server that’s connected to the field of communications somehow.”

Final Frontier: Space control will be 'realm of cyber warfare'

Australia's catch-up in the space arms race will focus on information and cyber warfare, including helping other countries protect their orbital assets from dangers.

Space Agency chair Megan Clark says nations were responding to the increasingly militarised and weaponised space capability of the United States, Russia and India, which have the capability to destroy or disarm space assets.

"Other countries are responding naturally to this and recognising the need to protect assets and national space assets as well, but also to maintain their space situational awareness," Dr Clark said on Tuesday.

"This is something that Australia can really step into and help other countries."

Threats come from space debris and foreign-operated anti-satellite systems.

Japan joined that arms race last year, with the launch of its Space Domain Mission Unit. China is also understood to have similar capabilities as Russia and the United States.

Final Frontier: Space control will be 'realm of cyber warfare'

Final Frontier: Space control will be 'realm of cyber warfare'

Australia's catch-up in the space arms race will focus on information and cyber warfare, including helping other countries protect their orbital assets from dangers.

Space Agency chair Megan Clark says nations were responding to the increasingly militarised and weaponised space capability of the United States, Russia and India, which have the capability to destroy or disarm space assets.

"Other countries are responding naturally to this and recognising the need to protect assets and national space assets as well, but also to maintain their space situational awareness," Dr Clark said on Tuesday.

"This is something that Australia can really step into and help other countries."

Threats come from space debris and foreign-operated anti-satellite systems.

Japan joined that arms race last year, with the launch of its Space Domain Mission Unit. China is also understood to have similar capabilities as Russia and the United States.

Growing interesting in military space-based surveillance and cyber warfare has been cemented by the capabilities featuring prominently in the eight-country annual Schriever wargame exercises involving Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the US.+

Final Frontier: Space control will be 'realm of cyber warfare'

TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 50% of U.S. tech execs say state-sponsored cyber warfare their biggest threat: CNBC survey

 Following this week’s breach of several federal agencies, a new CNBC survey of technology executives found that most believe state-sponsored cyber warfare is the most dangerous threat to their company or organization. And while half (50%) of technology executives believe that state attacks pose the biggest threat, 32% of those surveyed also said that defining a national cybersecurity protocol should be the top priority for the incoming Biden administration and new Congress.

“Action by the incoming administration — national leadership across policy, strategy, diplomacy, and operations — in consultation with the private sector, must complement private sector actions, to protect the nation’s infrastructures, hard-earned economic advantages and personal privacy,” says Phil Quade, chief information security officer for Fortinet. Quade is a member of CNBC’s Technology Executive Council.

Quade has been outspoken about the need for a national cybersecurity coordinator within the incoming Biden administration. In a recent Op-ed, he wrote: “Our nation had a cybersecurity coordinator on the National Security Council during the Bush and Obama administrations — a post central to developing policy to defend against increasingly sophisticated digital attacks and the use of offensive cyber weapons. In 2018 that position was eliminated. At the time, national security adviser John R. Bolton said the post was no longer considered necessary because lower-level officials had already made cybersecurity issues a ‘core function’ of the president’s national security team. Now it’s time for President-elect Biden to fill that position again.”

Australia's head of cyber warfare exits

The head of the Australian Defence Force’s information warfare division has called it quits after more than three years in the role.

Major General Marcus Thompson, who has led the division since it was established as a 100-person unit in July 2017, worked his last day on Wednesday.

The unit – which is expected to grow to 900 personnel with a decade – is tasked with providing both defensive and offensive cyber capabilities to the ADF across all operations.

“Today marks my final day as head [of] information warfare, and in all likelihood, my final day in uniform after almost 34 years,” Thompson wrote on LinkedIn on Wednesday.

“I leave feeling proud of my contribution, extremely satisfied with the achievements of my team, and optimistic for the future of [the] information warfare division.

After three years in the role.

Does cyber warfare spell the end of armies?

 Artificial Intelligence, unmanned drones, cyber attacks and GPS tracking now play a key role in global conflict, but does that mean the end of traditional warfare?

It's a question The Agenda's Stephen Cole put to Lawrence Freedman, the emeritus professor of war studies at King's College London and author of The Future of War: A History.

He said: "Any conflict that now goes on has a cyber element. What's difficult to understand is how it could ever be the sole driver of a conflict, excluding what you call 'kinetic weapons.'"

Freedman added that conflict simply involving cyber attacks couldn't be classed as war and predicts that "old-fashioned armies" will continue to fight complex battles with "militias and guerrilla forces" in the years ahead.

Russian cyber-attack spree shows what unrestrained internet warfare looks like

The Sandworm team of Russian military intelligence, alleged to have unleashed computer chaos against the Kremlin’s enemies around the world, is said to operate out of a blue-tinted glass skyscraper known simply as “the tower”.

From that address, 22 Kirova Street in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, the Sandworm hackers, also known more prosaically as the unit 74455 and “the main centre for special technologies”, launched attacks on the Ukrainian power system, Emmanuel Macron’s presidential bid in France in 2017, the South Korean Olympics in 2018 and the UK investigation into the 2018 Russian nerve agent attack in Salisbury.

According to cyber security experts, the same unit was involved in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s election campaign in 2016, disguised as a hacktivist group dubbed Fancy Bear.

On Monday, US and UK authorities accused the unit of planning a cyberattack on the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo.

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