The Unfortunate Many: How Nation States Select Targets
From the post:
Key Takeaways
- It’s safe to assume that all governments are developing and deploying cyber capabilities at some level. It’s also safe to assume most governments are far from open about the extent of their cyber activity.
- If you take the time to understand why nation states get involved with cyber activity in the first place, you’ll find their attacks are much more predictable than they seem.
- Each nation state has its own objectives and motivations for cyber activity. Even amongst big players like China, Russia, and the U.S. there’s a lot of variation.
- Most nation states develop national five-year plans that inform all their cyber activities. Understanding these plans enables an organization to prioritize preparations for the most likely threats.
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There’s a name for those who rely on governments, national or otherwise, to protect their cybersecurity: victims.
Recorded Future gives a quick overview of factors that may drive the objectives of government cybercriminal units.
I use “cybercriminal units” to avoid the false dichotomy between alleged “legitimate” government hacking and that of other governments and individuals.
We’re all adults here and realize government is a particular distribution of reward and stripes, nothing more. It has no vision, no goal beyond self-preservation and certainly, beyond your locally owned officials, no interest in you or yours.
That is to say governments undertaking hacking to further a “particular distribution of reward and stripes” and their choices are no more (or less) legitimate than anyone else’s.
Government choices are certainly no more legitimate than your choices. Although governments claim a monopoly on criminal prosecutions, which accounts for why criminals acting on their behalf are never prosecuted. That monopoly also explains why governments, assuming they have possession of your person, may prosecute you for locally defined “criminal” acts.
Read the Recorded Future post to judge your odds of being a victim of a national government. Then consider which governments should be your victims.