Cybersecurity: Managing Systems, Conducting Testing, and Investigating Intrusions

CHAPTER 1

Executive Summary

Effective cybersecurity is a critical capability for the defense and preservation of civil society. Cyber crime is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing categories of crime. Cyber criminals are responsible for more than $1 trillion USD in stolen funds and other assets, with crime in some segments growing 300 percent per year. Cyber espionage is epidemic and pervasive; even the world's smartest companies and government institutions have terabytes of intellectual property and financial assets being lost annually via the Internet. Concealed malicious actors even threaten our electrical power grids, global financial systems, air traffic control systems, telecommunications systems, healthcare systems, and nuclear power plants.

Chances are good that your current organization is being attacked right now: cyber criminals, civilian/military cyber warriors, and global competitors are deeply entrenched in your network. If you have information worth stealing, it is likely that the attackers are on your internal network, exfiltrating data from your end users, and controlling key administrative nodes. If organizations don't change the way they are defending themselves, personal identifying information, bank account and credit card numbers, and intellectual property that defines competitive advantage will continue to be stolen.

The threat is to all civil society. If cyber attackers scrambled all the data on Wall Street and Bond Street, wiping out all investments ...