THE threat of cyber attack is growing for both private and public sectors, a government minister said at a recent internet security conference.

Minister for Digital and Financial Services Albert Isola gave the welcoming address at the conference at Grand Battery House this week.

Today, all Government organisations and private businesses live with the threat of a cyber attack irrespective of their size, he told delegates.

Gibraltar Finance and the UK law firm Weightmans co-hosted the cyber security meet last Wednesday.

Speakers from the UKs National Cyber Security Centre, the UKs National Crime Agency and Londons specialist cyber security team at Price Waterhouse Coopers shared their knowledge.

Isola pre-recorded his address as he travelled back from Poland.

The threat of a cyber attack is growing and it is important that we continue to seek ways to stop future attacks, the minister said.

Equally important is how we react to an attack when it is occurring and how we deal with the consequences of an attack after the event.

He emphasized the how the participation of UK law enforcement agencies had influenced the Rocks approach too.

In Gibraltar we recently established a National Cyber Command to develop Gibraltars cyber security strategy, Isola said.

I am pleased that some of the people involved in this initiative together with members of the Governments IT Department attended the conference.

Michael Ashton, Senior Executive represented Gibraltar Finance at the conference.

The British overseas territory has a strong IT department that has made sure to keep it safe from serious cyber attacks so far.

But the danger is always close by as Chief Minister Fabian Picardo found out recently when his Twitter account was hacked.

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Minister warns of threat of cyber attack at Gibraltar conference featuring UK law enforcement agents - The Olive Press

Barbi Ghanoush is the alter ego of a self-proclaimed staunch dyke and theatre kid. Featured on the cover of the Mardi Gras edition of Honi Soit, her drag is big, stunning, and provocative (if you want to see its effect, read the Catholic Societys review).

The Auckland stop of UK transphobe Posie Parker was met with a strong counter protest where protesters sprayed the speaker with tomato soup. Barbi went viral for parodying the speech dressed in what she called Posie Parker drag a large, neatly coiffed blonde wig with a bejewelled shirt that read ADULT HUMAN DRAG QUEEN and had viewers spray her with ketchup.

I sat down with Barbi to chat about drag, politics, and the night when she went viral.

[The following conversation has been edited for clarity.]

Why did you decide to do drag?

My introduction to drag actually happened when I was really quite young. The first time I saw drag was at my grandfathers 75th birthday, so Im incredibly blessed to have had a grandfather who came out as openly gay in the eighties. Hes an incredible man. Theres a bit of sadness to that story, because unfortunately he did pass away before I had the opportunity to come out to him.

Were in the local community hall, and my grandfathers the campest man alive. His birthday theme was getting his closest friends and family to stage individual performances for him.

It was forties themed, so we all dressed up and did a little boogie woogie bugle boy number, my mum and all my aunts did a little flapper dance. And then, into the middle of the hall, comes the most beautiful creature Id ever seen in my life.

She was tall and straight out of the forties; glamour, the beautiful hair, the sequins everything and she performs this insanely glamorous number where shes just kind of crooning, and theres feathers and theres a fan at some point.

I didnt know what the fuck drag was. And it literally wasnt until my parents recounted this story later and said that halfway through this performance, my younger brother had gone Mom, I dont think thats a girl, cause she has hairy legs. And my mum said, Well, thats because its a drag queen. And I just went, oh, what? This is a thing.

So I guess drag has been in my blood ever since I was a little kid. Barbi herself only came to lifeit will be one year ago on the 6th of May this year. Im 11 months old.

It does sound like performance was a big part of your childhood. Was your upbringing surrounded in doing performances for your loved ones, doing dance classes, things like that?

I was gonna say dont tell anyone, but this is literally an interview. I was a theatre kid in high school. I was in all of those stupid, bloody community pantomimes and I did drama and basically whatever I could do to get eyes on me. But drag itself, as a form of my personal expression, is just the latest iteration.

Why be a drag queen as opposed to being a drag king? Was it this idea of glamour?

Drag kings intimidate me. Theyre so good at what they do. I dunno. Being a queen felt like a very natural path for me. In terms of when Im out of drag, what my gender ishmm, thats a big question mark. I dont really know her, but as anyone who had the experience of being assigned a woman as a child and the socialisation that you go through for a long time, I really, as a part of my gender identity and as a part of my queer identity as well, rejected a lot of traditional femininity.

I thought, all those ridiculous entry level messages you get as a kid, you know, like you cant be smart and pretty. This is a roundabout way of me saying I was a huge pick-me for many, many, many years.

So Ive found that Barbi is a really fun way for me to explore these aspects, to explore makeup artistry, and being a big bimbo, and the colour pink, and calling myself Barbi for Gods sake. Its a really fun outlet for me to just fuck around with gender and fuck around with womanhood.

Also, before we move on, I wanna clarify. Its definitely because Im not good enough at painting to be a drag king.

You are quite politically and socially involved, so how would you see your drag identity interacting with your activism?

