InfraGard

shoot skeet, you know, with the shotguns or something like we've done some pretty cool, like off the wall stuff.

There's also some different like companies you can partner with organizations, ISACA, IC square, InfraGard, different groups there.

If you know someone they're coming in and asking to do a pitch to them, you can get in front of some, some people, some decision makers there as well.

I'd say that not as successful as some of the other stuff, but that is a different way, a little off the beaten path where you're just not cold messaging people.

And the time to act is now.

Who is behind this massive cyber heist? None other than the same threat actor responsible for infiltrating the FBI's InfraGard, a network we're proud members of, demonstrating an audacity that few in the hacking world can match.

Known as USDUD, this hacker has not only stolen billions of records, but has also been publicly exposed or doxed.

after getting into a heated exchange with CrowdStrike, a leading cybersecurity company that famously claims to stop breaches.

The entity behind the NationalPublicData.com breach, known as USDOD, is a notorious figure in the cybercriminal world, though not widely recognized in mainstream databases like MITRE ATT&CK or Malpedia.

USDOD is a single individual rather than a group, and has a history of executing similar high-profile hacks and data leaks.

This individual was previously associated with other significant breaches targeting organizations such as the FBI's InfraGard, Airbus, and more.

He has given interviews and his true identity and location has been exposed.

But, you know, the government has... different objectives um than a private industry who's answering to you know board and stockholders so you can't just swing it one way or the other um so from that perspective i think this is interesting because um Maybe we can set some precedent for having more meaningful public-private partnerships.

I mean, probably a lot of listeners are familiar with like InfraGard.

I used to be active with InfraGard many years ago.

I'm still a member, but they used to actually do things

that help

And here's the information to the local power plant or other critical infrastructure and saying, this is what we're seeing, right? And this is where we think you should think about doing things.

And that's where groups like InfraGard that the FBI runs that works with private sector to alert them to emerging threats and things like that.

It's going to rely a lot on private sector to do this.

And then we have to figure out incentives for it, right? If you're worried about the bottom line, which you are as a private company, what is the incentive to stop these type of attacks or harden your stuff? And the answer is, if it goes down, that's going to affect your bottom line.

We've been using them for years.

And as you said, I do run a company called InfraGard that was founded by the FBI 30 years ago.

And I can tell you at the federal level – Video intelligence is very, very important.

It's very critical for big events that go on, like the recent FIFA event.

The FBI has already established an AI division in the company, which is a huge first step organizationally to get the organization aligned around AI and make sure the positions are staffed, which they are.

Are you talking

about within InfraGard?

No, within the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

of, I think I was probably on like a joint call

with like Department of Homeland Security and FBI and InfraGard is FBI's kind of public-private partnership.

And they were kind of explaining to us how this happened and what it means and what encryption and how this works.

And of course, coming from the NSA, I was like, hey guys, I know what encryption is.

A billion people that like comment and talk and I love it.

I absolutely love it because that's what this is all about, right? So we're part of InfraGard.

Me and my team, we're part of InfraGard.

We've been training, we've formed, we've created public services where we're out training people on cybersecurity awareness.

We've been doing it for over 10 years.

the government including federal and state local tribal and territorial sltt agencies and the private sector need a repeatable consistent process for jointly evaluating potentially significant cyber incidents and assessing appropriate deterrence prevention response and mitigation efforts from a legal policy national security and business process perspective Key aspects of any collaborative defense effort between the government and private sector include coordinated protection and detection approaches to ensure resilience, fully integrated response, recovery, and plans, a series of annual cooperative training programs and exercises coordinated with key agencies and industry, and the development of interoperable systems.

Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI's InfraGard and Domestic Security Alliance Council programs, the Department of Defense, DOD, and other sector-specific agencies, SSAs, should develop sector-specific collaborative security operations programs with their private sector counterparts as well as with state governments which have an important role in critical infrastructure protection and operation department of defense's deliberate planning process could serve as a model for this effort These programs would move beyond tabletop exercises and seek to establish public-private joint collaboration by examining specific cyber protection and detection approaches and contingencies, testing them in a simulation environment, and developing joint plans for how the government and private sector would execute coordinated protection and detection activities, responding together, in alignment with the national cyber incident response plan this effort should include state local tribal and territorial planners when appropriate it should also seek to define subsector roles within each critical infrastructure sector action item one point two point three the federal government should provide companies the option to engage proactively and candidly in formal collaboration with the government to advance cyber risk management practices and to establish a well-coordinated joint defense plan based on the principles of the cybersecurity framework short term even though closer and more substantive public-private sharing of risk management practices shows great promise in improving overall cybersecurity this approach continues to be hindered by companies concerns about increasing their exposure to legal actions to address these impediments to helpful collaboration department of homeland security should work with industry to identify changes in statutes regulations or policies that would encourage participating companies to more freely share information about their risk management practices by protecting relevant documents communications or deliberations from public disclosure under freedom of information act or state transparency laws discovery in civil litigation use in regulatory enforcement investigations or actions use as record evidence in regulatory rulemaking processes and waiver of attorney client privilege these protections should be implemented under the statutory protected critical infrastructure information protections administered by department of homeland security implementation should include consideration of how to protect personal privacy trade secrets and other confidential information such as by using privacy impact assessments where feasible using the cyber security framework approach as a basis regulatory agencies should adopt policies that incorporate protections into their engagements with regulated entities Furthermore, Congress should pass legislation updating and expanding these protections beyond critical infrastructure sectors and regulated entities.

Action Item 1.2.4 Federal agencies should expand the current implementation of the information sharing strategy to include exchange of information on organizational interdependencies within the cyber supply chain, short-term.

While some private sector organizations are diligent in addressing cyber risks to and through their cyber supply chains, many others either are unaware of the risks or do not have the information and resources necessary to implement an organizationally integrated and robust cyber supply chain risk management program.