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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