Cyber Security Weekly Podcast

Jane Lo, Singapore Correspondent speaks with Pasi Koistinen, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Coinhako Pasi Koistinen is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of Coinhako, Singapore’s market-leading crypto platform. Pasi drives Coinhako’s information security policies and is responsible for developing and establishing a world-class security framework to prevent, assess, and tackle internal and external threats to the company. Previously he co-founded two cybersecurity companies, Cyber Intelligence House in Singapore and Silverskin Information security in Finland. The companies provide threat intelligence and penetration testing services. Pasi has worked as CISO, and head of security in several companies during his 23 years tenure in the field of cyber security. In this podcast, Pasi shares his views on the cyber threat landscape in the crypto world. He points out that the crypto world is not immune to risks observed in the banking world, such as scams, money laundering, and “old school” malware attacks to steal funds of clients. He also notes that while attacks on crypto wallets and exchanges are notable, threat actors have been targeting the “DeFi” (decentralised finance) area within the crypto world. By exploiting, for example, design and key management weaknesses, and price discovery mechanisms flaws, threat actors have caused significant losses. While the crypto world is facing both traditional “old school” and emerging threats such as those specific to blockchains, Pasi reminds cyber defenders that cyber security is a risk management process requiring a multi-disciplinary approach. He cautions against assuming that “defense always succeed everywhere”, and advises the importance of identifying the company's critical assets, and building layers of defenses around these assets With “people and endpoints being the number primary targets of attacks”, he also advises users to think about how they wish to secure their personal crypto wallets and endpoint devices such as mobile and laptops.  Most importantly, he emphasises that the evolving crypto risk landscape means that “what is considered secure today may not be true tomorrow”. Recorded 27th June 2022 Singapore Time 11am

Jane Lo, Singapore Correspondent speaks with Christian Patouraux, CEO, and Founder of Singapore-based Kacific Broadband Satellites Christian Patouraux has over two decades’ experience in the satellite industry. He began his satellite career with SES, initially as a satellite engineer, procuring, launching, testing and operating 12 spacecraft, then as an independent business development consultant, playing key roles in launching broadband businesses, implementing large teleports, deploying airline and maritime broadband, and developing satellite multi-play and IPTV businesses. He went on to develop satellite offerings for new markets in Asia Pacific as head of special projects for MEASAT. Christian was also Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer at O3b Networks, where his work was fundamental to launching the company’s maritime business. In 2013, he founded Kacific Broadband Satellites to bring high speed, low-cost connectivity to remote regions of the Asia Pacific, fostering greater internet usage, fueling economic growth and improvements in service delivery across covered regions. Kacific’s first satellite, Kacific1, was launched into geostationary orbit on the 16th of December 2019. Once operational, Kacific will offer direct internet access, via wholesale channels, to government agencies, institutions, businesses, community groups and households within the satellite's total footprint area. Christian holds a Master of Engineering from the Polytechnic school at the University of Brussels, a Master of Aeronautics / Turbomachinery from the Von Karman Institute, Belgium and an MBA from Insead. In this podcast, Christian shares the latest developments in broadband via satellites, from technology and regulations to trends, with implications for costs and business models. Referencing the Ukraine crisis and Elon Musk’s Starlink, he gives an overview of the key features of a low-earth orbit system (or “LEO”, launched by for example Starlink) and the geosynchronous satellite (or “GEO”), and how Kacific’s GEO satellite delivers affordable high-speed broadband access to the rural and remote parts of the world. Christian also references the Covid-19 pandemic, which highlights to governments the critical need for rural connectivity, and how satellite broadband is able to respond to the challenge and bring communication access to less populous regions.  In addition to emergency access, Christian also summarises the trends in services provided by satellite broadband - including disaster recovery (observed in the Ukraine crisis), backup and redundancy, and the role of satellite broadband in the coming 5G era. In comparing satellites to fiber-optic operators, he clarified that both face similar regulatory requirements. However, satellite broadband addresses certain backhaul challenges faced by fiber-optic operators in a cost efficient way, and hence offers a competitive advantage, in particular for markets in the remote and rural regions. Recorded 23rd June 2022, 3pm (Singapore Time).

