Cyber Warfare – Truth, Tactics, and Strategies: Strategic concepts and truths to help you and your organization survive on the battleground of cyber warfare

"Cyber Warfare – Understanding the Truth and Strategies; A detailed exploration of strategic concepts and essential insights to navigate the world of cyber warfare" authored by Chase Cunningham was a captivating and enlightening read that serves as a definitive manual for individuals serious about safeguarding their cybersecurity. Being a recognized authority in the field, Cunningham shares profound perspectives on the intricate nature of contemporary cyber warfare, establishing this book as essential reading material. The book excels in its thorough examination of cyber warfare tactics and strategies, stressing the crucial importance of adopting a "Strategic Thinking with Tactical Actions" approach. This guiding principle is intricately woven throughout the text, offering a solid framework for comprehending how to maneuver through the complexities of cyberspace. Cunningham's emphasis on "Strategically Defending the Edge" carries significant weight, underscoring the need for preemptive defensive actions to safeguard organizational boundaries. A standout feature of "Cyber Warfare" lies in its ability to simplify intricate cybersecurity concepts into practical strategies. Cunningham's talent for demystifying sophisticated cyber threats and defense mechanisms ensures that both seasoned professionals and newcomers can grasp the content with ease. His discourse on the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats and imperative adaptive defense tactics is particularly enlightening. As an individual deeply engaged in cybersecurity matters, I found the real-life illustrations and case studies provided within this book incredibly beneficial. The examples not only show how different strategies work effectively but also highlight the serious outcomes of having insufficient cyber defenses. Cunningham's thoughts on the impact of AI and machine learning in cyber warfare are relevant and stimulating, aligning well with current trends and future predictions in the cybersecurity field. For those seeking to enhance their knowledge and skills in cybersecurity, "Cyber Warfare – Truth, Tactics and Strategies" is a strong read. Chase Cunningham has created a comprehensive and insightful guide that is both educational and engaging. Highly recommended for cybersecurity experts, IT leaders and anyone keen on grasping the complexities of cyber warfare. This book serves not just as a read but as a strategic resource for navigating through the ever-changing cyber battlefield.

I've been working in and around IT security for almost two decades now, and have slogged through so many books on how to protect your users' and customers' data that were painfully obvious, brutally boring, painfully technical, or a combination of those three. Chase Cunningham's book is none of those three categories. I actually ENJOYED reading this. It's accessible and relevant to everyone in the stack, from the junior analyst to the C-suite and board-level who see security as an existential matter for their organizations. There are a few different parallel themes here. First, IT-organizational: cloud; Zero Trust; and Automation/Operationalization. Man, I love that word. It's satisfying to say it out loud... But I digress. Those underlying themes are reinforced by the critical theme of Zero Trust: micro-segmentation. Full disclosure here: I work for Illumio, so I'm very focused on the whys and hows of micro-seg. I'm coming at it from half a decade of trying to protect networks from the inside out. I've seen Zero Trust go from being a vague and nebulous term to buzzwords to an industry-standard that organizations aspire to achieve. I digress again... If you are searching for a way to protect your environment, to be an important part of your organization's thought leadership in a critical transition from traditional methodologies that are ineffective and obsolete, then you should read this book. It's well-written and takes on a broad subject in an easy to digest format for all levels of knowledge, ability, and position. Whether you're directly responsible for security or running the company, this is a solid and essential read.

