[ISN] More Cyberthreat Info-Sharing Networks Pop Up

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/dti/2012/04/01/DT_04_01_2012_p18-438634.xml

By Angus Batey
London
Aviation Week
April 13, 2012

The Lockheed Martin F-35 program made unwanted headlines in the U.K. 
last month after The Sunday Times revealed that BAE Systems’ portion of 
the project had been subject to significant data theft. Sources told the 
newspaper that the network intrusion began in 2009 and had gone 
undetected for around 18 months.

Industrial espionage, particularly on military projects, is a hallmark 
of the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)—the epidemic of intrusions first 
detected in the mid-2000s and widely attributed to China. The impact of 
APT successes, when they are disclosed, highlights a problem almost as 
troubling as the theft of data itself. Investors and customers may lose 
confidence in a company that declares a significant data breach, yet it 
is only by sharing information about such breaches that long and complex 
supply chains can be protected.

To a surprising degree, informal information-sharing networks are 
sprouting up around the western defense industry to disseminate 
cyberattack data in near-real time, across borders and even between 
competing businesses. Whether by email threads, telephone conversations, 
physical meetings or other means, individuals are alerting one another 
to new threat vectors and sharing intelligence on system-penetration 
attempts.

“Information-sharing is there, but it’s not being done in public 
forums,” says Don Smith, technology director of Dell SecureWorks. “It is 
fairly effective, but it’s just not visibly effective if you’re not part 
of the community that’s sharing the information. That parallels what 
goes on in the mainstream security world, where organizations that you 
might normally view as competitors are furiously sharing information 
behind the scenes about the capabilities and tactics of the adversary.”

[...]


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