WASHINGTON, April 24 (KUNA) -- The Eighth Annual
International Conference on Cyber Engagement (ICCE) was held on Tuesday
focusing on the experiences across the sphere to bring a
"multidisciplinary and global approach to challenges in cyberspace."
At the opening of the one-day conference held by the Atlantic Council under the
theme "Building Commonality in a Dynamic Global Domain," the
Executive Assistant Director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services
Branch at the FBI, Amy Hess, affirmed that cyber-attacks have become "more
and more prevalent in every investigation, in everything we do and we have seen
that threat evolving and growing every day." She added that "while
the threat may be constantly evolving, the FBI's approach to the threat is
consistent with our experience, our authorities, and our history." Noting
that the FBI was created in 1908 “in response to changing new technology at the
time, the automobile." Regarding recent cyber trends the FBI has seen,
Hess says "we've seen the emergence of a hybrid threat, as we call it, or
nation state actors who are hiring criminals to achieve their national security
objectives using ransomware and other hackers' tools to do so." Shedding
light on China, she said "China's goal is simple: to replace the US as the
world's leading super power and they did and will continue to break societal
laws and norms to get there. In fact, we have seen an increasing level of
sophistication in their techniques, tactics and procedures." "Going
toe to toe with China, in terms of the cyber threat, is Russia," she
stressed. "We're seeing similar threats coming from there as well but with
a slightly different objective," citing recent indictments of Russians for
hacking in retaliation against antidoping officials. "These activities
moved well beyond acceptable government intelligence operations and broke
traditional norms and the law by using cyber resources in the way that they
did." She also shed light on the threat of Iranian cyber-attacks, noting
the last November indictments of two "Iranian national criminal
actors" for "deploying ransomware that crippled hospitals, local
governments and other public institutions to the tune of $USD 30 million in
losses to the US." "In indicting foreign nationals from China, Russia
and Iran we are sending a message that we will do whatever is in our power to
hold these people accountable," she stated. "Even when those indicted
are not immediately accessible to answer the charges, we will work to expose
them and to limit their future criminal activity." She indicated that the
US has "bilateral extradition treaties with over 100 countries and we
also, in coordination with our international partners, work to dismantle the
criminal infrastructure that is used to conduct cybercrime. Our foreign partners
are key to those efforts." Hess continued saying that "if we are able
to attribute malicious cyber activity to a nation state it enables policy
makers to consider all using all tools available and that includes
sanctions." She added "we've even embedded cyber agents with
international counterparts in strategic locations to help us build trust with
key partners around the globe, because as we all know, cybersecurity is a
global issue." "Our focus for the future is finding new ways to work
together and take full advantage of intelligence and technology that is
available to us to combat this threat," she noted. During a panel
discussion on "Regional Perspective on Cybersecurity," Chief of IT
Sector at Kuwait's Communication and Information Technology Regulatory
Authority (CITRA) Mohammed Altura said that Kuwait "has one of the best
robust 4G coverage geographically. That is boosting our inclusion in terms of
internet access for people, the number of smartphone penetration and
subscription quality. “Therefore, we have to make sure that we are
resilient." He indicated that for job creation, "cybersecurity is
always going to help more with job creation because "with threats becoming
very diversified, cybersecurity is also becoming the same thing and that will us
to create jobs in our economies." He added "for those countries that
have a tight economy, it is very important that they do a very simple mechanism
for information, sharing. Because if countries share information, they become
stronger. They make it even more difficult for attackers." "In
Kuwait, we think that technology is going to be at the center of our economy.
Some businesses think about technology first. Let technology help us before we
restructure our business. Things are changing very fast in this regard and this
also helps companies have more control over their spending and to reduce their
costs," he remarked.
He added "I believe that this is a journey that cannot
be taken overnight, but we have to make sure that we initially have to put it
in our first policy." He stressed "having the cybersecurity with all
these new trends is very important as the country should make sure that the
strategy is very open, flexible, supports new trends and very simple to
understand." Meanwhile, Department of Homeland Security's (DHS)
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher
Krebs said in remarks at the conference that when the DHS was established in
2003, "it was established in response to a terrorist focus threat." "Frankly,
nation state threats were not at the top of mind; that understanding, that
appreciation of what the world looks like has shifted dramatically," he
added. "We're the nation's risk advisor," he stressed. "We work
with our partners to understand what the threat landscape looks like. It's
about understanding what's going on out there, what the adversary's doing, but
contextualizing that risk in a network perspective." He noted "to do
this we have to step back and look at what the adversary space looks like."
He indicated that "the most active nation state adversaries right now are
Russia and China, and then we also have Iran, North Korea and then the
extremists’ space." "As the adversary space continues to expand and
grow, the good news is the international partnership space continues to grow as
well. Over the last several years, we've only increased our engagements with
foreign partners," he remarked. Krebs affirmed that information sharing
"is the minimum bar," saying "we have to get beyond information
sharing, even beyond information exchange, and we have to focus on
operationalizing cybersecurity, operationalizing partnerships," and that
"we're trying to get to a better more systemic understanding of
risk." For his part, Commander of the Cyber National Mission Force at US
Cyber Command Timothy Haugh said "the ability to partner across all of the
elements within cyberspace is a critical enabler for all of us whether that be
an international partner that faces the same threats to democracy, whether
that's an industry partner or it's another US government element that has a
like mission." "What we are focused on in terms of military
activities in cyberspace is not necessarily the (DOD) outcome," he added.
"It's how can we enable our international partners, our domestic partners
and industry, to be able to defend those things critical to our nation's
success." On the sidelines of the conference, Altura told KUNA that is it
very important to participate in such gatherings with Kuwait evolving in the
cyber security and the digital transformation.
Such communities are extremely important to establish a
strong relationship in information and threat intelligence sharing, which are
very critical for countries, saying sharing information "will make you
stronger and will make the attackers much weaker." He stressed that
"digital transformation is very important for economic growth and the
cyber game along with it is changing. As now with the new innovations that are
supposed to reduce the cost of operations and make it more efficient, smart and
global it is very important to always support.