In this gripping essay, Australia’s leading strategic thinker, Hugh White explores Australia’s fateful choice to back America to the hilt and oppose China. What led both sides of politics to align with America so absolutely? Is this a case of sleepwalking to war? What tests might a new government face? White assesses America’s credibility and commitment, by examining AUKUS, the Quad, Trump and Biden. He discusses what the Ukraine conflict tells us about the future. And he argues that the US can neither contain China, nor win a war over Taiwan. So where does this leave our future security and prosperity in Asia? Is there a better way to navigate the disruption caused by China’s rise? “Canberra’s rhetoric helps raise the risk of the worst outcome for Australia: a war between China and America, in which we are likely to be involved. Over the past decade, and without any serious discussion, Australian governments have come to believe that America should go to war with China if necessary to preserve US primacy in Asia, and that Australia should, as a matter of course, go to war with it.” —Hugh White, Sleepwalk to War Quarterly Essay 86, Sleepwalk to War: Australia's Unthinking Alliance with America was released 27 June 2022. To obtain a copy visit https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2022/06/sleepwalk-to-war (https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2022/06/sleepwalk-to-war)HUGH WHITE is the author of The China Choice and How To Defend Australia, and two acclaimed Quarterly Essays, Power Shift and Without America. He is emeritus professor of strategic studies at ANU, former Deputy Defence Secretary for Strategy, and was principal author of Australia’s Defence White Paper 2000. Further Listening – Our previous interview with Hugh White - Episode 314 - Reality Check - Taiwan cannot be defended https://blubrry.com/mysecurity/84123792/episode-314-reality-check-taiwan-cannot-be-defended/#hughwhite (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/hughwhite) #sleepwalktowar (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/sleepwalktowar) #quarterlyessay (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/quarterlyessay) #nationalsecurity (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/nationalsecurity) #indopacific (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/indopacific) #uschinarelations (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/uschinarelations) #mysecuritytv (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/mysecuritytv)

Jane Lo, Singapore Correspondent speaks with Dr. P.J. Blount, Lecturer in Law in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University. Dr. P.J. Blount (Ph.D., M.S., Global Affairs, Rutgers University; LL.M., King's College London; J.D., University of Mississippi; B.A./A.B.J., University of Georgia) is a Lecturer in Law in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University. He has served as an adjunct professor for the LL.M. in the Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Luxembourg, an adjunct professor at Montclair State University, and a Visiting Scholar at the Beijing Institute of Technology School of Law. He also completed an industrial fellowship sponsored by the Luxembourg National Research Fund wherein he split his time between SES and the University of Luxembourg research cybersecurity issues relevant to the space industry. Blount’s primary research areas are international space law with a focus on space security and cyberspace law and governance. He has published and presented widely on the topic of space law and has given expert testimony on Space Traffic Management before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Space. His book, Reprogramming the World: Cyberspace and the Geography of Global Order, was published open access with e-International Relations Press in 2019. He is an editor of the Proceedings of the International Institute of Space Law and was formerly the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law. He currently serves as the Executive Secretary of the International Institute of Space Law and is a licensed attorney with the State Bar of Georgia (USA). In this podcast, Dr Blount introduces the historical and political context of the Outer Space Treaty which was negotiated in 1967. Despite the technological advances since then, Dr Blount argues that the treaty, in his view, is technologically neutral, where the intent is for it to “apply to everything” and “embrace all sorts of technologies”. Nevertheless, technological developments force us to rethink our understanding of security. While cybersecurity adds a layer of complexity, he notes that “cybersecurity laws and regulations are not usually the answer to our problems in cybersecurity”. However, he stresses that, cybersecurity being a risk management process means there are legal implications. For example, for a university Cube Sat, he explains how cybersecurity may play a part in the licensing and authorising process – that is, the extent of cybersecurity and risk management plans could depend on its payload and orbital dynamics. On whether space sector should be designated as a critical infrastructure, Dr Blount advocates for more definitions, noting the potential for burdening such satellites as the educational ones with unnecessary regulations. Where laws provide few details in how to secure assets for space sector operators, Dr Blount suggests that standards such as those developed by NIST for Commercial Satellite Operations serve as actionable guidance. Recorded 27th June 2022, 10am London / 5pm Singapore

