In Defense of Facts: Setting Standards Against Information Threats

When it comes to cybersecurity incident response, getting to patient zero is one of the most important factors. Millions of dollars are spent annually by the cyber vendor ecosystem to reduce MTTD (mean time to detect), which in large part requires them to be able to cut through the security 'white noise'. With the rise of MDM (mis/dis/malinformation), do these technologies and the methodologies behind them translate one for one? Unfortunately, they don't. The reason for the complexity found in MDM is in its ambiguous nature. This is a more complex issue, even compared to polymorphic malware generated by AI. Why? Because we are trying to put form and structure around intent. We are trying to take a qualitative concept, perhaps the qualitative quandary of the year (given the 2024 elections) and quantify the threat in a consistent and accurate manner – one that is actionable. This methodology is not only needed for identification purposes but ideally will help support actions, such as holding those responsible when they break the law. However, this is hard, if not impossible to do when you have entities like the federal government who encourage people to report anything they consider threats on social media, without guidance or clarity around what constitutes a threat. Given the sheer volume of MDM that Maricopa County faces, we have developed standards not only around reporting MDM but what constitutes a threat, what kind it is and the potential types of risk against the organization. This has helped increase the fidelity of our threat intelligence we share with our partner as well as establish business-centric thresholds around identified risks that we can put our limited resources towards investigating. As the threat of MDM increases, we believe that all organizations, regardless of sector but especially the federal government, should adopt a common taxonomy around MDM threats. By: Lester Godsey | CISO, Maricopa County Full Abstract and Presentation Materials: https://ift.tt/Wl7Te2b

source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1NG6Pecewg