Vanguard Magazine

c cYBersecurItY 12 APRIL/MAY 2017 www.vanguardcanada.com I n 2017, the battlefield is changing. Every day, organizations are fight- ing a war against cyber-attackers. The weapons are evolving, and so are the skills and approaches required to fight them. Let's consider a conventional defence scenario. A Canadian port reports it is under at- tack from small arms fire, RPGs and a new EMP-type weapon. The weapon seems to have knocked out power on commercial vessels, allowing the ships to be boarded and pillaged. It is not clear who the at- tackers are, or what the new weapon is, and the port is asking for support from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). While military approval is sought, the security forces of a commercial Canadian shipping firm in the port respond with their own kinetic defences to neutralise the attack. The crews have seen the EMP weapon in similar situations in other ports, have their own well-drilled procedures (SOPs), and don't have wait for bureau- cratic approval to respond. However, they have no capacity or authority to support Modern by John Proctor other shipping companies, and are not overly interested in who is attacking. They just need to keep their own company's in- terests afloat and operating. This scenario of a commercial organi- zation able to respond to a conventional attack faster and with more mature SOPs than the CAF is extremely unlikely. With very few exceptions, most commercial en- terprises don't have an in-house combat force or the experience of dealing with ki- netic combat operations. a changing environment When it comes to cybersecurity, however, defence organizations today must think about how to develop their own cyber warriors along with a team of expert com- mercial partners they call in to help keep their organization, people and information safe from cyber-attacks. In many cases, the cyber capabilities that many defence organizations need already exist or are being developed at large enter- prises. One of those capabilities is talent. While commercial enterprises don't have Special Forces operators, fighter pilots or submariners, they do have their own cyber warriors with various capabilities and focus areas. Another important change is that the cyber battlefield is primarily a commercial one today. Defence teams need to under- stand and operate in an environment that is owned, run and monitored by commer- cial organizations, to varying degrees of capacity and skill level. Currently, when defence organizations know they are going to operate jointly with other organizations such as foreign mili- tary forces, they create exchange programs and run joint exercises or similar programs to make sure they have an understanding of mutual strengths, weaknesses and dif- ferences in SOPs. To add to the challenge, as the defence industry operates in the same environ- ment and competes for the same talent as commercial industry, the need for cyber defence to be a team sport with joint op- erations of public and commercial teams working together is of increasing impor- tance. What's today's defence? Organizations needs partnership to combat tomorrow's attacks Cyber defenCe

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