More on Persistent Penetration Testing from MSI

MicroSolved has been offering Persistent Penetration Testing (PPT) to select clients now for a couple of years. We have been testing and refining our processes to make sure we had a scalable, value driven, process to offer our full client base. We have decided to open the PPT program up to another round of clients, effective immediately. We will be open to adding three additional clients to the PPT group. In order to qualify, your organization must have an appetite for these services and meet the criteria below:

The services:

  • MSI will actively emulate a focused team of attackers for either a 6 or 12  month period, depending on complexity, pricing and goals
  • During that time, MSI will actively and passively target your organization seeking to reach a desired and negotiated set of goals (usually fraud or theft of IP related data, deeper than traditional pen testing)
  • Full spectrum attacks will be expressed against your organization’s defenses in red team mode, across the time window 
  • Once an initial compromise occurs and the appropriate data has been identified and targeted, we will switch to table top exercises with the appropriate team members to discuss exploitation and exfiltration, prior to action
  • If, and only if, your organization approves and desires, then exploitation and exfiltration will occur (note that this can be pivoted from real world systems to test/QA environments at this point)
  • Reporting and socialization of the findings occurs, along with mitigation strategies, awareness training and executive level briefings
  • The process then repeats, as desired, through the terms and sets of goals

The criteria for qualification; Your organization must:

  • Have full executive support for the initiative, all the way to the C-level and/or Board of Directors
  • Have a mature detection and egress process in place (otherwise, the test will simply identify the needs for these components)
  • Have the will to emulate real world threat activity without applying compliance-based thinking and other unnatural restraints to the process
  • Have a capable security team for MSI to work with that has the capability to interface with the targeted lines of business in a rapid, rational and safe manner
  • If desired, have the capability to construct testing/QA platforms and networks to model real world deployments in a rapid and accurate fashion (requires rapid VM capability)
  • Be open to engaging in an exercise with an emulated aggressive adversary to establish real world risk and threat profiles
  • Be located in the US (sorry, we are not currently accepting non-US organizations for this service at this point)

If your organization meets these requirements and you are interested in discussing PPT services, please drop me a line (Twitter: @lbhuston), or via email at Info at microsolved dot com. You can also reach me via phone at (614) 351-1237 x 201.

Chinese Information Warfare (IW) Doctrinal Development Circa 2005….

Good Day Chinese Cyber Conflict Fans…the following post about Chinese Information Warfare Doctrine as written by Lu Yong, Department of National Defense Strategy, 中國人民解放軍, 總參謀部..yes The People’s Liberation Army…circa 2005. This post was discovered by the Red Dragon a week ago and has already been removed from the web…sinister?

Here it is folks, a glimpse into Chinese Information Warfare Doctrinal Development in 2005…

“Information Warfare Challenges and Countermeasures For Executing the People’s War”

http://www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/zgmb/2005-08/18/content_148840.htm

 Lu Yong, Department of National Defense Strategy, 中國人民解放軍, 總參謀部

    People’s War is a traditional weapon to defeat the enemy army. Since the 90s of last century, with the world’s burgeoning revolution in military affairs, and high-tech weapons in the war widely used form of war started by the mechanized warfare to information warfare changes, “Information warfare is the major wars of the 21st century form “has become a consensus. In the semi-mechanized and mechanized warfare formed and developed the people’s war, and how to address information warfare challenges, how to continue in the information war play its unique advantages to ensure winning future possible war, is we are faced with a major theoretical issues and practical issues urgent. First, information warfare launched the people’s war is faced with severe challenges     (a) the purpose of information warfare, the limited size of the previous national war, the country is facing severe challenges the way to meet the enemy     since World War II, especially in the last century 80 years, the international situation has undergone major changes, “peace and development” instead of “war and revolution”, a theme of the times. Correspondingly, local war to replace the previous world wars and the full-scale war, become the world’s major warfare. We may face future information warfare, must be local wars, which makes the whole war, lasting way to defeat the enemy is facing severe challenges.    

 First, the purpose of information technology local wars, limited size, the possibility of universal war greatly reduced. Compared with the world wars and the full-scale war, information local war by political, economic, diplomatic and other factors more directly, the purpose of war is often limited to a certain political and economic goals, the scale of war is also controlled in a certain range. In this case, the state can not disrupt the overall national development strategic steps, the state transferred from peacetime “Everything for the front, everything for victory in the war,” the wartime regime, to mobilize all the people participate in the war.     Secondly, information warfare, the power of the warring parties is not primarily the number of competitions contest, but the quality of competition, the number of people’s war in the traditional pattern of strengths compensate for disadvantages quality hard work. In information warfare, weapons and equipment quality exists “Time difference” has been impossible to quantify the advantage to make the war directly to the performance of quality and efficiency, technology-intensive confrontation between elite standing army.

 Therefore, national mobilization, national war is neither necessary, nor can fundamentally change the balance of forces contrast.     Again, the limited capacity of information warfare battlefield, the war directly to the masses are severely constrained. Information warfare battlefield often limited to the parties directly within a certain depth, certain waters or airspace, such as the Anti-Japanese war the Japanese into my territory impossible to reproduce the situation, which makes the past that a large number of armed and unarmed masses to direct war Traditional methods are severely constrained, even though the war is also useless.     (Two) Information sudden outbreak of war increased, shortening the process of war, lasting defeat the enemy’s strategic facing severe challenges     in the past war, war lasted a relatively long time to carry out the people’s war, it is possible to mobilize the masses to participate in the war, give full play to the advantages of quantity, quality and quantity of weapons and equipment to make up for the disadvantages, to make up for military, material deficiencies, gradual change through sustained combat enemy forces, and ultimately win the war. This is the victory of people’s war past, the basic experience, but also from the other instructions, the traditional gathering of people’s war and the release force take a long time.    

