Let's Not Wait to Close The Barn Door Until After The Horse Gets Out

A recent report that North Korean hackers targeted US electric grid through spearphishing emails to electric power companies is yet another signal that foreign powers are increasingly viewing the cybersphere as one of the top frontiers in warfare... and our response continues to be largely reactive as we wait until they perfect their methods before taking serious accounting of our vulnerabilities.

Indeed, there may not be much evidence that any of that batch of attacks were successful, but what happens when inevitably one day one of them succeeds? Chances are, sooner or later, a careless employee will click on the link and let the hackers right in. Alternatively, having figured out that this particular line of attack is not worth pursuing, the hackers may already be finding other backdoors to entry. The typical reaction of expressing concern about the future and not much else, exhibited after this report came in, underscores that the problem of inaction in the face of persistent threat is at least as big of a problem as the actual persistent threats. Perhaps the hackers were simply not sophisticated enough to gain entry this time around. Perhaps one day, having figured out what doesn't work, they'll do better. And perhaps spearphishing emails were merely a distraction from a different line of attacks they will be pursuing in the near future.

Regardless, this is yet another reminder about the vulnerabilities of our electric grid, and the generally poor record on cybersecurity. For the record, I don't expect North Korean hackers to go and blow up a physical station. What I do expect them to do, is perhaps either share the information about US infrastructure vulnerabilities with Russia or Iran, who, no doubt, are considering all lines of attack, or perhaps even hack into their services and simply steal that information.  Having dependency on your enemies' known capability is no way to account for your defense.  Keeping a flexible mindset about potential for attacks, especially after numerous hints have been practically given to you on a silver platter about what appears to be of interest to a number of adversaries, constantly updating, innovating, and improving your infrastructure and cyber defense, and keeping not only your staffers, but your enemies on their toes with unpredictable responses is the way to avoid trouble that is sure to follow these first few unsuccessful attempts.