The Cyber Battlefield with Max Smeets | 13

In this episode, Ciaran and James meet Max Smeets, Co-Director of Virtual Routes and Senior Researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies at ETH Zurich, to discuss how digital threats are reshaping geopolitics. Max shares his expertise on the cyber dimensions of modern warfare, and the impact of ransomware attacks on global security.

Guest Bio:

Max Smeets is the Co-Director of Virtual Routes, and serves as Managing Editor of Binding Hook. He also holds research positions at ETH Zurich, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Max is the author of Ransom War: How Cyber Crime Became a Threat to National Security and No Shortcuts: Why States Struggle to Develop a Military Cyber Force.

Max received a BA in Economics, Politics and Statistics from University College Roosevelt, Utrecht University and an MPhil (Brasenose College) and DPhil (St. John’s College) in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

Highlights:

• Ransom War: How Cybercrime Became a National Security Threat
• No Shortcuts
• Virtual Routes
• Center for Security Studies

Ransomware as a National Security Crisis

• • Costa Rica ransomware attack (2022) | President Rodrigo Chaves says Costa Rica is at war with Conti hackers
• • Conti ransomware gang chats leaked by pro-Ukraine member

Cyber Operations in the Ukraine War

• • • Early wiper attacks | Intelligence gathering | Targeting critical surveillance infrastructure

The Militarisation of Cyberspace

• • • Department of Defense Cyber Strategy 2018
    • A new ‘turning point’ for Germany’s cyber posture?
    • The challenges of military adaptation to the cyber domain: a case study of the Netherlands
  • • National Cyber Force

The Ransomware Economy & Geopolitical Ties

• • NotPetya (2017) | The Untold Story of NotPetya, the Most Devastating Cyberattack in History
• • Medibank: Data stolen from Australia health insurance available online | Cyber sanction in response to Medibank Private cyber attack
• • Ransomware incidents now make up majority of British government’s crisis management 'Cobra' meetings
• • Ransomware gang posts breast cancer patients’ clinical photographs
  • We tried to quantify how harmful hospital ransomware attacks are for patients. Here’s what we found

High-Profile Takedowns & the Future of Cybercrime

• • Scattered Spider | CISA | Five alleged members of Scattered Spider cybercrime group charged for breaches, theft of $11 million
• • The LockBit takedown | Global Initiative | The NCA announces the disruption of LockBit with Operation Cronos - National Crime Agency

Additional Resources:

• “We don’t have a cyber problem; we have a Russia problem, a China problem, an Iran problem, and a North Korea problem.” — Dmitri Alperovitch
• • Ransomware group Clop issues extortion notice to ‘hundreds’ of victims
• Evil Corp: 'My hunt for the world's most wanted hackers' - BBC News

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Contact:

• Have questions or comments? Email us at cyberleaderspodcast@sans.org