Defend Forward

The inaugural report from the Cyber Defenders Council was released last week. The report focuses on the concept of “Defend Forward”—a proactive approach for cyber deterrence. I am very proud of the report, and our work with the Cyber Defenders Council itself, because these efforts align with my mission and my values. 

Cyber Defenders Council

The Cyber Defenders Council is a group of preeminent cybersecurity leaders from around the world. The members come from both public and private sector organizations to collaborate on a new model for cyber deterrence to help organizations as lines blur between financially motivated cybercrime and nation-state or state-sponsored attacks.

As we can all see and many are experiencing, ransomware continues to pose a significant threat to organizations. Ransomware has had an impact on supply chains and critical infrastructure, and—more recently—has resulted in Lincoln College, a 157-year-old historically black institution closing its doors, and the nation of Costa Rica declaring a state of emergency

Bringing together fifty of the world’s leading cybersecurity experts during a time of unprecedented attacks on both private and public sector organizations puts threat actors on notice. This Council offers private sector enterprises much-needed concrete guidance. 

Reverse the Adversary Advantage

It is my mission to help defenders reverse the adversary advantage. We can’t do that by focusing only on detection and response. It is too easy for threat actors to launch attacks, and—by itself—this approach perpetuates the reactive cat-and-mouse game currently playing out between adversaries and defenders.

The Cyber Defenders Council Report, Defend Forward: A Proactive Model for Cyber Deterrence, is significant because it puts renewed emphasis on deterring attacks and attackers in the first place. The report focuses on adapting the principles of Defend Forward for the private sector.

This approach—which originated with the US Department of Defense—provides guidance to proactively deter, disrupt, and stop malicious cyber activity before attackers can achieve their objectives. It strives to increase the costs for adversaries, and make it harder, more expensive, and more legally perilous to launch successful attacks. 

Win as One

While the Cyber Defenders Council and this inaugural report align with my mission to reverse the adversary advantage, these efforts also focus on one of my core values: Win as One. 

Cybersecurity is a group effort. Cyberattacks threaten economies and national security and impact jobs and lives around the world. All Defenders must work together in order to really succeed. 

The Cyber Defenders Council demonstrates the power of collaborating and working as a team. When you include diverse perspectives and skills, you can achieve great things. Please check out the report from the Cyber Defenders Council, and Defend Forward.

Lior Div
About the Author

Lior Div

Lior Div, CEO and co-founder of Cybereason, began his career and later served as a Commander in the famed Unit 8200. His team conducted nation-state offensive operations with a 100% success rate for penetration of targets. He is a renowned expert in hacking operations, forensics, reverse engineering, malware analysis, cryptography and evasion. Lior has a very unique perspective on the most advanced attack techniques and how to leverage that knowledge to gain an advantage over the adversary. This perspective was key to developing an operation-centric approach to defending against the most advanced attacks and represents the direction security operations must take to ensure a future-ready defense posture.

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