Does your corporation actually perceive its dependencies, and how you can mitigate the dangers posed by an assault on them?
12 Aug 2025
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4 min. learn
A panel dialogue at DEF CON 33 final week, titled “Adversaries at battle: Ways, applied sciences, and classes from trendy battlefields”, supplied a number of thought-provoking factors, in addition to a transparent takeaway: whereas digital ways reminiscent of misinformation and affect campaigns are helpful in trendy battle, they aren’t going to win a battle. That’s as a result of when bombs begin dropping and the bodily components of battle are below method, the misinformation spreading by digital channels turns into much less vital. Understandably, the victims of battle and people displaced have extra pressing priorities: meals, shelter and staying alive.
Turning the dialog as to if a battle might be gained utilizing cyberattacks and digital disruption, there was additionally settlement among the many panelists that cyberattacks create momentary injury, whereas a bomb touchdown on one thing is a more practical and lasting technique of destruction.
The assaults towards vital infrastructure in Ukraine doubtlessly verify this: Russia-aligned actors have launched quite a few cyberattacks towards the nation’s energy grid, leading to momentary disruptions as techniques will be rebuilt and made operational once more in a comparatively brief time period. In the meantime, a bomb touchdown on an influence facility is prone to trigger long-term injury and limitation of service that might take months or years to revive. The large-picture conclusion on this a part of the panel dialogue is {that a} battle can’t be gained by cyber alone – it nonetheless must be gained on the bodily battlefield.
Cyber and bodily safety
The dialogue then advanced to how cyber impacts the bodily. One panelist made the remark to the impact that “a military can’t combat in the event that they haven’t been fed”. Put in another way, as a rising variety of civilian contractors are getting used to supply the logistics wanted to function a military, making the assault floor broader than it might seem.
The panel used Taco Bell as a fictional analogy. A hacker might declare they modified the water provide in Taco Bell, however on nearer inspection it might simply be that they’ve tampered with a restaurant’s water cooler, which might not be sufficient to have an effect on its operations.
Nonetheless, a cyberattack on Taco Bell’s provide chain might carry it to an operational cease. How? By stopping deliveries of produce to the restaurant. This dependency might be much more obscure: an assault on the businesses that provide the meat utilized in Tacos might doubtlessly trigger Taco Bell to stop operations because of a scarcity of elements for meals. The analogy holds true for the army: with out meals, the troops can’t combat or are, at finest, restricted.
What this implies for your corporation
Transferring past the panel dialogue, this raises a vital query for companies: do they actually perceive their dependencies to be operationally resilient? Do they perceive the dependency their prospects have on them to make sure the continued operation of their very own companies?
Sticking with the Taco Bell analogy, think about a cyberattack that takes away a key aspect the enterprise must function; for instance, if the corporate depends on a provider for taco seasoning, then a cyberattack towards the provider might have an effect on Taco Bell’s capability to maintain working. This isn’t mere hypothesis – there are real-world examples of cyberattacks which have induced any such disruption. For instance, the cyber-incident suffered by Change Healthcare, a well being knowledge processing agency, stopped medical providers being supplied throughout practices and hospitals.
At this time, so far as I do know, cybercriminals solely extort fee from these they instantly assault. However what if a cybercriminal determined to assault the third celebration after which demand an extortion fee from all the companies that depend on that provider? In my instance, say the taco seasoning firm is disrupted by ransomware, and whereas the cybercriminal could ask the seasoning firm to pay a requirement instantly, they might really achieve extra in the event that they requested fee from all the businesses reliant on the provider’s product, as a scarcity of provide could value them greater than the provider itself.
Whereas this monetization technique could appear speculative, there is a crucial level right here: does your corporation actually perceive its dependencies and how you can mitigate the chance of assault on these it’s depending on? An actual-world instance is likely to be an assault on a catering firm that’s contracted to feed sufferers in a hospital. If the power to feed sufferers is disrupted because of a cyberattack, then the hospital could need to declare a serious incident and shut admissions to new sufferers. On this situation, would the hospital pay an extortion demand that brings again catering provide?
The important thing takeaway from this panel session for me is that this: all of us have to map and absolutely perceive the dependencies we depend on and guarantee now we have resilience the place wanted. If we will’t get to some extent of resilience, then we not less than want to know the chance posed by the dependencies.
