INVITATION TO CYBERSECURITY 290 Kaspersky Labs, a Russian company. One theory is that a TAO contractor with TS/SCI clearance managed to sneak the tools out of a SCIF and put them on an Internet-connected computer that was running a Kaspersky antivirus product. The antivirus program, using its trusted root access, was allegedly secretly programmed to look for signatures of cyber weapons and exfiltrate them back to corporate headquarters. As evidence for this claim, some have cited the fact that in 2017 the United States government banned the use of Kaspersky software in government computers, sending a warning to everyone that they could not be trusted. Of course, these accusations are not proven and are vehemently denied by Kaspersky. Why were the tools released for free on the Internet? Besides to embarrass the victim, the tools were likely released to neutralize their capabilities. As soon as a zero-day is exposed, it becomes an n-day and loses most of its potency and value. The United States has done the same with Russian malware, in effect issuing a security bulletin so the vulnerabilities can be patched, defusing the cyber weapons. This story about The Shadow Brokers was shared as this text closes to make a couple of concluding points. First, it illustrates how cyber news stories can make for good reading! Due to core cyberspace dynamics like the attribution problem and the three Ds (see the Introduction), mystery and intrigue abound, and experts often differ in their theories— meanwhile the actors almost always remain silent or deny involvement. Second, it was intentionally laden with cyber jargon to give the reader confidence that you are an insider and can follow the cyber news. The story would not have registered the same had you read it at the beginning instead of the end of this textbook. I hope you will study the terms in the Glossary and continue learning to add more words to your cyber vocabulary, some of which would not yet have been coined at the time of this writing. We have come to the end of the book so it is time to stop, but we are nowhere near the end of the cybersecurity story. My hope is that this textbook has motivated and equipped you to follow current events in cybersecurity, educate others, and continue on this journey. It is important because cyber has a significant impact on our lives. It impacts our way of life and our freedoms on a national level through nation state cyber operations. This era has been compared to the Cold War in terms of how a new technology can fundamentally and forever alter how nations interact with one another. The balance of power is at stake and cyber is a game changer, enabling significant cumulative strategic gains all while staying below military response thresholds. Cybersecurity also impacts us on a personal level. The organizations we interface with are under constant attack from hackers of all stripes, and we are reminded of this whenever we receive yet another data breach notification. Our privacy in cyberspace is far from secure—we are all vulnerable. Cybersecurity will only become more important as we become ever more technologically dependent. I hope that you will accept the invitation to continue deepening your cyber understanding, and that many of you will join the white hats in the fight!
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