Information warfare is one of the important features of the sudden outbreak of war increased, the process of shortening the war. Provoke a war party, in order to create a fait accompli and a more favorable situation, often with a sudden attack caught off guard the way to the other side to blow, and seeks to achieve a decisive victories in a short time. In addition, information warfare consumption increased dramatically, both sides are trying to combat a quick fix with little cost to achieve the purposes of war. In this case, change through sustained combat enemy forces greatly reduces the possibility. Therefore, the information warfare conduct civil wars, not only faced with how to release in a short test of the people’s war Weili, and the possibility of lasting defeat the enemy becomes negligible.     (Three) high-tech information warfare, and more in the sparsely populated border and coastal areas as well as sea and air for the masses traditional way of war frontline facing serious challenges     in the past war, a large scale because of the war and the relatively tech weaponry low, logistical and equipment support technical requirements are not high, coupled with the war mainly on land, ordinary people will be able to directly participate in a little training operations, delivering supplies to the front or to the way frontline. Therefore, human and human frontline war is war frontline people’s traditional way of war.    

 In the information war, the warring parties tend to use one or the most advanced aircraft, ships, tanks, artillery, missiles, and other cutting-edge technology, greatly improve the technical content of war, battle space from the past in order to develop a terrestrial land-based , sea, air, space, electricity multidimensional space to support security operations equipment and technical means of highly specialized equipment. In addition, information warfare unit time combat strength increases rapidly, fighting more intense, direct combatants psychological and physical quality put forward higher requirements. No rigorous professional training not only ordinary people cannot use advanced weapons and equipment and well-trained and have high-tech weapons of the enemy to make a direct confrontation, and even logistical and equipment support is difficult to carry out the task. Coupled with the war mostly in sparsely populated border and coastal areas as well as sea and air, greatly increased the masses direct war frontline of difficulty. Therefore, information warfare, the masses will direct the war, supporting the front of the main changes is indirect war, supporting the front main support for the war is also supported by the human and material resources into technology-based intelligence support based.    

(Four) of information warfare undergone revolutionary change, people’s war is facing severe challenges the traditional tactics     of people’s war in the long-term practice, the army formed a set of flexible strategies and tactics of people’s war, created numerous “survival of the fittest,” the war miracle. However, we should see that in the past we have conducted a people’s war, is the relatively low level of weaponry semi-mechanized warfare, the main battle, the battle is on the ground, thus forming the main form of combat – trench warfare, warfare and a series of guerrilla warfare and related, are conducive to our full advantage of the number of people. Especially in irregular warfare guerrilla warfare that, in the proportion of combat operations and the impact of the outcome of the war is relatively large.     Engels pointed out: “Once technological advances can be used for military purposes and has been used for military purposes, they will almost immediately forcibly, and often is a violation of the will of the commander of the changes caused by warfare or even revolution.”

With IT The rapid development of high-tech weapons and the widespread use of information warfare revolutionary change taking place. For example: Battlefield to the five-dimensional space development; missiles, electronic warfare, network warfare, and many other new combat styles have been in war; C4 ISR against the increasingly fierce battle to win control of information and operational command of the army to become the premise and focus; to become independent of combat raids, much warfare, night fighting, the proportion of firepower increases; emphasize more arms, a variety of weapons to combat the overall implementation of the integration of diverse, asymmetric, non-contact, non-linear operations become an important mode of combat, etc. and so on. In this case, the traditional to the Army mainly to ground-based battlefield warfare, warfare, guerrilla warfare combat forms and information warfare will be difficult to adapt to the requirements. For example, in past wars, melee midnight oil has been the army’s forte. But in the information war, faced with advanced surveillance technology and long-range precision strike weapons of the enemy, we will be faced with melee midnight oil does not rely on rope, unseen challenges, and even enemies in the night-side occupy a greater advantage.

 How to deal with the challenges of information warfare, the development of people’s war strategy and tactics, to carry out the people’s war to become an urgent problem. 

Second, information warfare still insist on carrying out the people’s war     (a) information warfare does not change the inherent social and political attributes of war, still have to carry out the basic conditions of the people’s war     and class produced since private ownership since the war is never left over politics. Compared with previous wars, although the scale of information warfare, duration, and other aspects of weapons and equipment have undergone significant changes, showing a lot of new features, but the war itself has properties and not because of social and political development of warfare change.

 Information warfare is still a continuation of politics, there is still justice and injustice of distinction, the nature of war and the people’s support or oppose the war are still often contributing factors, the basic conditions for the conduct of civil war, that the justice of the war and mass still exists.     The justice of the war is the political basis for the conduct of civil war, but also an important factor in the outcome of war. China’s socialist nature and a defensive national defense policy decisions for our future information warfare is necessarily oppose hegemonism and safeguarding national security and unity, the protection of national survival and development interests, building a moderately prosperous society to ensure the smooth conduct of the just war . The justice of this war is that we carry out in the information warfare solid political foundation for the people’s war is our war to win the final victory of the future fundamental guarantee.    

War mass is the source of strength to win the victory. Our future of information warfare, represents the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of people just war, and thus be able to get the full support of the masses. Information warfare is a comprehensive national strength, is the political, economic, military, technological, diplomatic, cultural, social and psychological fronts, including the overall war. Although the majority of the people cannot direct a large scale as before the war, supporting the front, but they are in the war embodied the role of the masses through the comprehensive national strength of support and backing for the war action reflected. In this sense, the people and the comprehensive national strength, and is inextricably linked to the outcome of war in the vast masses of people, there remains a great power war deepest roots, as long as this kind of hidden among the great masses of the people forces play out, we can still win the information war.    

 (Two) information war did not change the outcome of the basic laws of war, the determinants of the outcome of war is still the person     information warfare, the growing importance of weaponry, an advantage in weaponry easier to win the war party initiative and even war. However, no matter how the change in the form of war, the basic law of the outcome of war is constant, that is, people are the main body of the war, the determining factor is winning the war, weapons and equipment is an important factor in the decision outcome of the war.     In information warfare dominance and decisive role, not because of the extensive application of high-tech weaponry and all reduced. Engels long ago: “gun that he is not moving, you need to by a brave heart and a strong hand to use them.” Then advanced weaponry, once removed from the people, will lose its proper performance. U.S. Department of Defense submitted to the U.S. Congress in the Gulf War report: “Winning the war victory is people, not machines or technology.” Justice of the people’s war and mass decisions, our combatants are equipped with more high political consciousness and consciously contribute to achieve the purpose of the war, they better than the enemy weapons in the hands full performance.    

