Cyber Polygon 2020

[Jan Dominquez]

Thisyear, the training is dedicated to the investigation of a sophisticated targeted attack on an organization. The teams will investigate a potential infrastructure compromise and data leaks using classical forensics and threat hunting techniques. Organizations will join the exercise from around the world, and visitors to MENA ISC will be able to track the progress in real time at the Cyber Polygon booth.

The training is being implemented on BI.ZONE Cyber Polygon Platform designed for mastering and assessing cyber defense skills. Meanwhile, visitors at the event will be able to test themselves through individual exercises. BI.ZONE Cyber Polygon Platform offers tasks based on real cyber incidents.

Cyber Polygon is the international initiative of BI.ZONE aimed at raising global cyber resilience. In 2021, more than 200 teams from 48 countries participated in the training. The event was keynoted by Mikhail Mishustin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Herman Gref, CEO, Chairman of the Executive Board, Sber; Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum; Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Computer, and other participants.

It was not clear until the end of the exercise who would take the first place. Different teams were leading at different stages, which means that none of them could fully utilise the techniques at their disposal.

27% of the teams had difficulties earning points in the first scenario, which allows us to conclude that some of the team members lacked or had insufficient expertise in security assessment and protection of web applications.

21% of the teams could not earn a single point for the second round of the second scenario. We attribute this to Threat Hunting being a relatively novel approach and the majority of organizations lacking experience of applying its techniques. This creates the potential for developing teams and tools within the companies.

The conference featured global leaders and experts, including Mikhail Mishustin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, and Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum as well as top officials from INTERPOL, ICANN, Visa, IBM, Sberbank, MTS and other organizations.

The experts addressed the latest trends and technological threats, shared their experience in creating cybersecurity ecosystems, talked about the transforming threat landscape and discussed the problem of fake news and how to discern misinformation on the Web.

The participants took the side of the Blue Team and worked on protecting their segments of the training infrastructure. The organizers from BI.ZONE represented the Red Team and simulated the attacks.

The event was joined by state and law enforcement agencies, financial, educational and healthcare institutions, organizations from the IT, telecom, energy, metal, chemical, aerospace engineering and other industries.

According to the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2023, 93% of cybersecurity leaders and 86% of business leaders think a far-reaching, catastrophic cyber event is at least somewhat likely in the next two years. Additionally, 43% of organizational leaders think it is likely that a cyberattack will affect their organization severely in the next two years.

The report found that leaders plan to take quick action in response to the predicted increase in threats. The top response is to strengthen controls on third parties with access to their environments (73%), with controlling access to data coming in second at 66%. Half of the leaders also plan to re-evaluate the countries that they do business with. When you do business with an organization or government with lacking policies and security, you inherit their risk into your organization.

Reducing the risk of a debilitating and global attack requires working together and creating a targeted plan. Jrgen Stock, the secretary-general of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), said in Davos that there needs to be extensive collaboration across countries and corporations.

Collaboration within organizations, especially structured interactions, is also crucial. The report found that 56% of security leaders meet with their board at least monthly. However, respondents felt that more needs to be done to close the gap between business and security teams.

Every year, the issue of cybersecurity is becoming more and more relevant in the world. The number of cyberattacks is increasing, material and reputational damages from cyber incidents are breaking all possible records, and more and more global giants are thinking about the problems of organizing the protection of personal and business information.

Today, solutions for cybersecurity polygons, or as they are also called, cyber polygons, are becoming more and more popular. It is a kind of training ground that allows participants to safely learn how to conduct and defend against cyberattacks, allowing them to learn the main vectors used by attackers and how to protect themselves and their networks from these potential threats.

From a technical point of view, a cyber polygon is an isolated network or a complex of networks interconnected by network equipment such as routers, on the endpoints (computers or laptops) of which vulnerabilities are created that participants can exploit.

These competitions allow users of different activities and levels of knowledge to learn something new and find challenges for themselves in the field of cybersecurity and, after finishing, gain new knowledge that will help them resist threats or identify these threats and vulnerabilities in a real environment.

This idea is gaining great popularity and many private, government, and educational organizations around the world are implementing it in their education, internship, or training programs. In Ukraine, several universities can boast of such cyber polygons, in particular the Uzhhorod National University, where future cybersecurity specialists can test their knowledge and learn something new during practical classes at the training ground.

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Another example given of a truly devastating cyberattack was an attempt by Russian-linked groups to hack infrastructure in Ukraine following the 2014 invasion of Crimea, which left 230,000 homes without power. In the run-up to the 2022 invasion, 288,000 attempted cyberattacks were detected against Ukrainian businesses and government infrastructure.

At the same time, however, it's likely that much of the forecasted $10 trillion in economic damage will be caused by smaller attacks, simply aimed at stealing or extorting money from businesses or individuals.

During the WEF presentation, Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock spoke about a 2022 operation by his organization against the west-African cybercrime group Black Axe that recently led to the arrest of 70 individuals. Groups like it are made up of professional hackers, fraudsters, scammers, and money-launderers who have become increasingly proficient at credit card fraud, extortion, identity theft, and ransomware attacks.

Phishing attacks like this rely on social engineering, but purely technology-based attacks exist, too, such as malware. This involves installing malicious software onto a targeted system in order to let the attacker control the system or access data on it.

More than 70 corporate teams from 20 countries have already registered for Cyber Polygon 2024. The participants come from Colombia, the Czech Republic, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, the UK, the USA, Vietnam, and other countries. The industries include IT, cybersecurity, government, e-commerce, healthcare, education, and others.

The visitors of MENA ISC will have the opportunity to attend the Cyber Polygon booth. There, they can solve some technical tasks on the training platform, test their resilience to online fraud, learn about cybercriminal groups targeting organizations in the GCC region, and get an immersive VR experience of a modern SOC.

Cybersecurity is one of the most important topics on the global agenda, boosted by the pandemic. As the global digitalisation is further accelerating, the world is becoming ever more interconnected. Digital ecosystems are being created all around us: countries, corporations and individuals are taking advantage of the rapid spread of the Internet and smart devices. In this context, a single vulnerable link is enough to bring down the entire system, just like the domino effect.

Two hundred organizations took part in the technical training event, including major financial and technological companies and representatives of public institutions, law enforcement agencies, telecommunications and energy organizations, and a variety of other sectors. The teams learned how to deflect targeted supply chain attacks within a corporate ecosystem.

The high-level expert discussion during the online conference on different cybersecurity aspects involved Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder; Jrgen Stock, Secretary-General of Interpol; Roger Halbheer, Chief Security Advisor, Microsoft; Peter Maurer, President, International Committee of the Red Cross; Mark Barnett, President of Mastercard Europe; Mathew Dill, Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Ventures, Senior Vice President, Visa, and other international speakers. Over 7 million viewers from 78 countries joined the online broadcast of the expert sessions.

Even a direct line with the astronauts who are now on the International Space Station was organized, during which they unveiled that the most vulnerable data from the ISS is protected with encryption and cannot be decrypted during transfer even if tapped.

The cryptocurrencies topic was raised not only once during the event. There was a special session dedicated to making the financial system resilient as digital currencies proliferate with the participation of Mark Barnett, President of Mastercard Europe, Mathew Dill, Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Ventures, Senior Vice President, Visa and Alexey Zabotkin, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia. The experts agreed that the financial industry is always among the first to embrace innovations and it is necessary to estimate the possible risks of new technologies, in addition to their advantages.

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