For me there are a lot of places where the person, me as Jasmine, and the character Barbi separate, like there is a clear distinct difference between me when Im in human mode and the character of Miss Barbi.

But one thing that I dont like to compromise on is my politics. So whatever my politics are as a human person, thats what the politics of Barbi also are. So for me, you know, like I mentioned a big gender question mark, but staunchly, staunchly queer and a staunch dyke. As a unionist, as a Lebanese person, as a, you know, child of immigrants living on stolen Aboriginal land, Im not gonna separate out between the person and the character.

So a lot of that does come up in things Im talking about, but it can also pop up in performances, which is something Ive always admired in performers that Ive watched.

So how did the Posie Parker performance come about as an extension of activism and your community as a queer person?

Quite honestly, its been really hard to avoid news about Posie Parker. Particularly for queer people, its very present, its very much on the mind. It does pose a really serious threat to our lives and to our safety. But the way that the performance unfurled was very much just a few different pieces falling into place.

I, for quite a while, had been thinking that someone should do an imitation of Parker in drag because she is likewhatever shes doing is just drag, right? The hair, the power suits, everything about it is just ripe for parody.

And then that very night I got a message from the gorgeous drag artist, Baby Doll, who runs the night with Michelle Mayhem pop at Ching-a-Lings where I ended up performing this, she messaged me and said, Hey, weve got a slot open on Thursday, do you wanna come and perform? And I just went, well, this is perfect. Ran to Kmart to get some rhinestones and a pink turtleneck and the rest is history!

What were then the next steps of going viral?

It was genuinely, completely unexpected. I think the best moment of the whole fiascoI was best summed up by a comment from a terf under the video that said she probably performed this in front of a room of four weirdos. And I read that and I was like, well, kind of.

Its really hard to get crowds on Oxford Street right now, cost of living and everything, so I was like, this is gonna be such a funny, like, thing for me to do at my favourite bar with my friends watching full stop. Thats the end of it, but one of them recorded it.

The next thing I know, a journalist in New Zealand picked it up, and then Posie Parker herself has retweeted it, with the caption Misogyny can be such a drag. Like I had a little giggle, Im not gonna lie to you. She clearly worked quite hard on that one for quite some time.

Ive never had an experience like that before, virality to whatever degree, I suppose. The amount of commentary, the amount of contact I was getting from total strangers was incredible, especially when it got into like fashy, transphobic circles. I will say that, emotionally, I managed to remain relatively unaffected just because not one of these dumb, dumb dummies could figure out what the fuck my gender was.

I cannot count the number of times Ive now been accused of woman-face; the man in the dress allegation will never be defeated apparently. So there was a nice level of distance in a sense.

It was very intense, but thats why we have the mute, and block, and notifications off buttons.

Has much changed about what youre doing now or how youre managing your platforms in light of that?

I mean, modern day drag characters always come with social media on the side. Theres definitely been quite a rapid change in the way that thats handled, just in terms of ensuring that your identity is safeguarded.

You know, making sure that people who might be pissed off at my drag, dont let that get in the way with work or anything like that cause I also work full-time. So that was a bit of a rude awakening, but its always good to double check your internet security, right?

In terms of drag itself, the only thing its really made me do is become even more determined to piss people off.

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In the (woman) face of it all: In conversation with Barbi Ghanoush - Honi Soit

On Oct. 26, 2022, eight months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reading the news felt something like watching a Star Wars movie. At the United Nations, Russia, represented by a senior Russian foreign ministry official, was threatening to attack commercial Western satellites. Providing intelligence or communication services to the Ukrainian army, the official said, could make any satellite a legitimate target for retaliation. Of all of Ukraines Western allies, the United States was the only country to respond, saying that any damage to U.S. space infrastructure would result in an appropriate response. Moscows focus on the commercial space sector, no matter how surreal, is no surprise commercial providers such as Starlink have played an enormous role in the conflict.

Since the 1950s, space has been increasingly important to militaries around the world. This is particularly true now, as the rapid development of space technology has allowed both public and private actors access to the cosmos. The war in Ukraine has shown how satellite internet can connect armed forces and help bring information from sensors, such as drones, to shooters, like heavy artillery, much quicker than before.

Despite these trends, the German government has maintained a passive approach to space and does not consider it a security priority. Germans take for granted free access to space and the uninhibited use of space systems, including infrastructure and vehicles, such as satellites, that collaborate to perform tasks such as communication, provision, and Earth observation. These systems can be civil, scientific, or military and always entail related ground-control services. Given that both private companies and Germanys adversaries have made space a security priority, the German government should develop its own space security strategy, build a European coalition in space, and consider the development of offensive capacities in the cosmos.