 Practice shows that war, weaponry weaknesses, you can play to people’s subjective initiative to change. Person’s conscious activity, not only in understanding the dynamic laws of war, revealing the possibility of victory, the most important is to actively create conditions for the use of various means of victory possibility into reality. Information warfare unprecedented fierce, brutal, war scale and process more vulnerable to a variety of factors, which also enhances the role of people in the war. Weaponry at a disadvantage in the case, as long as the person’s subjective initiative into full play, relying on the excellent political and military qualities, based on the existing equipment, creating and choosing the right strategy and tactics to achieve the best combination of people and weapons, we will be able to superior weaponry against the enemy find ways to make up for the lack of weapons, and promote superior enemy on the battlefield transformed my bad posture, and ultimately win the war.    

(Three) for the development of information technology to carry out the people’s war has injected new vitality into     this world, things are always dialectical, we must address the information war against the people’s war presented challenges, while also saw rapid information technology development but also to carry people’s war has injected new vitality.     First, the rapid development of information technology, in order to build a strong people’s war potential to provide a new historical opportunity. Since the reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping’s “Science and technology are primary productive forces” and Jiang Zemin’s “education” under the correct guidance of strategic thinking, China’s information technology as the representative of the rapid development of high-tech, cutting-edge technology in a number of breakthrough has been made, in biotechnology, computer technology, rocket technology, satellite communications technology, superconducting materials and other fields of research, has been close to or reach the world advanced level. 

At present, the annual output value of China’s information industry to more than 2 times higher than the GDP growth rate for the overall national socio-economic structure of the increasing influence for the conduct of the people’s war has laid a relatively solid material and technological foundation.     Secondly, the rapid development of information technology, the war for the people supporting the front provides a new technical support. The level of development of science and technology determine the masses of the people to participate in and support the war, way, way. Although the material basis of information warfare and warfare has undergone a fundamental change, but the people on the course and outcome of the war has not reduced, but with the advancement of science and technology as well as improving the quality of people’s technology and growing. Compatible with the characteristics of modern high-tech military and civilian increasingly prominent in the current level of information of our military forces with a larger gap between the Western powers in the case, widely hidden in the masses of scientific and technological resources, will be the future of information warfare army survival of the fittest and the strong support necessary complement. As long as these potential technological forces in a planned, organized mobilization, we can effectively compensate for the overall military weaponry disadvantage, the formation of local areas, local battlefield technological advantages, to achieve survival of the fittest.    

 Finally, the development of information technology for innovative tactics to expand the people’s war, the new space. As Mao Zedong pointed out: “the world of things, always a thing down, there is one thing offensive, it also has a thing down. …… We believe that relying on the people, the world would not unassailable ‘magic’ . “On the one hand, the information it has its advanced weaponry side, but there are also weaknesses and limitations. Especially advanced information technology structure is very large and complex weapons systems, it is difficult for all-round protection. In recent years, several global epidemic of vicious computer viruses caused huge losses for countries that modern information systems vulnerability proof. On the other hand, the development of information technology, people’s war for us to provide new technical means, expanding the innovative tactics of people’s war room. 

In the past people’s war, we have to rely on relatively backward technology and weaponry, yet it can create a lot of strategy and tactics to defeat the enemy. Today, we already have in information technology for a foundation, but also for the specific characteristics of information warfare, transformation and creating new tactics, research and exploration play win the information war “trick.” 

Third, information warfare to carry out the people’s war Countermeasures     (a) accelerate the development of comprehensive national strength, and lay a solid foundation of people’s war     of information warfare in the final analysis is a comprehensive national strength. Refers to a country’s comprehensive national strength have all the resources and material and spiritual strength, marking the country’s economic, political, technological, military, cultural and other aspects of the overall level of development. To carry out the people’s war winning the information war, you must have a strong comprehensive national strength. On China’s national conditions, in order to accelerate the development of comprehensive national strength, lay the foundation of people’s war, we must focus on grasping the following aspects:    

First, to develop the economy. Economic strength of a country’s comprehensive national strength is an important indicator. Strong economic strength, winning the information war can lay a solid material foundation.Meanwhile, the economic strength is the material basis for the modernization of national defense, there are no certain economic forces for support, defense modernization will lose the foundation. Therefore, we must persist in taking economic construction as the center, concentrating on the development of social productive forces, the country’s overall economic construction to consciously obey.    

 Second, in order to accelerate the development of high-tech information technology as the representative. On the one hand, science and technology to enhance the comprehensive national strength has a decisive, transformative role. In the current form of society by the industrialized to the process of information, who can seize the technology “commanding heights” and “frontier”, whoever may enhance the comprehensive national strength to win. On the other hand, science and technology are primary productive forces, but also the first combat, defense construction is inseparable from the support of advanced science and technology. Especially information technology compared to other technologies, the military and civilian compatibility stronger, the new information technologies emerging, in accelerating national and social information, but also for the military information construction provides a rare historical opportunity.    

Third, comprehensively promote the construction of military information, and constantly enhance military strength. After the war directly to the performance of military forces of the contest, to winning the information war is inseparable from a strong line with the requirements of the military information warfare. To seize the world’s new military revolution brought to the army building historic opportunity to accelerate weaponry leapfrog development, modernization of the means to achieve the people’s war; unswervingly implement the strategic project, training a large number of qualified military personnel; at all levels to strengthen joint and combined arms training to improve joint operational capabilities; according elite, synthesis, efficient principle, establish and perfect an appropriate scale, reasonable structure, organization lean, agile command of military system; study the characteristics of information warfare, innovation and the development of information warfare theory.    

Fourth, for the information war characteristics, strengthen national defense reserve forces. For information militia building should be the characteristics of high-tech warfare, and universality in keeping the masses on the basis of outstanding quality construction. Primary militia and militia on the distinction between ordinary and should not be confined to the age criteria, but to combine their technological quality measure. To further reduce the size of infantry units, focus on strengthening the missiles, artillery, communications, chemical defense, information and other high-tech special unit of the building. Reserve forces to comprehensively enhance the quality of construction, vigorously improve the rapid mobilization and the ability to carry out combat missions, narrowing the gap with the active forces fighting efforts to achieve the establishment of an appropriate scale, reasonable structure, compiled scientific, reliable and workable objectives reserve forces.    