Exclusive Networks has joined forces with security leaders in calling on the industry to take global action in a bid to end the recruitment crisis in cybersecurity, which is currently faced with an estimated shortfall of 2.7 million professionals. The Paris-headquartered global cybersecurity specialist is one of the founding partners supporting an initiative launched today by investment and advisory firm NightDragon and Next Gen Cyber Talent, a non-profit cyber education provider, to raise $1 million to fund cybersecurity courses for students in the US from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds. Exclusive will be lending its experience and expertise to the campaign having recently established a partnership with California Polytechnic State University, opening an office on campus and currently sponsoring 12 students, 9 of which are already progressing through their security certification training assignments, delivered by Exclusive and its partners. All are expected to go on to full-time roles in the industry after completing their education. On the international front, Exclusive has partnered with Guardia in Europe to launch the first private cybersecurity academy in France where it will help in the development of course content as well as providing mentoring and internship opportunities for students. Exclusive has also recently become and advisory member of the Cyber Security Coalition in Belgium, a partnership between academia, public authorities and the private sector to share specialist expertise, knowledge and information in the fight against cybercrime. We speak with Jesper Trolle, CEO and Denis Ferrand-Ajchenbaum, Executive Board Member & SVP of Exclusive Networks to discuss the cybersecurity talent challenge and the company's involvement. Jesper is a vastly accomplished entrepreneurial channel business leader who joined Exclusive Networks as CEO in September 2020. Since starting out in his native Denmark building successful reseller and distribution businesses, Jesper has amassed almost three decades of executive experience and worked around the world at the head of multi-billion-dollar VAD organisations. He was President of the Americas for ECS Arrow prior to joining Exclusive and holds an MBA from the Henley Business School. Denis joined Exclusive with over 30 years of experience in enterprise IT including stints at value-added distributors, resellers, and vendors. As an Executive Board Member and SVP Global Business Development & Ecosystems, he is responsible for maximising the value and global penetration of existing vendor relationships while scouting and acquiring the next generation of Exclusive Networks’ trusted digital infrastructure portfolio. Denis is also tasked with driving the strategy for our transactional partners – global system integrators (GSIs) and worldwide reseller network – and non-transactional partners – VCs, educational institutions and international and national bodies. In addition, Denis spearheads the strategy and growth of our innovative subscription platform, X-OD. #cybersecurity (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/cybersecurity) #exclusivenetworks (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/exclusivenetworks)

Interview with Sam Liew, President, Singapore Computer Society; Managing Partner, Government Strategic Business Group, NCS Group. Sam is Managing Partner, Government Strategic Business Group at NCS. He leads NCS' government portfolio, which includes Public Service, Defence and Homeland Security. In addition, Sam is also driving expansion efforts to propel NCS as the go-to digital catalyst for governments and smart cities across Asia Pacific. Prior to NCS, Sam was the Managing Director of GIC. He was Director, Technology Group and also heads GIC's Business Partner and Solutions Division. Sam was responsible for delivering GIC’s Technology, Data Analytics, and Data Science projects and initiatives. Before GIC, Sam was Managing Director at Accenture ASEAN Technology. He also led Accenture's Asia Pacific Communications Centre of Excellence, delivering business solutions across Asia. He was also a member of Accenture's Global Technology Leadership Council and ASEAN Geographical Leadership Council. Sam currently serves as Board Director on the Gardens by the Bay Board. Sam also sits on the Board of Singapore Management University's (SMU) School of Computing and Information Systems and Singapore Polytechnic's School of Computing. In additional, he serves as Council Member on Enterprise Singapore's IT Standards Committee. He has been conferred a Fellow by SCS. In this podcast, Sam gives an overview of the Singapore Computer Society, and the Tech Leader Awards 2022 (presented on 6th May 2022), the nation’s tech awards which celebrates the stalwarts of excellence and innovation within Singapore’s pulsating tech industry. He also shares some highlights of the Singapore 100 Women in Tech List, another major recognition program by the SCS. With Singapore’s emergence from the pandemic, Sam gives his take on what it means for the digital transformation trends, and a glimpse into what we may expect for Tech Leader Awards 2023. Recorded 12th May 2022 Singapore 7am.

