Cyber Horror: When Zero-Days Become Real Monsters 💀

Madonna and I love horror movies. Most of them aren't good, but this time of year is just magic — spooky tales of ghouls and weirdos trying to trick and snare you into their plan to resurrect the anti-christ... OoooOOOoooooohh...!! 👻

Just as scary: “Cyber exec with lavish lifestyle charged with selling secrets to Russia”. Dang it, Peter Williams! Can’t we just be happy living lavish lifestyles without selling secrets to Russia? (Slava Ukraini!! 🌻💙)

Obviously, it’s not going to be super clear what the real damage is at the UNCLASSIFIED level, but Ms. Lyons (the author of the article on The Register) had this as the secondary title:

“The 0-days have left the building.”

If you're not privy to zero-days, here's the wiki summary:

“A zero-day (also known as a 0-day) is a vulnerability or security hole in a computer system unknown to its developers or anyone capable of mitigating it. Until the vulnerability is remedied, threat actors can exploit it in a zero-day exploit, or zero-day attack.

The term ‘zero-day’ originally referred to the number of days since a new piece of software was released to the public, so ‘zero-day software’ was obtained by hacking into a developer’s computer before release. Eventually, the term was applied to the vulnerabilities that allowed this hacking, and to the number of days the vendor has had to fix them. Vendors who discover the vulnerability may create patches or advise workarounds to mitigate it — though users need to deploy that mitigation to eliminate the vulnerability in their systems. Zero-day attacks are severe threats.”

In IADS: The Game, the Cyber card deploys to HQ and can either:

• Offensive Cyber Ops: Attach to a detected adversary unit; opponent may no longer Issue Orders to that unit. Requires Actions 1 and 2 to take effect.

• Defensive Cyber Ops: Activates automatically without being Issued Orders. Prevent enemy Offensive Cyber Ops. Reveal the Cyber unit card, but retain the ability to utilize 1x Offensive Cyber Ops for the rest of the VUL.

Using this card at crucial moments, or when you've discovered a weapon system key to your opponent, the Offensive Cyber Ops ability can quickly blunt an adversary attack or crumble enemy defenses in just two Actions.

I imagine Mr. Williams’ compromise potentially being a Cyber card being passed around from adversary to adversary -- a dangerous weapon just waiting for the right time or the right target to detect. General Haugh even points to U.S. civilian infrastructure as being a prime cyber target for our nation’s adversaries in a recent interview with 60 Minutes.

Madonna and I love horror movies... maybe it’s because haunting ghosties are less creepy than what’s really lurking in the shadows! 😭

-- Ric 🎃