Fifth, to carry out various forms of national defense education, improve national defense. The strength of the concept of national defense exhibit a country preparing for war ideological foundation is solid, countries in the world to enhance the national defense concept placed in improving comprehensive national strength in an important position. To adhere to the masses of people’s war, we must carry out effective, diverse forms of national defense education, so that the masses has always been to establish a strong national defense, information warfare is carried out in the people’s war to lay a solid ideological foundation.    

(Two) features in-depth study of information warfare, development and innovation strategy and tactics of people’s war     strategy and tactics of people’s war, is to carry out the soul of the people’s war. As the saying goes: “The Sword inferior to sword better than people.” In past wars, people’s war has been able to repeatedly create a “survival of the fittest” miracle, one of the important reasons is that we have a set of adjustable strategy and tactics. In the future for a long period of time, we will be at a disadvantage on the weaponry, and the traditional people’s war strategy and tactics as the development of warfare changes facing severe challenges, so winning the information war under conditions of people , must examine the characteristics of information warfare, development and innovation strategy and tactics of people’s war. Create new tactics in the development process, should focus grasp the following principles:    

Ffirst, to establish and adapt to information warfare operational concepts. Since there has been no information warfare military practice, so in the process of creating new tactics, the concept of mechanized warfare vulnerable bondage. Therefore, the idea is to create new tactics update the premise that only break the shackles of old ideas, establish and adapt to information warfare operational concepts in order to provide a fresh perspective, with the correct way of thinking to create new tactics. For example: In the assessment of combat forces, we should abandon the labor-intensive, the number and scale of their concepts, technology-intensive, quality and efficiency concepts; choice of target in combat, to abandon the idea of annihilating the enemy’s effective strength-based, establish a centralized main forces to fight the enemy vital concept.    

Second, pay attention to the traditional military tactics absorb nutrients. Information warfare is a new form of war, our military has created in the last war tactics, may not apply to today’s wars, and some tactics need to abandon, and some need to be improved. We study and research the traditional tactics of war, not in the future information warfare copy of these tactics, but to learn the older generation of revolutionaries, military strategist creating new tactics stand, viewpoint and method. This is our future development and creating new tactics and source of wisdom. For example, in China’s Revolutionary War created a “concentrate superior forces to fight a war of annihilation” of war, in the information war, as a means of long-range precision strike extensive use of the practice of concentration of forces no longer feasible. However, we should understand the tactics of Mao Zedong created the spiritual essence, that the enemy superior in the case of my poor, through a certain method, the local formation of the war situation in who wins. This idea is still in the information war has important guiding significance. We can use this as a guide, according to the specific characteristics of information warfare, the development of the traditional tactics to “concentrate superior firepower to fight the enemy vital” new tactics.    

Third, the combination of the actual record of our military tactics. Creating new tactics, not behind closed doors, not on paper, must be combined with the actual situation of our army. Currently, the army is actually the largest in weaponry compared with the developed countries there is still a big gap, though they have some advanced weaponry, but still in a lot of low-tech equipment. Which determine our tactics neither copying Western countries of war, in order to avoid committing “Porgy and dragon than treasure” low-level errors, nor imagined, impractical so-called “new tactics.” Measure one kind of tactics is correct or not, not to see how its name sounds good, how novel methods, means, how advanced the key depends on whether it is really effective in combat. Enhance the value of research tactics, is that correct tactics to make up the gap weaponry to achieve superior weaponry with inferior equipment to defeat the purpose of the enemy. We should adhere to the “you hit, I hit my”, the focus on tactical innovation to existing equipment on high-tech enemy and seize enemy weapons and equipment information some of the weaknesses, give full play to existing weapons equipment performance, and strive to me for so long, and strike the enemy’s weaknesses, research, and create a “soil”, “foreign” combination of low high school weaponry combined tactics.     (Three) to establish a sound mechanism for rapid mobilization of national defense, to ensure the people’s war potential for rapid accumulation and transformation of information warfare to carry out the people’s war, faced with the short duration of the war and the people gathered the forces of war and transformation contradiction between the relatively long time. To resolve this conflict, we must establish a sound mechanism for rapid mobilization of national defense. The range includes the formation of rapid military expansion and expand quickly, persons and goods transport and complement fast, fast track to a wartime economy, the restructuring of the industrial structure and expand military production and fast; rapid mobilization mechanism of this standard is to be able to adapt to the information sudden outbreak of the war, the war is characterized by short duration, so that the potential of the people’s war in a very short time and quickly gathered quickly converted into national defense capabilities. Establishment of mechanisms for rapid mobilization of national defense, for the power of the people’s war play, winning the information war has very important significance. 

Rapid mobilization mechanism must have the following elements:     First, clear objectives and tasks. Should be included in national defense mobilization of economic and social development plans, incorporating national defense and army building master plan, clearly defined stages at different times under different circumstances and people’s armed mobilization, economic mobilization, civil air defense mobilization and mobilization readiness transportation and other aspects of the target with the task.    

Second, laws and regulations are complete. On the mobilization of rights and obligations, rewards and penalties, responsibilities and benefits should be based on the laws and regulations in the form of regulations, the mobilization of all aspects of the various aspects and rule-based, law.     Third, the mobilization plan carefully. Troops, economy, transportation, civil air defense, telecommunications, health and other aspects of the mobilization of both careful planning in order to prepare for mobilization in peacetime, wartime mobilization provide the basis for implementation.Army and local levels, according to the national mobilization plan to develop this level of mobilization plans and safeguards.    

Fourth, science and technology to mobilize prominent position. In information warfare launched the people’s war, the way people’s war frontline war intelligence and intelligence is mainly supporting the front, which determines the future of science and technology for national defense mobilization will be the prominent content.    

Fifth, the formal procedures quickly and efficiently. According to the characteristics of information warfare, military departure from China’s national conditions, to establish a war in the war potential into the strength of the effective ways and methods. For example, the expansion of the armed forces, civilian products, converting, transportation capacity for the acquisition, implementation of civil air defense, compensation for economic losses as well as other financial and material resources mobilization, should form a set of rapid and effective mobilization of forms and procedures, so that the people’s war bringing power and conversion speed can meet the requirement of information warfare.    

