Dailydave mailing list archives
Re: In Defense of Offense
From: Adam Shostack <adam () shostack org>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 16:55:57 -0400
On Mon, Sep 28, 2015 at 03:03:57PM +0000, Dave Aitel wrote: | But one lesson from the week remains: The best defense in cyber is clearly an | obviously unbeatable offense. Obama's successful Iranian and Chinese treaties | both derive directly from decisive offensive cyber efforts. | Dave, I found this a very surprising statement from you. Can you elaborate on what a decisive offensive looks like in cyberspace? In the physical world, that would entail a collapse of physical or moral capability to continue fighting. (I'm following Boyd here, if you disagree, feel free to ignore the morale end of the equation.) For example, a decisive offensive might entail the destruction of the last spitfires, or breaking the supply lines on which Napoleon relied. I could see an Aramco-style attack, disabling the computers of a division being a massive technical setback, but recoverable. I could see pwning the cvs server on which NSA stores Flame being a large setback, and requiring rebuild of implant technology, but recoverable. I have trouble seeing a decisive offensive, and more trouble seeing one which has no visible "collateral damage" like the lights being out in Maryland for a month. Adam -- Don't miss out on my news, which comes out roughly once a quarter. http://adam.shostack.org/newthing.html _______________________________________________ Dailydave mailing list Dailydave () lists immunityinc com https://lists.immunityinc.com/mailman/listinfo/dailydave
Current thread:
- In Defense of Offense Dave Aitel (Sep 28)
- Re: In Defense of Offense Adam Shostack (Sep 29)