The Normalization of the Unacceptable

On 04 June 2024, multiple hospitals in London declared a “critical incident” following a ransomware incident targeting a pathology services company called Synnovis. The incident resulted in multiple medical practices, including major hospitals, being unable to perform tasks such as blood transfusions or rapid testing of blood samples. Cascading impacts of Read more

What Have We Learned?

Background Almost a year ago as of this writing, the Russian state initiated a new and astoundingly brutal campaign against Ukraine. While Russia had effectively been at war with Ukraine since not long after the Revolution of Dignity, late February 2022 initiated a far wider, nastier, and inhumane phase of Read more

Critical Commentary Considering the Zero Day

“Zero days” are popular items in cyber security discussions. They grab headlines, they often feature in high-profile conference presentations, they can even apparently spawn television shows. Yet for all the attention and frequent discussion in non-technical audiences, the term itself seems a bit slippery. Terms like “zero day attack” are Read more

A Spectrum of State Ransomware Responsibility

Questions concerning responsibility for the current epidemic of ransomware events are common, and seek to identify some concrete party to hold accountable for incidents. Yet the immediate perpetrators – largely (but not exclusively) criminal gangs operating in Eastern Europe and Russia – either represent too remote an entity for blame, Read more

Mind the (Air) Gap

Following the ransomware incident impacting Colonial Pipeline operations in May 2021, many parties asked how such a disruption, impacting one of the main arteries delivering refined petroleum products to the Eastern and Southeastern United States, could occur. Based on information available, the intrusion did not directly impact Industrial Control Systems Read more