A lecture by Oded Israeli, CMO at Wawiwa Tech, at the Global Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Forum, organized by Live University in Sao Paulo, Brazil on September 9th, 2022.
Oded discusses cyber warfare by countries and its use in the recent war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the need and opportunities for cybersecurity professionals.
* Wawiwa Tech and Oded are not affiliated with any government, cyber company or hacker group – opinions are solely of the presenter.
Israel is the Startup Nation and a Cyber powerhouse
Some amazing facts about Israel’s Ecosystem:
- #1 in Startups per capita: 9 million people, 18,000 startups!
- #1 in R&D employee rate: 140 per 10,000 (the U.S. is #2 with 85 per 10,000)
- #1 in tech employee rate: 10% of the workforce
- #3 in Nasdaq-listed companies (after U.S. & China)
- #1 in VC Investment per Capita
- #2 in the world (after the U.S.) in Cybersecurity
- NASDAQ Cyber companies: Cybersecurity giants Check Point Technologies (inventor
of the Firewall), ForeScout Technologies, Cyren, Varonis, Safe-T Group, and CyberArk!
Elite army units and Government agencies for IT and Cyber:
- MAMRAM, 8200, and more
- Mossad, Shabaq
- National Cyber Directorate
Russia Attacking and Hacking Ukraine
Russian wiping attacks have started even before the physical invasion!
Russian cyber teams have unleashed computer virus and malware attacks on Ukraine’s government, banks and utilities
Cybersecurity Specialists named the first detected strain the “HermeticWiper” or “FoxBlade”; Then “IsaacWiper” wiper.
A wiper is a computer virus that deletes all the data as soon as it enters a computer system or database. Unless a remote backup exists, losing information is hard to recover from.
2017: NotPetya, one of the world’s largest cyber attacks.
The Causes of War
- Economic Gain – wealth, resources, labor
- Territorial Gain – areas for living, resources, buffer
- Religion – crusades, holy places
- Nationalism
- Revenge
- Civil War
- Revolutionary War
- Defensive War – stability, when diplomacy fails
Soldiers, tanks, destruction, and death are “just” a means to an end. They’re not the goal of the war.
What if there’s a better way to fight?
Less deaths and injuries
Less horrific pictures
Less inflammation by media
and still:
Control resources
Economic damage
Chaos
Population pressure on leadership
Defense against war and damage
The damage caused by cyber attacks is very much in correlation with the causes and goals of war.
It’s economical – doesn’t involve logistics, tanks, food for soldiers
and it can help attain the same goals.
This is why governments are at the top of this list of players in the cyber attacks landscape.
Obviously, they’re not alone – terrorist organizations, criminals, and bored teenagers are also there.
Targets of Cyber Warfare
- Utilities / Infrastructure – nuclear, electricity, water, hospitals, airports; 2010: Stuxnet
- Data Espionage – Gov’t and military databases, personnel
- Weapons / Military – Nuclear, surface-air, radars, bombs, storage
- Financial Institutions / Transactions – Central banks, bank accounts, crypto/wallets
- Leaders – Laptops, mobile, insulin pumps/heart pacers, deep fake
- Food & drink factories
– Chemicals, poisoning - Smart Homes – Electricity, A/C, gas, water, Internet
- Imagination – 9/11, 24, BlackMirror
The Business of Cyber Warfare
CYBER SECURITY MARKET SIZE 2027: $266.2 Billion
- Hackers attack – for protest and profit
- Governments and businesses defend
- Governments attack
- Governments and utilities secure and defend
- Everybody needs talent, sophistication
Anyone can reskill to Cyber
There’s a massive and growing talent shortfall. This is one of the most critical challenges facing the cybersecurity world today.
Universities/colleges are too slow to produce talent.
ISC(2) claims that the cybersecurity talent gap translates to 4,000,000 unfilled cyber jobs, an increase of one million new vacancies from just a year ago. The world desperately needs more trained cybersecurity professionals.
Deloitte: “In fact, nowhere in IT is the talent shortage more pronounced than in the cyber arena.”
Conclusion
- Data is valuable, so Cyber became a major vector in warfare
- Cyber warfare is as destructive, and becomes more harmful as we rely on technology
- Cyber will take a big and meaningful part in the future of war
- Enterprises and people need to protect and secure their data and systems
- Cyber is a career path that will always be in demand and rewarded
