Bejtlich on Visible Risk Podcast

My friend Rocky DeStefano from Visible Risk posted the video (streaming) and audio (.mp3, 124 MB) of a discussion he hosted on advanced persisten threat. Myself, Mike Cloppert, Rob Lee, and Shawn Carpenter discussed APT for about an hour on video and about an hour and a half on audio. Let Rocky know what you think as a comment here or via Twitter to @visiblerisk.

One comment -- slightly before the 24:00 mark, Rob made a remark about "what you and I respond to in the Air Force was laughable at this point, compared to what we're seeing today, actual intelligence being pulled back, potential nation state actors, potential organized crime, earning thousands or millions of dollars..." I disagree with part of that comment and agree with part of that comment. For the "disagree" part: Rob was stationed in the 609th, which was not the AFCERT. In the AFCERT we detected and responded to nation state activity of the caliber we see today. I don't know what the 609th dealt with. For the "agree" part: in 1998 it was much rarer to see organized crime operating at the level they do today. I didn't respond during the video because I didn't feel the need to interrupt any time I didn't fully agree with a speaker, and this exchange was mostly between Rob and Mike!

Comments

Unknown said…
That was the "downside" to a live conversation like this. I caught that point as well, but considered more of a "majority of incidents" type comment.

Moving forward I'm taking advice from dozens of poeple on how to make it better next time. I'm starting with narrowing down the topcis and questions for upcoming show/podcast.

Similar topic - Did you see http://www.govinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=2423 Specifically, Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander's remarks about he can only conceive of Cyberwar in the the broader context of a kinetic war. I'd like to dig a bit deeper on the context of the question and reported response on that topic. but it is interesting anyway you look at it.
10:57 PM
Rob Lee said…
Richard, I was responding to both the 609th and the AFOSI. We met when I was in the AFOSI (98-01) as a TMT helping investigate National Level Intrusion events. I was referring to what many considered major "incidents" that really took up our time including "Solar Sunrise" and others. I stand by my statement that the incidents we investigated between 1996 and 2001, even the nation state ones, are not in the same category of complexity and scope compared to what we see today.
8:49 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zeek in Action Videos

Image
This is a quick note to point blog readers to my Zeek in Action YouTube video series for the Zeek network security monitoring project .  Each video addresses a topic that I think might be of interest to people trying to understand their network using Zeek and adjacent tools and approaches, like Suricata, Wireshark, and so on.  I am especially pleased with Video 6 on monitoring wireless networks . It took me several weeks to research material for this video. I had to buy new hardware and experiment with a Linux distro that I had not used before -- Parrot .  Please like and subscribe, and let me know if there is a topic you think might make a good video.
Read more

MITRE ATT&CK Tactics Are Not Tactics

Image
Just what are "tactics"? Introduction MITRE ATT&CK  is a great resource, but something about it has bothered me since I first heard about it several years ago. It's a minor point, but I wanted to document it in case it confuses anyone else. The MITRE ATT&CK Design and Philosophy document from March 2020 says the following: At a high-level, ATT&CK is a behavioral model that consists of the following core components: • Tactics, denoting short-term, tactical adversary goals during an attack; • Techniques, describing the means by which adversaries achieve tactical goals; • Sub-techniques, describing more specific means by which adversaries achieve tactical goals at a lower level than techniques; and • Documented adversary usage of techniques, their procedures, and other metadata. My concern is with MITRE's definition of "tactics" as "short-term, tactical adversary goals during an attack," which is oddly recursive. The key word in the tacti
Read more

New Book! The Best of TaoSecurity Blog, Volume 4

Image
  I've completed the TaoSecurity Blog book series . The new book is  The Best of TaoSecurity Blog, Volume 4: Beyond the Blog with Articles, Testimony, and Scholarship .  It's available now for Kindle , and I'm working on the print edition.  I'm running a 50% off promo on Volumes 1-3 on Kindle through midnight 20 April. Take advantage before the prices go back up. I described the new title thus: Go beyond TaoSecurity Blog with this new volume from author Richard Bejtlich. In the first three volumes of the series, Mr. Bejtlich selected and republished the very best entries from 18 years of writing and over 18 million blog views, along with commentaries and additional material.  In this title, Mr. Bejtlich collects material that has not been published elsewhere, including articles that are no longer available or are stored in assorted digital or physical archives. Volume 4 offers early white papers that Mr. Bejtlich wrote as a network defender, either for technical or pol
Read more