(Four) combining various approaches to play the overall power of the people’s war     of revolutionary war in the past, an important part of people’s war, is dominated by the armed struggle, the combination of a variety of forms of struggle to play the overall power of the people’s war . In information warfare, military struggle and political, economic, diplomatic, cultural, ideological struggles fields more closely intertwined, in some cases even non-dominant armed struggle. Therefore, adherence to the combination of a variety of forms of struggle, for winning the information war has a more important significance.    

 In information warfare, military by political factors more prominent political and military action, strong policy, and even a small tactical actions may be related to the overall strategic situation in the international community have a broad impact. Therefore, the information warfare conduct civil wars, on the one hand to make war all soldiers and civilians establish the overall concept of policy ideas, with significant international influence in the issue, in relation to the overall operations, ensure that the needs of the military and political obedience. On the other hand struggle in the UN and other international arena widespread publicity, win public support, and strive to get politically active.    

Information warfare increasingly focused on economic efficiency, greater dependence on the economy. In the rapidly growing trend of economic globalization, the case of economic blockade, economic sanctions would weaken the enemy’s comprehensive national strength is an important initiative, and to combat the economic center of the enemy, the better to play a drastic effect. During the Gulf War, the Kosovo War and the war in Iraq, the United States launched the war before the war and implementation process, are complemented by economic sanctions.

It is foreseeable that in the information war, economic sanctions and counter-sanctions, blockade and counter-blockade as a primary means of economic sectors will be fierce struggle to become another battlefield of information warfare. We conduct information warfare people’s war, on the one hand to use economic means of struggle, economic base and destroy the enemy’s ability to regenerate, maximize the economic loss to the enemy, eroding its war potential; hand to mobilize kind of strength, positive and effective implementation of economic protection, maintaining the normal operation of the national economy, efforts to develop production, economic development, for the victory of the war to lay a solid material foundation.     Any one country to war are very focused use of diplomatic means to secure more state support to maximize isolate each other, give each other causing huge political and moral pressure. Even superpowers also paid great attention to diplomacy with military struggle. In information warfare launched the people’s war, of course, but also actively through diplomatic struggle to establish a broad international united front. 

Reform and opening up, China has actively conducted exchanges and cooperation in the international political, economic, cultural and other fields has played an active and important role in the international community to establish a peace-loving, maintain stability, to just and responsible handling of international affairs the image of a big country, it’s all for us in the information warfare fruitful diplomatic struggle to create the conditions. In the information war, we want to make good use of all kinds of contradictions, give full play to all efforts conducive to my various international factors. To take full advantage of the favorable as a permanent member of the UN’s international status, to consolidate and expand the role of the United Nations, especially the UN Security Council in dealing with the leading role of international security to thwart any so-called international intervention against our country; give full play and the developing countries consistent with the fundamental interests of political advantage, and properly handle the relationship with the countries concerned, differentiation enemy’s allies; pay attention and have a special country with the same or equivalent national strategic interests of the military establishment of some form of collaboration or partnership, the strategic formation of a certain degree of cooperation and coordinate mechanisms. 

As long as we are able to unite all forces that can be united, to win the support of as many countries as to maximize isolate and attack the enemy, you can establish a broad international united front for the victory to carry out the people’s war to create a favorable international environment.     Information warfare, media warfare, warfare has become increasingly important. In the field of public opinion and propaganda, should make full use of newspapers, television, radio, Internet, multimedia and other traditional and non-traditional media, the Western developed countries of the world and strive to break the monopoly of public opinion, crushing hostile nations attempt to demonize the image of our country, torn hegemony doctrine of “human rights”, “humanitarian aid”, “democracy” and so gorgeous packaging, with true, correct public opinion supported the war inspired the masses of enthusiasm and self-consciousness, for the support of the international community on China.

 In the legal battle field, we should make good use of existing international law, to carry out the people’s war for me to provide a legal basis to prevent the enemy to international law as an excuse for me to intervene and wage war, but also to actively participate in international law and various international mechanisms the development and establishment, to prevent the establishment of prejudicial interests of our country, is conducive to hostile forces and international mechanisms of international law, but also to strengthen domestic legislation in the field work, so that hostile forces without loopholes. At the same time, pay attention to the psychological protection, encouraging all people to fight, winning the information war and build a strong psychological defense. 


信息化战争中开展人民战争面临的挑战和对策思考

国防大学战略教研室

中國人民解放軍

總參謀部

     人民战争是我军克敌制胜的传统法宝。上个世纪90年代以来,随着世界新军事变革的蓬勃兴起和高技术兵器在战争中的广泛应用,战争形态开始由机械化战争向信息化战争转变,信息化战争将是21纪的主要战争形态经成为共识。在半机械化、机械化战争中形成和发展起来的人民战争思想,如何正视信息化战争所带来的挑战、如何继续在信息化战争中发挥其特有的优势,确保打赢未来可能发生的战争,是我们面临的一个重大的理论问题和紧迫的实践问题。

   

Network Device Reviews, A Less Common Assessment

One of the less common assessments that MicroSolved performs for our clients is a Network Device Review (NDR). These assessments are aimed at helping clients assess the current state of specific devices or system configurations and improving them. 

Common devices assessed via this service include:

  • Firewalls
  • Routers and switches
  • IDS/IPS deployments and configurations
  • Load balancers
  • Workstation and server install and image baselines
  • ICS & SCADA devices from back end to customer premise

This type of assessment is performed using a combination of automated tools and manual time with our security engineers. The methodology leveraged to perform the assessment is very similar to our other assessments, with the engineers doing detailed analysis of attack surfaces and evaluation of relevant controls. Reports follow a more technical path for these services, with a technically focused report set and a small management level summary, keeping the cost of these services significantly less expensive than our deeper pen-testing and fuzzing assessments.

Customers often use these services to perform spot validation or as a part of an overall hardening project to improve their security posture organically. To learn more about the NDR service, get in touch with your account executive or contact us via info (at) micro solved (dot) com for a free conversation about how the NDR can help your organization.

