NSA-approved cybersecurity law and policy course now available online

Cyber Scoop

Shannon Vavra

August 27th, 2019

Anyone who is interested in cybersecurity law and policy can now take an online course that was partly shaped by National Security Agency.

In an effort to put pressure on the DarkSide Ransomeware Group, the government announced on Thursday a $10 million reward for information about the key leadership individuals in the DarkSide ransomware group—or any of it’s rebranded groups. The State Department’s $5 million dollar bounties are for intel and information that could help authorities arrest and convict others conspiring with the transnational organized crime syndicate. These efforts are in response to the DarkSide’s attack on Colonial Pipeline that disrupted fuel distribution to the East Cost for a week.

White Hacker returns millions in cryptocurrency hacked from Poly Network last week. The company has decided to offer the hacker a $500K bug bounty. The white hat hacker had stated that he/she had initiated the hack for fun—and was motivated to demonstrate a vulnerability in the company’s software. Some companies are offering bug bounties to help identify problems with the systems.

Facebooks takes down over 200 Iranian Hacker Accounts used to target US Military Personnel This week Facebook disabled a sophisticated online cyber espionage campaign by Iranian threat actor AKA Tortoiseshell which was targeting about 200 military personnel and companies in the defense and aerospace using fake online personas. The hackers used fictitious personas to contact its targets, building trust over months, posing as recruiters and employees of defense related companies.

Cybersecurity’s human adversarial engagement is often lost in discussions of cybersecurity. We discuss how defenders’ focus on technology unintentionally creates vulnerabilities which can be exploited by threat actors. In particular, we discuss how the convergence of cyber awareness training and defensive technologies is exploited by threat actors with devastating consequences.

George Washington called West Point, “the key to the continent.” The reasoning that Washington employed in establishing the fortifications at West Point is instructive to modern cyber warriors.