We Go To RSA So You Don’t Have To
This episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast is dominated by things that U.S. officials said in San Francisco last week at the RSA conference. We summarize what they said and offer our views of why they said it.
Bobby Chesney, returning to the podcast after a long absence, helps us assess Russian warnings that the U.S. should expect a “military clash” if it conducts cyberattacks against Russian critical infrastructure. Bobby, joined by Michael Ellis sees this as a run-of-the-mill Russian PR response to U.S. Cyber Command and NSA Director Paul M. Nakasone’s remarks about doing offensive operations in support of Ukraine.
Bobby also notes an FBI analysis of the NetWalker ransomware gang, an analysis made possible by seizure of the gang’s back office computer system in Bulgaria. The unfortunate headline summary of the FBI’s work was a claim that “just one fourth of all NetWalker ransomware victims reported incidents to law enforcement.” Since many of the victims were outside the United States and would have had little reason to report to the Bureau, this statistic undercounts private-public cooperation. But it may, I suggest, reflect the Bureau’s increasing sensitivity and insecurity about its long-term role in cybersecurity.
Michael sees complaints about a dearth of incident reporting by the private sector as one of the themes emerging from the government’s RSA appearances. A Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) executive also complained about a lack of ransomware incident reporting, a strange complaint considering that CISA can solve much of the problem by publishing an incident reporting rule that Congress authorized last year.
In a more promising vein, two intelligence officials underlined a commitment on the part of intel agencies to sharing security data more effectively with the private sector. Michael sees that as the one positive note in an otherwise downbeat cybersecurity report from Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence. And David Kris points to a similar theme offered by National Security Agency official Rob Joyce, who believes that sharing of (lightly laundered) intelligence is increasing, thanks in part to the sophistication and cooperation of the cybersecurity industry.
Michael and I are taking with a grain of salt the Ne
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