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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Cybersecurity lessons from Russia's war in Ukraine, according to Microsoft's president and vice-chair

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Categories: ASCF News Cyber Security

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/cybersecurity-lessons-russias-war-ukraine-according-microsofts-president-vice-chair

Foxnews: Microsoft Corp. logo outside the Microsoft Visitor Center in Redmond, Wash.

Since invading Ukraine, Russia has upped their cyberattacks on the United States and its allies, according to a report from Microsoft, and there are several lessons to help protect against these attacks in the future, Microsoft President and vice-Chair Brad Smith told Fox News Digital.

A drastic cyberattack against the United States is not a far-reaching idea. In fact, according to the report "Defending Ukraine: Early Lessons from the Cyber War," Microsoft has tracked Russian cyber hacking in 42 countries, with the United States being the top target, followed by Poland.

"I would say the number one goal of the Russians appears to be to get access to information so they know what governments are planning to do, it’s sort of classic espionage," Smith told Fox News Digital at the Aspen Security Forum.

The war in Ukraine, while brutal on the ground, shows that Russia is a major cyber threat as well, Smith said, noting that the country has used their cyber capabilities in three ways.

"First, with destructive cyberattacks," he said. "If they are trying to take over a nuclear power plant, they also try to take over the network, say the day before they have the troops outside.

The second prominent way Russia has been using its cyber capabilities is "espionage outside of Ukraine," Smith said, referencing more than 120 efforts in just the first few months of the war to infiltrate Microsoft customers, primarily governments.

"The third thing is what we call cyber influence operations," he added. "This is really an effort to put out propaganda to support the Russian war aims."

Smith said Microsoft has tracked an 82% increase of Russian propaganda in the United States, and a 216% increase in Ukraine.

One lesson, according to the report, is that countries should distribute digital operations and data sets across geographies.

"It’s sort of a classic lesson from military history," Smith said. "When German bombers were dropping bombs on London, the British moved their communications infrastructure underground. Today, a data center can be taken out by a cruise missile, and that, in fact, is part of what the Ukrainians experienced."

Smith also highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships when dealing with cyberspace, in contrast to traditional warfare which took place on land, sea and air.

"What is different about cyberspace is it actually oftentimes is privately owned and operated," he said. "It may be a data center, it may be a cable that belongs to a company like Microsoft or someone else. Ultimately, it includes everybody’s laptops. It includes the phone in someone’s hand."

"And so, the only way to really defend against attacks in cyberspace is … to bring everybody together. We need to bring together governments and tech companies and other businesses and nonprofits and NGOs. Only then can we do collectively what it takes to really ensure security in cyberspace," he continued.

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