Defensive Cyber Operations: Cyberwarfare Explained

With the average ransom payment almost doubling from $812,380 in 2022 to $1,542,333 in 2023, and with DDoS attacks and malicious bot traffic rising, it’s even more alarming that, in 2022, 20% of companies didn’t have an incident response plan in place.

At SealingTech, we understand the technical mechanisms behind a cyberwarfare attack as well as the financial impact it can have on governments and businesses. In this blog post, we break down best practices to protect your organization and the most important definitions to prepare yourself for a potential cyberattack. 

Defending Your Business Against Hackers and Espionage

If your business model relies on any digital technology or trade secrets, an incident response plan (IRP) should be part of your overarching business strategy. Just like insurance can guard your organization against certain liabilities, an IRP can help it prepare for and respond to cybersecurity incidents. A reliable IRP can be split into three phases – the Before, During, and After.

Before an Incident

While most IRPs follow similar frameworks based on models developed by the SANS Institute, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), you’ll want to adapt them to meet your organization’s needs for optimal protection. Depending on your industry and technical setup, different measures may be required. 

As a foundation, you need to account for a setting-in phase to train staff and, more importantly, let them get accustomed to reporting protocols. Far better to cope with a few false positives now, than have employees ignore the warning signs later.

Also, have an attorney review your IRP and introduce yourself to local CISA teams and law enforcement. Steps that help to gather additional insights about recent legislative requirements will also prevent the uncomfortable scenario of familiarizing yourself in the middle of an incident. Plus, you can hand more specific contact information to your stakeholders, thus reducing the time and effort needed to resolve an issue.

You should also consider the indirect consequences of cybersecurity attacks. For instance, have protocols in place to inform business partners, customers, and press contacts about an incident. If your in-house staff isn’t capable of handling a thorough investigation and recovery process, consider hiring outside support.

SealingTech’s team of seasoned experts can serve as your external adviser on your solution architecture to ensure it matches your security needs and your team can maintain it long-term.

No matter how you approach it, a more elaborate IRP might call for additional strategies like simulation exercises, but in every case, it’s advisable to review your protocols and related contacts on a quarterly basis.

During an Incident

This phase focuses on detecting and determining the scope of the incident. It includes monitoring systems for signs of a security breach and effectively identifying the nature of the incident. Once an incident is identified, the next step is to contain it to prevent further damage. Short-term containment might involve isolating the affected network segment. Long-term containment requires removing the threat from the environment entirely.

Ideally, your plan also includes dedicated roles to respond to an incident, from an incident manager who delegates responsibilities and technical staff responding to logistical issues to public relations managers taking care of the public response.

After an Incident

Since an IRP lets you adapt to new security threats, be sure to account for a learning phase alongside your response. Of course, the primary goal is to contain the incident and remove the cause, like malware. This might involve deleting malicious files, disabling breached user accounts, and fixing vulnerabilities.

To get the business back up and running, this would also be the time to recover affected systems, either by restoring them from backups or patching them. All of these processes should already be accompanied by thorough documentation and post-incident reviews. After all, this is the only way to recognize what went wrong and how you can eliminate comparable threats moving forward.

Where IRPs and Disaster Recovery Plans Fall Short

No plan is perfect, and it’s probably best to treat yours as a tool to respond to events that will happen eventually, not a hypothetical scenario. Many organizations with IRPs in place still fall victim to attacks, whether from the sudden spread of NotPetya attacks in 2017, the 2020 SolarWinds hack, or one of the most recent attacks affecting the U.S. Government.

Effective IRPs need to be modular and adaptable–allowing for continuous training of response teams, investment in detection and response technologies, and creating a culture of security awareness throughout the organization.

SealingTech offers tailored training programs as well as security-enhanced information-sharing solutions to enhance your team’s preparedness for cybersecurity incidents. Designed to be adaptable, our services ensure your organization a quicker response and recovery from cyberattacks.

Learning From Real-World Attacks to Improve Cybersecurity

For your IRP to protect your operations, it must cover a range of attack vectors and account for the increasing pace at which they evolve.