As always, thanks for reading and stay safe out there!

Global Cyber Threat Intelligence…Holy Crap All This on a Monday…?!

Good morning Folks..Global Cyber Threat Intelligence…Holy Crap All This on a Monday…?! All this and a bag of chips…

People’s Republic of China’s digitalized troops begin to take shape
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/8245879.html

What to Expect June 4, People’s Republic of China’s Unofficial and Orwellian ‘Internet Maintenance Day’
http://www.techinasia.com/june-4-china-unofficial-orwellian-internet-maintenance-day/

People’s Republic of China’s Government is Stifling Tech Innovation and Prolonging Social Problems
http://www.techinasia.com/chinas-government-stifling-tech-innovation-prolonging-social-problems/

Raspberry Pi: Beating the Censorship of The People’s Republic of China’s Great Firewall
http://www.techinasia.com/censorship-china-great-firewall-raspberry-pi/

US & People’s Republic of China to discuss cybersecurity at high-level diplomatic meetings
United States is next target of OP Middle Kingdom…colonization by the People’s Republic of China….

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/02/us-china-cybersecurity-hacking-espionage-meetings

US Sec Def Chuck Hagel accuses People’s Republic of China of ‘cyber intrusions’ on US
Didn’t Hagel get the memo from POTUS…?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10092909/Chuck-Hagel-accuses-China-of-cyber-intrusions-on-US.html

What happens when People’s Republic of China hacks U.S. weapons designs?
http://killerapps.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/31/what_happens_when_china_hacks_us_weapons_designs

People’s Republic of China, US agree to talks on cyber theft and espionage
http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/security-it/china-us-agree-to-talks-on-cyber-theft-and-espionage-20130602-2nk06.html

Hackers Are Spying On You: Inside the World of Digital Espionage
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/05/29/hackers-are-spying-on-you-inside-the-world-of-digital-espionage.html

Hagel says Chinese cyberattacks a “growing threat” People’s Republic of China |
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20130603-hagel-says-chinese-cyberattacks-a-growing-threat

US Cyber Chief: Military Is Unprepared for Hacking
http://thediplomat.com/the-editor/2013/05/31/us-cyber-chief-military-is-unprepared-for-hacking/?

Government-developed standards not an effective cybersecurity approach..Hire the People’s Republic of China
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20130602-governmentdeveloped-standards-not-an-effective-cybersecurity-approach-analyst

Why the US needs People’s Republic of China’s Huawei more than Huawei needs the US
http://gigaom.com/2013/05/31/why-the-us-needs-huawei-more-than-huawei-needs-the-us/

Australian Defence electronics manufacturer hacked by Chinese
http://www.manmonthly.com.au/features/defence-electronics-manufacturer-hacked-by-chinese

If Britain wants greater prosperity, we need to look East to People’s Republic of China
United Kingdom colonization by People’s Republic of China is now complete…OP Middle Kingdom

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10092754/If-Britain-wants-greater-prosperity-we-need-to-look-East-to-China.html

Kuwait Commercial and government enterprise market key to Huawei’s growth in 2013 | Huawei Technologies
http://www.ameinfo.com/kuwait-commercial-government-enterprise-market-key-344164

Los Alamos director: cyber-securing U.S. electrical grid key to energy security
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20130602-los-alamos-director-cybersecuring-u-s-electrical-grid-key-to-energy-security

An Elizabethan Cyberwar
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/01/opinion/an-elizabethan-cyberwar.html?src=recg

A Fierce Domain: Conflict in Cyberspace, 1986 to 2012 | Atlantic Council
http://www.acus.org/afiercedomain

U.S. & People’s Republic of China to Hold Regular Talks on Hacking
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/world/asia/us-and-china-to-hold-talks-on-hacking.html?src=recg

People’s Republic of China Rapidly Taking Over World Economically
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/chine-buying-corporations-economic/2013/06/02/id/507585

People’s Republic of China Reaps Biggest Benefits of Iraq Oil Boom
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/world/middleeast/china-reaps-biggest-benefits-of-iraq-oil-boom.html?

People’s Republic of China And The Biggest Territory Grab Since World War II
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2013/06/02/china-and-the-biggest-territory-grab-since-world-war-ii/

People’s Republic of China’s Economic Empire
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/opinion/sunday/chinas-economic-empire.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

How to Play Well With People’s Republic of China
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/opinion/sunday/how-to-play-well-with-china.html?_r=0&smid=tw-share&pagewanted=all

China Voice: Pentagon report deviates from building trust – People’s Daily Online
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/8237325.html

People’s Republic of China skeptical of expanded US role in the Pacific
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2013/China-questions-expanded-US-role-in-the-Pacific;-Hagel-warns-Beijing-on-computer-based-attacks/id-526b8c8f680443d9ac415836133521be

Chinese navy begins US economic zone patrols – FT.com
US Navy Admiral Samual Locklear says”It is ok the PLAN is patrolling, we encourage them to do that, especially since we are not under he OSD Sequester and have US Marines aboard our flat bottom amphibs”….

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/02ce257e-cb4a-11e2-8ff3-00144feab7de.html

Chinese general reveals ‘strategy’ for Panatag takeover
Major General Zhang Zhaozhong reflects on US Navy Admiral Samual Locklear comments “It is ok the PLAN is patrolling, we encourage them to do that, especially since we are not under he OSD Sequester and have US Marines aboard our flat bottom amphibs”….

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/05/31/948591/chinese-general-reveals-strategy-panatag-takeover?

People’s Republic of China accused the U.S. of interfering in China’s internal affairs by the June incident
中国指责美国借六四事件干涉中国内政 – 中国数字时代

https://kexueshangwang.info/chinese/2013/06/bbc-中国指责美国借六四事件干涉中国内政/?