For those who are already steeped in the principles of warfare, Dr. Cunningham's book is a modern introduction to cyber warfare: the whys, the hows, and the significance for future engagements. It includes plenty of details about cyber attacks that have made the headlines in the past few years, as well as a few that didn't, and lays out the implications for defenders who may not realize they're on the battlefield (hospitals, shipping and logistics companies, and more). He covers everything from denial of service attacks to disinformation campaigns, with a stop along the way to explain why it's so hard to get autonomous vehicles secured. If you read nothing else, take chapter 7 to heart: the strategic plans for effective cyber warfare that should be in place as soon as possible. The security model most frequently dubbed "zero trust" in the industry today (and which Cunningham champions in his day job as a Forrester analyst) is described here more usefully as Edge and Entity Security. The most important point that will resonate with professional defenders is that the network will always be contested space, which is why entities need more verification and have an "edge" that travels with them in this mobile environment. The one argument that I found a bit jarring was the (correct) example of how zone segmentation proved disastrous as a strategy in Iraqi cities during that war, but later in the chapter, one of the cyber warfare strategies espoused was ... more segmentation. Turning your own users into "insurgents" by excessively restricting their movements and over-using authentication is a real problem that CISOs have to avoid when building a more defensible infrastructure. The most enjoyable part of the book for me was the commentary sprinkled here and there from Cunningham's own perspective (including the assertion that there is no real "artificial intelligence" yet). The one thing that would make this book even better is if he recorded the audio version himself.

This is book is a must read if you are about to start re-engineering your organization's security controls using a Zero Trust framework. Chase does a great job preparing you to make the necessary leap and having you consider the issues that will confront you and your tech teams as you do a carefully planned phased deployment of ZT one win at a time. 4 bullets resonated the most with me in this book: 1) Micro-segmentation is a key to survival. While traditional perimeter firewalls are still needed to apply boundaries to the infrastructure and set clear limits on where the delineation between controlled and uncontrolled space lies, the use of a firewall as the primary means of segmentation for modern infrastructure is too "big" to be considered micro-segmentation. It is not granular enough in nature to combat the highly dynamic and transitory tactics that modern threats employ. 2) Legacy network segmentation tooling, or internal, external, and DMZ firewalls are a mismatch for today's infrastructure and cloud based networks. That old paradigm insists that the systems they are defending were only designed to filter traffic between physical devices (IP to IP) in a network or data center. No thought was given to the power that could be afforded to virtual servers and hosts within those newer workloads. Micro-segmentation done correctly will effectively create small, discrete zones or segments within each tier of an application, each user on the network, each device as it accesses a resource, and each packet as it transits the infrastructure. 3) True micro-segmentation requires that there are dedicated security controls between the hosts, networks, users, devices, applications and between all controllable entities that seek access to the infrastructure. 4) Micro-focusing requires a switch from defending high walls on the perimeter to one where the focus and optics are aimed in the core of the infrastructure and then maneuvered outward. Host based isolation, ring-fencing for data stores and databases, granular access controls, and vectored analysis that are based on behavioral anomalies are necessary to bolster defenses from the inside out. Our three main areas of concentration this year are Cloud First, Zero Trust, and Automation and this book ties them altogether nicely with an excellent summary of how we got where we are today and where we are going in the near future. Looking forward to the next installment from Chase. Cheers, K.C.

This book is a perfect example of how effective a book can be when it's written by someone who has been a practitioner but knows how to speak to people at all levels of proficiency. Whether you're a high-level executive trying to get a strategic understanding of the landscape or a tactical, on-the-ground cyber team member (or want to become one), this book is truly invaluable. Unlike many books written about the cyber world, it's written in a way that makes it understandable to anyone, yet has enough technical information to provide some real value to experienced professionals. My company is in the cybersecurity space, and we're going to make this required reading for our employees. In summary, can't speak highly enough about this book!

Sophisticated analysis given in accessible and engaging way - This book is packed with tons of information and real world examples of cyber attacks, plus a range of high level, powerful strategies and specific tactics for how to address the cyber security challenges we face today and the looming challenges of the future. The author's military background and cyber security expertise add credence to the analysis along with many interesting military anecdotes. (full disclosure: I work at a technology advisory firm with the author, but I genuinely enjoyed this book and think you will too).

Easy to read, flowing description of the cyber security space with detailed analysis of current and emerging threats. The book also describes the challenges and the solutions that the cyber community is bringing to the market.

Chase is masterful at explaining, correlating and proving the facts and concepts in this book. The threat landscape is very dynamic and ever-changing. Dr. C puts it into perspective and helps us broaden our horizons. Even if you're 'an expert', you'll get something valuable from this book.

Well written and readable reflection on offensive cyber operations and a military take on the tactics, techniques and procedures required to stay in touch with adversarial developments.