The Cyber Battlefield with Max Smeets | 13

Guest Bio:

Max Smeets is the Co-Director of Virtual Routes, and serves as Managing Editor of Binding Hook. He also holds research positions at ETH Zurich, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Max is the author of Ransom War: How Cyber Crime Became a Threat to National Security and No Shortcuts: Why States Struggle to Develop a Military Cyber Force.

Max received a BA in Economics, Politics and Statistics from University College Roosevelt, Utrecht University and an MPhil (Brasenose College) and DPhil (St. John’s College) in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

Highlights:

• Ransom War: How Cybercrime Became a National Security Threat
• No Shortcuts
• Virtual Routes
• Center for Security Studies

Ransomware as a National Security Crisis

• The first cyber incident to trigger a national state of emergency.
  • Costa Rica ransomware attack (2022) | President Rodrigo Chaves says Costa Rica is at war with Conti hackers
• Following the invasion of Ukraine, we saw Conti partly nationalise after the group's leaders posted an aggressive pro-Russian message on their official site
  • Conti ransomware gang chats leaked by pro-Ukraine member

Cyber Operations in the Ukraine War

• The debate over the effectiveness of cyber warfare—an invisible game-changer or overrated hype?
  • Russia’s evolving strategy:
    • Early wiper attacks | Intelligence gathering | Targeting critical surveillance infrastructure

The Militarisation of Cyberspace

• The rise of cyber commands globally and the struggle to integrate them into wartime operations.
  • The contrast between U.S. ‘defend forward’ strategies and more restricted European approaches.
    • Department of Defense Cyber Strategy 2018
    • A new ‘turning point’ for Germany’s cyber posture?
    • The challenges of military adaptation to the cyber domain: a case study of the Netherlands
  • The UK’s National Cyber Force, a unique entity bringing together the intelligence service and the military service
    • National Cyber Force

The Ransomware Economy & Geopolitical Ties

• The blurred lines between cybercrime and state interests
  • NotPetya (2017) | The Untold Story of NotPetya, the Most Devastating Cyberattack in History
• The impact of ransomware payment bans and the Australian government’s stance against Medibank hackers.
  • Medibank: Data stolen from Australia health insurance available online | Cyber sanction in response to Medibank Private cyber attack
• Ransomeware and national security responses
  • Ransomware incidents now make up majority of British government’s crisis management 'Cobra' meetings
• When healthcare institutions don’t pay; the Lehigh Valley Health Network attack
  • Ransomware gang posts breast cancer patients’ clinical photographs
  • We tried to quantify how harmful hospital ransomware attacks are for patients. Here’s what we found

High-Profile Takedowns & the Future of Cybercrime

• Scattered Spider group and the web of international arrests
  • Scattered Spider | CISA | Five alleged members of Scattered Spider cybercrime group charged for breaches, theft of $11 million
• Operation Cronos, the Lockbit takedown
  • The LockBit takedown | Global Initiative | The NCA announces the disruption of LockBit with Operation Cronos - National Crime Agency

Additional Resources:

• “We don’t have a cyber problem; we have a Russia problem, a China problem, an Iran problem, and a North Korea problem.” — Dmitri Alperovitch
• After the Clop ransomware group hacked into MOVEit they had so many victims they sent out a message saying for victims to come forward.
  • Ransomware group Clop issues extortion notice to ‘hundreds’ of victims
• Evil Corp: 'My hunt for the world's most wanted hackers' - BBC News

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Contact:

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