Sunday Musings Global Threat Report
Happy Sunday Friends!
Welcome back to another Sunday Friends! I’m glad you’re here. Here is your Sunday Musings, dedicated to exploring and sharing thoughts and insights on productivity, technology, and life. If you find it useful, please feel free to forward this along to friends!
Recommendation
🔎 Crowdstrike Global Threat Report 2023
Crowdstrike is one of the annual threat reports that I like to read and pull-out key snippets (also, I like their art). Below are the items that resonated for me:
Malware-Free attacks rose 9 points from 62% to 71%.
Indicates continued trend towards vulnerability exploits and credential stuffing.
33 new adversaries added (more than 200 now) Notably:
20+ were eCrime actors (Spiders)
Gossamer Bear - a Russia-linked group targeting government researchers, logistics, military suppliers, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO)
Deadeye Hawk - AKA the Syrian Electronic Army, formerly designated as a hacktivist group (Deadeye Jackal), now a state-sponsored threat actor for Syria.
Russian and Russia-affiliated groups are being better identified while supporting Russian efforts in Ukraine.
Ember Bear - Focused particularly on destructive and defacement measures. Indicates that they’re likely a part of, or it’s a part of their scope, psychological and cognitive operations against the public and governments to degrade public sentiment by disrupting routine public activities.
Gossamer Bear - Credential Phishing, but its targeting government research
labs, military suppliers, logistics companies and NGOs indicate a focus on ascertaining intelligence on military support to Ukraine and preparation for Information Operations against those organizations preparing for the Russian war crime investigations.
Fancy Bear & Primitive Bear - Continued intelligence gathering activities such as spear-phishing and credential phishing.
China-nexus adversaries (and those with the same TTPS) are the most active and persistent threat globally.
Targeting nearly ALL 39 global industry sectors and 20 geographic regions.
Overwhelmingly (66%) targeting East, Southeast, Central, and South Asia; specifically Taiwan.
Roughly 25% of efforts focused on European and North American targets.
Likely espionage and targeted surveillance (CCP objective).
Thin Slice:
There’s a lot to unpack here. None of which are strategic surprises.
Russia continues to be an aggressor and maintaining the warfighting concept of “the struggle”. It doesn’t separate what we call information warfare with regular warfare, it is one and the same and is usually a precursor to more in-depth operations.
China continues to follow apace with its 14th five-year-plan. Still pursuing regional hegemony and superpower status primarily through the economic, diplomatic, and informational instruments of national power, backed by its rapid buildup of the military instrument of national power as a means to control the 9 dash line.
I recommend reading The Hundred-Year Marathon by Michael Pillsbury if you want some really great insight into China’s “Grand Strategy” construct. It’s a great read.
The Crowdstrike team has potentially the most pervasive sensor network for threat intelligence outside of government actors. Their reports can help provide valuable insights for what has happened and help you know where you need to go, by knowing where we’ve been. Keep in mind… they’re still a business and are going to try to sell you things.
Read the Full Report Here // Threat Actor Naming Conventions
This Week in Productivity
📦Batching
What is it?
Think of when you do the laundry. You don’t wash one pair of pants, then go make a phone call, then wash a shirt, pay a bill. You let the laundry build up until you reach a specific quantity, then you wash it all in one go. Similarly, batching is grouping up all your similar tasks and doing them in one shot. Specifically, building up many like-tasks and then knocking them all out at once. Many (including Tim Ferriss) find it very useful.
How I use it
Batching is a very personal method. I’ve tried it and it doesn’t appeal to me as a bespoke productivity technique. As a part of my time blocking, batching happens organically. I work through specific groups of tasks that all use the same type of brain power: Respond to emails, return phone calls, admin/paperwork time. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great technique, it’s a game changer for many! The goal here is to not just talk about my favorites, but things that are useful. Try it out and let me know what you think!
Quote I’m Musing
“It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men’s badness, which is impossible.”
- Marcus Aurelius
We live in a hyperconnected world. We know so much about anything we could ever want to know about across the globe. From what celebrities are doing, to politicians both in our own country as well as those in another. With a few clicks or taps, we get their texts, photos, videos, and social media posts.
In Marcus Aurelius’ time, they struggled with worrying about what other people are doing more than their own concerns. Contrasted with today, our connectedness has exponentially increased our self-induced drama.
Do we need to have deeply felt opinions on some celebrity or political figure’s comments? Do we have control over that? Or are they distraction?
Let what happens simply be. We have enough to deal with by simply focusing on, and fixing, our own lives.
Spend your most valuable and non-renewable resource (Time) on being the exemplar of your values and beliefs. Spend it with your family and your friends, make wonderful memories and work, struggle together for something you all truly value. Leave the gossip to the “news”.
I would love your feedback!
Which musing is your favorite? What else do you want to see or what should I eliminate? Any other suggestions? Just send a tweet to @erichaupt on Twitter and put #SundayMusings at the end so I can find it. Or, eric@erichaupt.com for long form email.
Have a wonderful week, I’ll see you Sunday.
-e
End of transmission.