Cyber Security As The Main Threat For Society:
Palantir’s Role Within Cyber Security:
Past Events Of Cyber Attacks:
Cyber Security As The Main Threat For Society:
The World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook report indicates that cyberattacks increased 125% globally in 2021, with evidence suggesting a continued uptick through 2022. In this fast-changing landscape it is vital for leaders to take a strategic approach to cyber risks.
Jürgen Stock mentioned how, often there is a decentralised methodological approach when it comes to cyber-attacks within the modern day. Stock said how, unlike the traditional “Mafia-like” approach, instead this new wave of cyber-criminals connect within a distributed, and decentralised manner in which can create friction when law enforcement agencies are trying to solve the situation. Furthermore, this is becoming more difficult to prevent and stop, said Stock. Often however, human failure is the main reason as to why criminals can easily attack systems within organisations and Governments. To add, as the world is becoming more interconnected, the challenge is “how can one connect the dots in which need to be connected”, however also maintain security simultaneously.
Stock said, often within the cybersecurity field, tools that are used by Governments and military organisations, sometimes can end-up settling within the hands of criminals via the dark-web. This shows how state wide attacks are becoming more common, as well as the overall sophistication of digitalised attacks.
Josephine Teo mentioned that in regards to Singapore, there is a growing necessity to ensure that the world is more prepared for cyber-attacks. Teo went on to say how there is one key trend, namely the sophistication of cyber-criminals, and the fact that these criminals are “catching up”. One problem we face is that, attacks are growing at an exponential speed, whilst also being funded majorly via underground criminals.
Teo spoke in regards to the overall weaknesses of the West, and how often there is limited sophistication when looking at software solutions for companies. “This is a long standing problem, that is not going away any time soon.”
Robert M. Lee is the founder and CEO at Dragos Inc. an industrial cybersecurity company. Lee spoke at the cybersecurity event at the World Economic Forum and said how, organisations are operating on a “knifes-edge”. Lee mentioned that, adversaries know how to target operations systems and companies are now more interconnected than ever before. When looking at the Russian situation, companies in which have involvement with Ukraine have show to be targeted far more within recent periods.
Lee concluded how there is a clear overlay between geopolitical events, and the attacks on organisations.
“The cyber attack is not a question of if, it is a question of when. Cyber resilience, building this into organisations is key.”
Stock stated how, the level of awareness has been rising around cyber-attacks, however there is a lack of complex understanding and therefore a lack of information exchange within real time. Being a part of an ecosystem, nationally, regionally, and globally is vital. Investments within specific measures, to reduce human failure is key. There must be an increased dialogue, in which is in the private sector – “without these reports we are blind.” There must be bridges between silos, and information within the context of data sharing.
It is likely that cyber-security will become the major threat of the decade. Studies have shown that there is a major skill shortage within cyber-security, and therefore there is a growing necessity to work in conjunction with one another, in comparison to working against each other.
“Often, organisations only start working on cyber-security procedures, after being attacked. Often it is too late”, says Stock.
It is likely that there will be a global convention to sole the issues of cyber-crime. There is speculation in regards to the utility of this convention, and if it is enough to solve the issue of cyber crime.
Tao stated, that “security by design should become a premium product and people over time will learn it is in their interest to pay for it.”
Law enforcement needs help in terms of getting the tools for cybercrime, said Stock. The support for the private sector is needed to investigate cybercrime. This is a major area in which Palantir has advantages within, namely the fact that Palantir has integrated themselves within private and public sectors in conjunction. When looking at the Palantir Cyber whitepaper, the company states clearly how collaboration is at the forefront of their initiative: “a richly collaborative environment in which each analyst can pursue their own hypotheses and analyses while benefitting from the shared cyber intelligence of others.”
The point of stronger and more institutionalised public & private partnership was reiterated multiple times during the conference.
Palantir’s Role Within Cyber Security:
Whilst Palantir is not a sole cybersecurity product, through the operating system, Palantir has the ability to understand the connections and relationships between data points, and therefore can aid analysts to investigate the origins sand features of cyber attacks. This can enable a devised, highly tailored response by allowing organisations to diagnose attacks and take pre-emptive action against future cyber threats.
One main axiom of Palantir Cyber is via anomaly detection capabilities. This means that, analysts can begin cyber threat investigations in Palantir by combing through massive amounts of data to find anomalous occurrences. This data can be filtered through with sub-second querying of trillions of records at petabyte scale.
Furthermore, using the technology, companies can iterate and build on strategic algorithms to comb through data archives, and to detect anomalies by creating clusters that reveals previously unknown entities, events and connections.
Interestingly, Stock mentioned how organisations only start working on cyber-security procedures, after being attacked. This is too late to start working. Once again, this comment may reiterate the lack of leadership, or perhaps the overall friction associated with integration of a software solution within a large company. Often, organisations know that they need a software solution, however fail to adopt the solution due to an array of reasons.
Within the context of software, overall the West has a major weakness specifically within the context of organisational software solutions. Tao stated, that “security by design should become a premium product and people over time will learn it is in their interest to pay for it.” Palantir, innately have security features within their products since inception. Palantir stated within a commentary that, “given the critical work performed on our platforms, information security is our lifeblood. Our industry-leading InfoSec team works tirelessly to stay ahead of adversaries by hunting for sophisticated threats, thwarting changes in their tactics, and immediately eradicating risks.”
Palantir recently built a relationship with SpecterOps, in order to provide the best security functionality within their software solution. “Ever since our initial engagement, SpecterOps have been instrumental in accelerating and improving Palantir’s information security posture. Our relationship initially focused on adversarial red team operations against our corporate and cloud infrastructure, said Palantir Technologies.” Overall, Palantir has innate security functionalities built into their software solution. This can majorly aid organisations when trying to predict, prevent or prepare for a cyber attack.
Palantir stated that, “recognizing that commercial institutions face a shared set of cyber threats, we created the Cyber Mesh, a platform for secure information sharing among peers. Drawing on successful models within the defense and intelligence communities, the Cyber Mesh enables secure peer-to-peer sharing between enterprises with automatic redaction of sensitive data.” This indicates the overall collaborative environment in which Palantir poses forward. This specifically addresses Stock, and his concerns in regards to limited collaboration.
Past Events Of Cyber Attacks:
Nicole Perlroth is a cyber-security award winning journalist for the New York times, where her work has been featured within films and television. Nicole also is a regular lecturer at the Stanford School of Business.
The under reported story of Colonial Pipeline could have been disastrous for the US & global economy said Nicole. She stated how, after the company was hit and was forced to freeze operations, there were leaked documents stating that as a country, the US could have only afforded 2-3 days of the pipeline being down. Any more downtime, said Nicole, would have majorly disrupted global prices for oil and gasoline.
Unfortunately, there has been ample examples of Russian attacks on the West. For example the, NotPetya attack by Russia on Ukraine hit any business that even had any relations with Ukraine. NotPetya infected the computer systems of Mondelez, disrupting the company’s email systems, file access, and logistics for weeks. This attack, said Nicole, paralysed Merck and their factories. Merk is an American multi-national pharmaceutical company located within New Jersey. Nicole mentions how, Merck had to tap into emergency supplies of vaccines from the CDC, because their vaccine line was ruined by cyber-attacks.
Interestingly, Palantir since inception chose the notion of solely working with US allies, and Western companies. This is in comparison to working within China & Russia, in which in recent times has caused major issues for large companies.