People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Truth: Japan-Africa, South China Sea – China Digital Times (CDT)
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/06/ministry-of-truth-japan-africa-south-china-sea/

People’s Republic of China warns U.N. against ‘irresponsible remarks’ on North Koreans | Reuters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/03/uk-korea-north-china-idUKBRE9520AB20130603

China-North Korea Dossier No. 2: “China’s ‘Measure of Reserve’ toward Succession”
http://sinonk.com/2012/02/09/china-north-korea-dossier-no-2-chinas-measure-of-reserve-toward-succession/

Hacking the Drone War’s Secret History
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/05/drone-api/

Hackers Spawn Web Supercomputer on Way to Chess World Record
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/06/43651/

USSR’s old domain name attracts cybercriminals
http://news.yahoo.com/ussrs-old-domain-name-attracts-cybercriminals-070143935.html

U.S. Targets Iran’s Petrochemical Industry
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/01/world/middleeast/us-targets-irans-petrochemical-industry.html?src=recg

Iran prepared to counter US cyber threats: Lawmaker
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/01/306540/iran-ready-to-counter-us-cyber-threats/

Marine Corps prepares to cut cord on NMCI…NON MISSION CAPABLE INTERNET…
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/412/3342421/Marine-Corps-prepares-to-cut-cord-on-NMCI

Back to the Basics: Chess, Poker & the Future of Warfare
http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/back-to-the-basics-chess-poker-the-future-of-warfare

Interpol filter scope creep: ASIC ordering unilateral website blocks
http://delimiter.com.au/2013/05/15/interpol-filter-scope-creep-asic-ordering-unilateral-website-blocks/

Anticipating Cyber Threats Beyond APT
http://blog.zeltser.com/post/50497161014/anticipating-cyber-threats-beyond-apt

Semper Fi,

謝謝

紅龍

What YOU Can Do About International Threats

Binary eye

With the addition of RedDragon Rising (@RedDragon1949) to the blog, we are now pushing forth a new stream of threat data and insights about the growing problem of international threats. Since we added that content to the site, many of you have written in or asked me on Twitter, what is it that YOU can do about these threats? I wanted to take a few minutes and expand on my responses.

First of all, you can remain aware and vigilant. Much of the information we post here isn’t directly actionable. It isn’t designed to be a roadmap of actions for you to take. It’s designed to be a continual source of data that slowly helps you see a clearer picture of the threat, the actors and their capability. It’s designed to keep you AWAKE. It’s custom made to help you understand your adversary. Knowledge is power and insight is key. We make this content to give you both!

Second, you can communicate the threat and knowledge to your management. This helps them remain aware. It also presents to them that you are monitoring the threats and keeping your eye on the rising tides, even as you help them steer the ship through safe waters. You can use this information to build rapport with them, to give them new insights into your decisions when you explain to them various risks and to help them understand the changing nature of the interconnected world.

You can use the information here as an impetus to get the basics of information security right. While there aren’t any panaceas to fight off the threat and there isn’t a single thing you can buy to make it better ~ we do know that focusing on the basics of infosec and getting them done efficiently, effectively and well is the best defense against a variety of threats. That said, consider doing a quick and dirty review of your security initiatives against our 80/20 Rule for Information Security. This is a set of simple projects that represent the basics of information security and map easily to other standards and baselines. Simply judging your maturity in these areas and following the roadmap to improvement will go a long way to getting the basics done right in your organization. 

Invest in detection and response. If your organization is doing the basics of prevention, that is you have hardening in place and are performing ongoing assessment and mitigation of your attack surfaces, then the next thing to do is invest in detection and response capabilities. Today, one of the largest advantages that attackers enjoy is the lack of visibility and effective response capabilities in our organizations. You should have some visibility into every segment and at every layer of your environment. You should be able to identify compromises in a timely manner and move to isolate, investigate and recover from any breaches LONG BEFORE they have become widespread and heavily leveraged against you. If you can’t do that today, make it your next major infosec goal. Need help?Ask us about it.

Lastly, share information with your peers. The bad guys are good at information sharing. They have excellent metrics. They openly share their experiences, successes, failures and new techniques. Much of crime and espionage (not all, but MUCH) is “open source” in nature. The cells of attackers free float in conglomerations of opportunity.  They barter with experience, tools, data and money. They share. The more we begin to share and emulate their “open source” approaches, the better off we can be at defending. If knowledge is power, more brains with more knowledge and experience equals MORE POWER. Be a part of the solution.

That’s it for now. Just remain calm, get better at the basics, improve your visibility and stay vigilant. As always, thanks  for reading State of Security and for choosing MicroSolved as your information security partner. We are striving to dig deeper, to think differently and to give you truly actionable intelligence and threat data that is personalized, relevant to your organization and meaningful. If you’d like to hear more about our approach and what it can mean for your organization, get in touch via Twitter (@lbhuston), email (info(at)microsolved/dot/com) or phone (614-351-1237 ext 250). 

Quick & Dirty Plan for Critical Infrastructure Security Improvement

J0202190

I was recently engaged with some critical infrastructure experts on Twitter. We were discussing a quick and dirty set of basic tasks that could be used an approach methodology for helping better secure the power grid and other utilities.

There was a significant discussion and many views were exchanged. A lot of good points were made over the course of the next day or so.

Later, I was asked by a couple of folks in the power industry to share my top 10 list in a more concise and easy to use manner. So, per their request, here it is:

@LBHuston’s Top 10 Project List to Help Increase Critical Infrastructure “Cyber” Security

1. Identify the assets that critical infrastructure organizations have in play and map them for architecture, data flow and attack surfaces

2. Undertake an initiative to eliminate “low hanging fruit” vulnerabilities in these assets (fix out of date software/firmware, default configurations, default credentials, turn on crypto if available, etc.)

3. Identify attack surfaces that require more than basic hardening to minimize or mitigate vulnerabilities

4. Undertake a deeper hardening initiative against these surfaces where feasible

5. Catalog the surfaces that can’t be hardened effectively and perform fail state analysis and threat modeling for those surfaces

6. Implement detective controls to identify fail state conditions and threat actor campaigns against those surfaces

7. Train an incident investigation and response team to act when anomalous behaviors are detected

8. Socialize the changes in your organization and into the industry (including regulators)

9. Implement an ongoing lessons learned feedback loop that includes peer and regulator knowledge sharing

10. Improve entire process organically through iteration

The outcome would be a significant organic improvement of the safety, security and trust of our critical infrastructures. I know some of the steps are hard. I know some of them are expensive. I know we need to work on them, and we better do it SOON. You know all of that too. The question is – when will WE (as in society) demand that it be done? That’s the 7 billion people question, isn’t it?

