She Saved Saudi Arabia. Can She Save the World From Cyberwarfare?

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.ozy.com/news-and-politics/she-saved-saudi-arabia-now-shes-protecting-the-world-from-cyber-warfare/318820/

By Nick Fouriezos
OZY.com
May 11, 2020

A cyberattack brought a Czech coronavirus testing laboratory to its knees in 
the middle of the pandemic. Japan faced a deluge of hacking attempts from 
Russia and China, immediately after the coronavirus lockdown ended in Wuhan. 
And as the world leader with more than 50 million internet assets that are 
remotely accessible — thus vulnerable — the United States is a giant sitting 
duck.

Chris Kubecka shares all these threats on her computer screen over Zoom, 
watching them like some strange, digital guardian angel from her Amsterdam 
apartment. The half Puerto Rican, half Dutch expat was already a well-respected 
security researcher, responsible for exposing major security weaknesses in the 
airplane manufacturing giant Boeing as well as saving Saudi Arabia’s oil giant 
Aramco after it was crippled by the devastating Shamoon cyberwarfare offensive 
in 2012. Now the former U.S. Air Force and Space Command veteran is becoming a 
pivotal player in helping institutions protect themselves from a spate of 
cyberattacks launched amid the pandemic panic.

“She is a go-to professional for governments. There are only a certain number 
who can both frame the problem conceptually and put it in straight fucking 
English so somebody can understand. And she can do that,” says Bryson Bort, 
founder of the boutique cybersecurity consultancy GRIMM.

Kubecka has worked with NATO, the European Union and academics to develop 
cyberwarfare exercises, and she’s currently helping craft a joint EU-U.S. 
response to “cyber malicious activities” — anything from attacking energy grids 
to election manipulation. And she is slated to advise hundreds of German 
government officials and policymakers on best practices in an upcoming fireside 
chat. The goal is “to show them the different chess pieces involved, and how 
they can be used against them,” Kubecka says.

[...]

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