• Malware: Malicious software that can disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to systems. It comes in many forms, including viruses, worms, and Trojans, each designed to exploit different vulnerabilities.

• Phishing Attack: A deceptive practice where attackers masquerade as trustworthy entities to trick individuals into disclosing sensitive information, such as login credentials and financial data. Spear-phishing targets specific individuals with more personalized approaches, increasing the likelihood of success.

• DoS and DDoS Attack: Distributed Denial of Service attacks overwhelm systems, servers, or networks with traffic to render them unusable, disrupting services to legitimate users.

• Ransomware Attack: A type of malware that encrypts files on a victim’s computer system, demanding a ransom for their decryption. Attacks have targeted businesses, healthcare organizations, and government agencies, leading to significant financial and operational impacts.

Besides those technically advanced attacks, social engineering tactics can pose significant challenges to security frameworks. In fact, 74% of breaches exploit human errors or misuse, and considering their average cost of $4.45 million, data breaches can ruin entire businesses. That’s why every IRP should consider the human element. This can mean establishing more regular training sessions for less technically savvy employees or continuous updates about system-missed security patches and common cloud misconfigurations.

It’s not enough that your technical staff understands the mechanisms behind cyberattacks. For a holistic approach that covers all potential exposures, you need to educate everyone and keep learning as a group.

Understanding Cyberwarfare

In this digital age, warfare has expanded beyond the battlefield. Today, nations, interest groups, and individuals use computer technology to disrupt a state’s organization, often with political objectives. Cyberwarfare comes in various forms:

• Attacks on critical infrastructure
• Espionage
• Information warfare
• DoS attacks
• Digital propaganda
• Electric power grid attacks

Of course, a cyber threat lacks traditional warfare’s physical confrontations, even though it may be accompanied by them. While the term covers a wide range of strategies, each one targets various aspects of national security and economic stability, leading to enormous costs and consequences for the general population. 

An individual cyberattack may only be linked to the theft of intellectual property or an isolated breach. But aside from their eroding effect on everyone’s trust in public institutions, the long-term impacts of hackers’ activities can alter the strategic balance between entire nations.

Each nation or group possesses different motivations for engaging in cyberwarfare. Most often, they stem from attackers’ relative anonymity, compared to a costly and involved armed conflict. If you add the fact that every institution around the globe increasingly depends on digital infrastructure, it becomes evident why attackers prefer code over bullets.

Distinguishing Cyberwarfare From Cyber Terrorism

Due to certain similarities, one’s tempted to group cyberwarfare and cyberterrorism together. The biggest difference is the perpetrating actor involved. In most cases, one speaks of cyberterrorists when threat actors exploit vulnerabilities for political, religious, or idealist objectives, whether to intimidate or influence government policy. 

Cyberwarfare, on the other hand, usually refers to state-sponsored or state-conducted activities in cyberspace aimed to disrupt, degrade, or destroy systems or information that are significant to national security or provide a strategic advantage over another nation. 

Some go further distinguishing themselves as cyberspies, cyberthieves, cyberwarriors, and cyberactivists forcing institutions like the FBI to establish dedicated counterterrorism divisions.

Without understanding these differences, it’s impossible to develop suitable defense strategies. Cyberwarfare demands sophisticated cyber defense measures, whereas a defense against cyberterrorism calls for continuous cooperation between national security agencies, law enforcement, private entities, and even civilians.

Given the differences in objectives and motivations, it’s only natural that the approach to cyberterrorism and cyberwarfare is also codified differently. Where non binding studies like the Tallinn Manual offer mere guidance on cyberwarfare for legislators, international bodies such as the U.N. aim to fight cyberterrorism via dedicated initiatives. However, one should keep in mind that the anonymity of attackers poses as great a challenge as the task of defining a unified international security strategy.

Addressing Cyberspace Vulnerabilities: Solutions and Protocols

One organization alone can never respond to the constant rise in cyberspace vulnerabilities. Addressing them requires a comprehensive approach that includes cyber military capabilities, advanced technological solutions, international cooperation, and a robust legal framework. Each one listed below plays a critical role.

