Dutch Military Intelligence dives into Cyber

The Dutch Military Intelligence agency (MIVD) recently released its 2011 yearly report (in Dutch). As is usual, they covered the events of 2011, but also did some forecasting for 2012. Its especially this last bit I was interested in, and im writing this in the hope that you feel the same way.

One of the most interesting facts I extracted from the report is that the MIVD will be focusing the majority of its Cyber Warfare efforts in countering Cyber Espionage. Given that this is probably the most tangible and widely represented cyber activity currently employed, I think this is a wise choice. Add that to the fact that the Netherlands is, by far, the most connected country in Europe (highest internet penetration in Europe with 83%; highest broadband internet penetration in the world with 68% of its connections at 5mbs or faster) it would probably be a safe assumption to say that our economy is critically interwoven with the Internet. Now, I know that there’s a lot to be said about the military defending a mostly commercial and/or civil commodity, but personally I’m happy with this direction. If anything, it’s *a* direction and from what I’ve seen this has not always been the case in the past.

Three other interesting tidbits that were published in the report involved the MIVD’s future collaborative efforts. One of these is a rather obvious and expected one, but it involves their supporting the Dutch Ministry of Defense with their Cyber Operations through involvement with Taskforce Cyber. A less obvious one is their intention to support in ‘cyber-aspects’ of the Dutch military industrial complex. They don’t really go into how they intend to assist, other than that it will involve working with Dutch domestic intelligence agency AIVD. This is too bad because it sounds interesting. Considering the major cyber security breaches in the past at American defense contractors such as Booz-Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, L3 Communications or Northrop Grumman, it certainly sounds pertinent. They don’t mention it specifically, but odds are good that this (and only this) is what the MIVD has in mind when they mention countering cyber intelligence. Lastly, and to me this was the most interesting, they reveal their intentions to collaborate with the AIVD to set up a special SIGINT Cyber Unit (or command – this wasn’t mentioned) to generate shared cyber intelligence. Their goals for this unit are straightforward: Assisting in cyber operations in support of regular military operations, chart threats, provide excellent cyber intelligence at all times, and to assist in attributing cyber attacks.

The report also tickled my interest in ‘cyber semantics’ when the MIVD asserted that offensive cyber operations usually include the same activities as cyber intelligence and/or cyber espionage. They also mention that cyber is increasingly important in counterintelligence, and mentioned that they would be increasingly exploiting social media such as Facebook, Hyves, Twitter et cetera. An interesting side note here is that due to severe upcoming Defense budget cuts and related contract terminations, it’s been observed that everyone in the Dutch armed forces is now suddenly absolutely perfect in every way (article in Dutch), because apparently it’s gotten to the point that calling in sick is now a bad career move. Our troops should be warned that venting their frustrations through social media is probably a bad idea at this time, however much it may be valid criticism.