Highlights from BlackHat Asia 2022 keynote Interview with George Do, Chief Information Security Officer, Gojek and GoTo Financial. George has been working in the cybersecurity field for over 25+ years concentrating on the building and operating cybersecurity programs. He specializes in the transformation of cybersecurity, winning customer trust, and ensuring a strong cybersecurity posture for organization. George has extensive experience in maturing global cybersecurity programs and teams, including securing applications (products and services), securing core IT infrastructure and cloud workloads, and maintaining a robust incident response capability. George leads global teams in cybersecurity, data privacy, governance, risk, compliance (GRC), and implementation of security frameworks. Working closely stakeholders across functions, the global programs he developed has ensured security is baked into products and services at birth. Before joining Gojek and GoTo Financial, George served as the global Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Equinix where he built the global cybersecurity program from inception. Previous to that he worked at Exodus (Savvis / Century Link), and Tivo in senior security leadership roles. He began his career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) where he collaborated with senior federal officials to secure government information assets. George serves on customer advisory boards for several cybersecurity firms and is an advisor for venture capital. He is a frequent speaker and panelist at cybersecurity industry events. In this podcast, George shares highlights of his keynote at BlackHat Asia 2022, “Quantify Security Effectively – Moving the Security Needle From the Security Trenches to the Boardroom.” Drawing on more than two decades of experience in the cybersecurity industry, he speaks on the value of risk quantification to gain board and senior management level buy-in to invest in cybersecurity areas that matter. Explaining that organisation stakeholders may hold varying perceptions of what these areas, he introduces the concept of a Risk Register to prioritise the different cyber threats the organisation may face.  He also advises on applying a RACI (responsible, accountable, consultative, informed) model to address these cyber threats. Using ransomware as an illustration, he explains the importance to appoint a risk owner accountable for addressing the risk. Additionally, he stresses the importance for the board and senior management to empower the risk owner with the necessary resources. George also notes that while there are successes at Gojek and GoTo Financial to ensure customer and partner trust and safety, online and cyber threats landscape is an on-going arms race where new threats are constantly emerging. He wraps up the podcast by reminding the audience to avoid traps such as designing “solutions in search of problems” and adding to the technical debt by “compounding the security industrial complex”. Recorded 13th May 2022 (BlackHat Asia 2022) Singapore 3pm.

Oliver Tavakoli is Chief Technology Officer at Vectra. Oliver is a technologist who has alternated between working for large and small companies throughout his 25-year career.Oliver will be visiting Australia at the end of May and discussing how Ransomware will be coming to a cloud near you. Oliver points to this concept as a thought experiment on what to expect next.Ransomware and software supply chain attacks have dominated the cybersecurity news feeds and have certainly also captured the attention of mainstream media. While supply chain attacks have already shown a clear appreciation for target organisations’ cloud footprints and have leveraged that understanding to pull off some of the more impressive attacks, almost all ransomware attacks have continued to focus primarily on traditional on-premise IT estates. This is because tools to attack these environments (Metasploit, Cobalt Strike, Bloodhound, etc.) have been available for more than a decade and that many hackers have great familiarity with these tools and that there continue to be many organisations whose environments are insufficiently hardened to withstand an attack by a moderately skilled adversary.Two trends will drive ransomware to the cloud:1. the inexorable movement of most data of value to the cloud (in this context, “cloud” is intended to cover both SaaS-delivered applications like Office 365 and public clouds like AWS and Azure) and2. the gradual availability of tools (for example Rhino Security Labs Pacu) to attack clouds and hackers’ increased familiarity with them. This presentation will discuss what this combination of Ransomware and cloud is likely to look like.Prior to joining Vectra, Oliver spent more than seven years at Juniper as chief technical officer for the security business. Oliver joined Juniper as a result of its acquisition of Funk Software, where he was CTO and better known as developer #1 for Steel-Belted Radius. Prior to joining Funk Software, Oliver co-founded Trilogy Inc. and prior to that, he did stints at Novell, Fluent Machines and IBM.He is a technologist with experience managing larger (100+ member) teams, but with a bias towards leading small teams of smart technical individuals who want to change organisations through articulations of compelling visions, implementation of elegant architectures and building of highly collaborative technical communities. His specialties include networking architectures, systems software design, computer security principles, organisational design.Oliver received an MS in mathematics and a BA in mathematics and computer science from the University of Tennessee.Recorded via Singapore, Friday 20 May, 2022.

