Comment from Attivo - Parliamentary report into Russian influence in the UK
July 2020 by Tony Cole, CTO at Attivo Networks
In the event that you are planning to expand further on today’s
Parliamentary report into Russian influence in the UK the following
comment may be attributed to my client attributable to my client Tony
Cole, CTO at Attivo Networks.
"It’s been clear for a number of years that the Russians have every
intention to continue their efforts to undermine the fabric of Western
society. They do this by focusing on a non-stop flow of disinformation
campaigns in their targeted countries to sow disinformation to undermine
free society foundations and especially hamper free and fair elections.
Countries should have a structure in place to strike back in a fair and
meaningful manner through offensive cyber actions. This structure should
be focused inside government and not allow individual companies to
retaliate when impacted by Russian campaigns (or any other country).
Calling out Russia publicly has had little effect on them outside of
sanctions and even the latter doesn’t seem to curtail this activity.
Hitting them in cyberspace where it’s impactful to their society and
could help counter Putin’s government is where attention is needed. _
Organizations attempting to thwart activity from Russia and other
nation-states need to step up their game where they detect malicious
activity inside their enterprises in quick fashion. Public Service
Announcements across media and social media could also help educate the
public and help counter disinformation campaigns from foreign sources.
It is quite clear that significant action must be taken before foreign
efforts to undermine western society have a long-term effect"_