Got additional items? Wanna discuss some of the projects? Drop me a line in the comments, give me a call at (614) 351-1237 or tweet with me (@lbhuston). Thanks for reading and until next time, stay safe out there!

PS – Special thanks to @chrisjager for supporting me in the discussion and for helping me get to a coherent top 10 list. Follow him on Twitter, because he rocks!

Ask The Experts Series – Workstation Malware

This time around we had a question from a reader (thanks for the question!):

“My organization is very concerned about malware on desktop machines. We run anti-virus on all user systems but have difficulty keeping them clean and are still having outbreaks. What else can we do to keep infected machines from hurting us? –LW”

Phil Grimes (@grap3_ap3) responds:

In this day and age, preventing infection on desktop workstations is a losing battle. While Anti-virus and other measures can help protect the machine to some extent, the user is still the single greatest point of entry an attacker can leverage. Sadly, traditional means for prevention don’t apply to this attack vector, as tricking a user into clicking on the “dancing gnome” often launches attacks at levels our prevention solutions just can’t touch.

Realizing this is the first, and biggest step to success here.

Once we’ve embraced the fact that we need better detection and response mechanisms, we start to see how honeypots can help us but also how creating better awareness within our users can be the greatest investment an organization might make in detection. Teach your people what “normal” looks like. Get them in the habit of looking for things that go against that norm. Then, get them to want to tell someone when they see these anomalies! A well trained user base is more efficient, effective, and reliable detection mechanism an organization can have. After that, learn how to respond when something goes wrong.

John Davis added: 

Some of the best things you can do to combat this problem is to implement good, restrictive egress filtering and ensure that users have only those local administration rights to their workstations that they absolutely need.

There are different ways to implement egress filtering, but a big part of the most secure implementation is whitelisting. Whitelisting means that you start by a default deny of all outbound connections from your network, then only allow those things outbound that are specifically needed for business purposes. One of the ways that malware can infect user systems is by Internet surfing. By strictly limiting the sites that users can visit, you can come close to eliminating this infection vector (although you are liable to get plenty of blowback from users – especially if you cut visiting social networking sites).

Another malware infection vector is from users downloading infected software applications to their machines on disks or plugging in infected portable devices such as USB keys and smart phones to their work stations. This can be entirely accidental on the part of the user, or may be done intentionally by hostile insiders like employees or third party service providers with access to facilities. So by physically or logically disabling users local administration rights to their machines, you can cut this infection vector to almost nil.

You still have to worry about email, though. Everybody needs to use email and antivirus software can’t stop some malware such as zero day exploits. So, for this vector (and for those users who still need Internet access and local admin rights to do their jobs), specific security training and incentive programs for good security practices can go a long way. After all, a motivated human is twice as likely to notice a security issue than any automated security solution.

Adam Hostetler also commented:

Ensure a policy for incident response exists, and that it meets NIST guidelines for handling malware infections. Take the stand that once hosts are infected they are to rebuilt and not “cleaned”. This will help prevent reinfection from hidden/uncleaned malware. Finally, work towards implementing full egress controls. This will help prevent malware from establishing command and control channels as well as combat data leakage.

Got a question for the experts? If so, leave us a comment or drop us a line on Twitter (@microsolved). Until next time, stay safe out there! 

MSI Strategy & Tactics Talk Ep. 27: The 2012 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report

The 2012 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report is out!  In this episode of MSI Strategy & Tactics, Adam, Phil, and John discuss the newest report’s discoveries and some of the more interesting discoveries.  Discussion questions include:

1. What was the most surprising finding?
2. What is different from the past, any trends?

Listen in and let us know what you think!

Resource:

The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report

Panelists:

Adam Hostetler, Network Engineer, Security Analyst
Phil Grimes, Security Analyst
John Davis, Risk Management Engineer
Mary Rose Maguire, Marketing Communication Specialist and moderator
 

Click the embedded player to listen. Or click this link to access downloads. Stay safe!

MSI Strategy & Tactics Talk Ep. 26: Hacking Back or Strikeback Technologies

Hacking back or strikeback technologies is a system  engineering term that could occur in a situation with a positive loop, whereby each component responds with an increased reaction to the response of the other component, and so the problem gets worse and worse. (The Information Security Dictionary: Defining the Terms That Define Security, by Urs E. Gattiker) Recently, a honey pot was created with some strikeback technology in the code.  In this episode of MSI Strategy & Tactics, Brent Huston and the techs discuss the various aspects of this technology and how it would affect you.  Discussion questions include:

  1. What is the history of strike back, hacking back and how does it apply to today when you have major teams working to take down bot nets and such?
  2. HoneyPoint has a type of technology called “defensive fuzzing” which does something that has been compared to strikeback. How it is different than other technologies?
  3. What is the current take on the legality of strikeback/hacking back? Are organizations being put at risk if they attack their attackers or if their security teams go on offense?
Panelists:
Brent Huston, CEO and Security Evangelist
Adam Hostetler, Network Engineer, Security Analyst
Phil Grimes, Security Analyst
John Davis, Risk Management Engineer
Mary Rose Maguire, Marketing Communication Specialist and moderator
 

Click the embedded player to listen. Or click this link to access downloads. Stay safe!

MSI Strategy & Tactics Talk Ep. 25: An Introduction to Cloud Computing – What to Choose and Why

Cloud computing has become a buzzword over the past few years. Some organizations wonder if it would benefit them or not. What are some of the questions an organization should be asking?  In this episode of MSI Strategy & Tactics, Adam Hostetler and Phil Grimes discuss the various aspects of “the cloud” and how it can affect an organization.  If you are considering transitioning your data to the cloud, you’ll want to listen! Discussion questions include:

  • How can you determine which cloud computing model is right for you?
  • What are some of the security issues with cloud deployment?
  • How can moving data to the cloud help an organization’s overall efficiency? 
Resources:
 
Panelists:
Adam Hostetler, Network Engineer, Security Analyst
Phil Grimes, Security Analyst
Mary Rose Maguire, Marketing Communication Specialist and moderator
 

Click the embedded player to listen. Or click this link to access downloads. Stay safe!