Interview with Charles Li, Chief Technology Officer, and the Chief Analyst at Team T5 Charles is the Chief Technology Officer, and the Chief Analyst at Team T5. He leads Team T5 analyst team in threat intelligence research. He has been studying cyber attacks and campaign tracking for more than 10 years. His research interests include vulnerability research, reverse engineering and APT attacks. He often publishes research and gives training courses at security conferences. In this podcast, he shares some highlights of his team’s presentation at Black Hat Asia 2022. Focusing on the notorious Chinese threat actor groups (APT 10, APT 27, APT 41) he discussed key characteristics, such as how their motivations extend beyond espionage to monetisation, tools overlap, targets, and growing OpSec sophistication. He also touches on the Chinese Cyber Threat landscape from the Taiwanese perspective, such as the information warfare campaigns. With shifting geopolitical landscapes increasing the frequency of cyberattacks on Taiwanese targets, he notes the Taiwanese responses in increasing cybersecurity regulations and investments. He also shares how the Chinese government’s five-year plans and international relations shape its cyber operations – such as technical skills and tools exchange with other nation state actors, and exploitation of zero-days. He advises cyber defenders to invest in tailored threat intelligence, to complement tools such as EDR or firewalls. Recorded 11th May 2022 8am (Singapore Time/ Taiwanese Time).

New Macquarie University research into phone scams has identified the scripts and emotions that drive most calls. A team of researchers from Macquarie University’s Cyber Security Hub has analysed the content of more than 100 hours of scam phone calls to identify clear call ‘stages’ and pinpoint the social engineering techniques scammers use on their victims. The team, headed by Professor Dali Kaafar, used machine-learning techniques and natural language processing to uncover scam ‘scripts’ that use various topics and emotions. These findings will help develop better ways to detect and prevent scams which account for the human element which is critical to scammers’ success. The team found that scripts used by scammers contain multiple paths, which can be simplified into four different stages: Stage 1 – Introduction The scammer establishes themselves as credible and in a position of authority, then talks about a serious threat to the recipient in a matter-of-fact way – with the threat supposedly from a higher authority (eg the legal system or tax office).Stage 2 – Assistance The scammer poses as a helpful instructor, using rapport-building conversations, ostensibly helping the recipient to resolve the supposed problem, giving step-by-step guidance to navigate to a website, install software or fill out online forms. Stage 3 – Threat Emotions can ramp up at this stage, as the scammer reinforces threats for non-compliance, citing police, court orders, arrest warrants, jail and other negative consequences, using legal sounding terms, talking over the victim to defer questions and introducing time pressure to prevent the victim thinking it through. Stage 4 – Payment / Close Once the scammer gets what they want – like a credit card payment or enticing the victim to download malicious software – the conversation becomes less organised, and scammers finish the call, sometimes promising to call back with confirmation. We spoke with Professor Dali Kaafar is Executive Director of the Cyber Security Hub in the School of Computing.Further reading: https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/may-2022/Tricks-used-by-phone-scammers-exposed-in-new-study