- May 7, 2016
- 1,288
Terms like “cyber-arms-race” and “cyber-war”—along with the establishment of a Cyber Command at the Pentagon—indicate just how much the virtual world has come to resemble the battle for physical security. For nation-states and enterprises alike, fighting the good fight now means defending against unseen, virtual assailants that can strike from afar, taking guerilla warfare to a whole new level.
According to Rick Holland, vice president of strategy at Digital Shadows and a former Forrester Research analyst, another classic military aspect has been ported to the cyber-realm: Operations security, or OpSec.
It could stand for "operational secrecy;" the premise is simply to deny adversaries information that could be used to do harm to an organization or individual. OpSec has long been a key tactic used by commercial and military organizations to protect their privacy and anonymity. The United States in fact formalized it in 1988 with President Reagan’s National Operations Security Program.
“Defenders and attackers both use OpSec. When it comes to your adversaries, they use OpSec to avoid detection, maintain availability of their attack infrastructure and to retain access to environments they have compromised,” Holland said. “This is done through a combination of people, process and technology.”
For instance, attackers can take advantage of technology services like bullet-proof hosting to accomplish their goals. Outsourcing the infrastructure they use adds another layer of obscurity to the mix, but also lowers the cost for the attacks.
Read Full Story:Cyber OpSec: A Critical Piece in the Battle for Security
According to Rick Holland, vice president of strategy at Digital Shadows and a former Forrester Research analyst, another classic military aspect has been ported to the cyber-realm: Operations security, or OpSec.
It could stand for "operational secrecy;" the premise is simply to deny adversaries information that could be used to do harm to an organization or individual. OpSec has long been a key tactic used by commercial and military organizations to protect their privacy and anonymity. The United States in fact formalized it in 1988 with President Reagan’s National Operations Security Program.
“Defenders and attackers both use OpSec. When it comes to your adversaries, they use OpSec to avoid detection, maintain availability of their attack infrastructure and to retain access to environments they have compromised,” Holland said. “This is done through a combination of people, process and technology.”
For instance, attackers can take advantage of technology services like bullet-proof hosting to accomplish their goals. Outsourcing the infrastructure they use adds another layer of obscurity to the mix, but also lowers the cost for the attacks.
Read Full Story:Cyber OpSec: A Critical Piece in the Battle for Security
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