• Cyber Military Forces: Front-line defenders tasked with protecting national infrastructure, conducting surveillance to deter cyberattacks, and employing defensive technology.

• International Collaboration: Strengthening cyber defenses on a global scale requires international collaboration, where nations and organizations share intelligence, strategies, and resources. This includes forming alliances and public-private partnerships to enhance the collective security posture against cyber threats. Examples include the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, Interpol’s Cybercrime site, and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity.

• • International Law and Regulation: The regulation of cyberwarfare under international law involves applying existing legal frameworks to cyber operations, addressing issues of sovereignty and state conduct, and developing specific norms and laws for responsible behavior in cyberspace. The U.N. has paved the way with the Group of Governmental Experts, which will certainly affect and inspire more specialized local groups.
• Solution Providers for Cyber Defense: Effective defense strategies involve the implementation of strong cybersecurity measures tailored to individual organizations and industries. Think of measures such as encryption, establishing rapid response teams, or using artificial intelligence for threat detection.

As one of those solution providers, SealingTech is proud of its past accomplishments, looking back at more than 20,000 devices processed in its Enterprise Modernization Center. This safe development environment allows for rapid deployment and custom applications.

In addition to the comprehensive options above, it’s crucial for US-based businesses to know about the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) as a primary contact point for reporting cybercrimes. By reporting cybercrimes to the IC3, businesses contribute to the collective efforts to combat cyber threats and safeguard the digital ecosystem.

Protecting Your Business From Cyber Actors

To guarantee at least reasonably reliable protection against threat actors, organizations should leverage the expertise of skilled cybersecurity professionals who follow recent developments in cybersecurity to keep your solution up to date. Here’s how a team of security experts like SealingTech can fortify your business against the ever-evolving threat landscape.

Penetration Testing

Hiring experienced security experts like SealingTech gives you access to a team adept at mitigating security risks and provides an additional level of security from penetration testing. By simulating a cyberattack, you can credibly assess your network security’s resilience and uncover any loopholes a malicious actor might exploit.

Security Audits and Assessments

Many hacks simply take advantage of human nature, including a certain degree of negligence unfortunately common when it comes to updating security protocols. By embedding regular audits and host-based risk scoring in your business routine, you make them less intimidating and give everyone on the team a reason to consider how recent events might affect their role in your security protocols.

Training and Education

Naturally, your training should inform staff about the latest developments in potential threats, but that’s not all. With most breaches exploiting bad habits rather than hidden backdoors, it’s best to make healthy habits part of your training, even for technically savvy staff members. Regular training sessions on the latest cyber defense strategies on all business hierarchy levels can significantly reduce the risk of breaches caused by human error or social engineering tactics.

Cyber War Games

Beyond traditional penetration testing and simulations, cyber war games can offer a more interactive approach to enhancing your cybersecurity profile. If your team simulates real-world attacks, letting individual team members play the roles of attackers and defenders, you’re creating a more vivid memory, which can support your efforts once you need to respond to an actual threat. In addition, it’s a great team-building exercise and can foster critical thinking, helping you decide who might be well-suited for different roles.

Boost Your Cybersecurity Profile

The threat of cyberwarfare looms large over organizations in all industries, and it encompasses a broad range of evolving hostile activities, from cyber espionage to wide-scale attacks on a nation’s infrastructure. The reality is that, in a world where digital infrastructure underpins almost every aspect of our lives, the risk of being targeted or collateral damage in a cyberwarfare operation is higher than ever.

Cyberwarfare attacks can disrupt operations, compromise sensitive data, and erode trust among customers and partners. Moreover, the sophistication and frequency of these attacks continue to grow, making it imperative for businesses to adopt a proactive approach to cybersecurity.

Enter SealingTech, a trusted partner in cybersecurity defense worldwide. With extensive experience in securing organizations against a vast range of cyber threats, SealingTech offers cutting-edge solutions tailored to your unique needs. If you’d like to learn more, request a quote now.