Space Is the Antechamber to Connectivity on Earth

Since the early 1960s, space has been a breeding ground for military activities. This began during the Cold War, when both the United States and the Soviet Union used spy satellites for intelligence activities. In recent years, the number of players and the number of objects in the atmosphere have both risen. Today, several thousand satellites orbit the Earth, with estimates varying from 4,500 to 7,400. This could rise to 70,000 within the next 10 years. The private sector has entered the space age with companies like SpaceX or Blue Origin that provide services, such as satellite launches, that until recently could only be provided by nation-states. This increasing number of actors and advances in space technology mean that space is more critical than ever to security policy.

Satellites are also getting smaller and launches are getting cheaper this has made it easier than ever to get objects into orbit. Companies like Amazon and OneWeb, as well as governments around the world, are planning to create so-called mega-constellations of satellites. The largest of these is the Starlink constellation run by SpaceX, which already consists of more than 3,250 small satellites, comprising roughly half of all satellites in space.

This proliferation has led to an increase in both space traffic and reliance on satellites services. Satellites comprise critical infrastructure necessary for the provision of numerous digital services on Earth, both for civilian and military applications. These critical provisions range from simple banking transactions to the provision of the internet in remote places such as cruise ships. The satellites that provide these capabilities are potential targets for military aggression and are increasingly threatened by the risk of collision with other satellites and objects.

Conflicts on Earth are now carried on in space, too. In Ukraine, for instance, where Elon Musk and his company, SpaceX, provided Starlink services, satellites are vital for coordination and communication among soldiers. The advanced industrialized armies that fought in Iraq and Afghanistan had trouble getting relevant information to where it was needed Ukraine has no such problems now. The Starlink system is also surprisingly resilient and resistant against everything from jamming to cyberattacks. However, the satellites themselves remain vulnerable. On the first day of Russias invasion of Ukraine, hackers attacked a communication satellite from American provider Viasat. The repercussions were felt in Germany when almost six thousand wind turbines were no longer accessible over the internet.

Competitive, Congested, and Contested

Free access to space today is endangered by the renewed development of military counter-space capabilities. These capabilities are primarily intended to prevent other nations access to space while ensuring ones own control. The development of counter-space capabilities might sound like something out of a science fiction film, but it is not a new phenomenon. Rather, it represents a return to the mid-Cold War paradigm. Between the 1960s and 1990s, the United States and the Soviet Union conducted over 50 anti-satellite tests in space. These decreased after the end of the Cold War about 20 tests were recorded from the early 2000s until 2021. What has changed since then is the rising number of actors in space and the technological evolution of counter-space capabilities. Launches have also become cheaper, which has made space far more accessible but also less safe if some players have malicious intent.

Attacks in space come in several forms, each of which have unique risks and advantages. A kinetic physical attack is a direct hit on a target (a satellite or a ground station) by a missile launched from the Earth or another satellite. While direct, these are easily trackable, and the impacts create space debris. This was demonstrated most recently by Russias anti-satellite test on one of its own satellites in November 2021.

A non-kinetic physical offensive, such as dazzling blinding a satellites sensors so that for the duration of the attack it cannot take any photos deteriorates the physical functions of a satellite without destroying it, using high-powered lasers or microwaves. These attacks are often launched to make a satellite physically inoperable, either temporarily or permanently, while leaving very little trace of the attackers identity. However, the success rate of these attacks is difficult to assess. The same holds for electromagnetic attacks, when the transmission of data through radio frequency signals is temporarily disabled. Finally, counter-space cyber-attacks target the data provided or used by a satellite or a ground station.

Based on an annual report by the Secure World Foundation in 2022, many countries are investing in the research and development of offensive and defensive counter-space capabilities. The states making these investments claim that they only plan to use these capabilities for defensive purposes in a peaceful and sustainable way, but these technologies can be misused to damage space systems as well. As a result, the line between offensive and defensive capabilities is blurred. Anyone who possesses these weapons for defense purposes can harm others.

Four countries so far have managed to develop advanced counter-space capabilities: the United States, Russia, China, and India. The United States has always been a key player in space and is trying to maintain its supremacy against Russia and China, who are also trying to achieve superiority. India has begun to develop a military space arsenal, including offensive capabilities, though it claims to be against the militarization of space.

France, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom only have basic space capabilities, but some of them seem willing to move toward the development of offensive assets that can target other satellites or ground systems. By contrast, Germany has adopted a more preventive military strategy that opposes the development and use of offensive capabilities.

Current German Thinking on Space

Despite these developments, space is very rarely examined from a security policy perspective in German public political discourse. It is neither seen as a military concern nor as something that has much to do with warfare. The current governments coalition agreement does stress Germanys intention to strengthen national space programs and the European Space Agency in order to promote and guarantee the sustainable use of space. However, it makes no reference to security policy. Germany has a Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy, but its functions are clearly focused on the civilian side of space policy, areas such as climate change, sustainability, and research and education.

In a recent analysis, Dr. Christian Mlling, deputy director of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said, Thus far, the Federal Government shows little commitment to taking space policy beyond the current infrastructure. This is problematic. Germanys space infrastructure was originally created in a time when there was unhindered access to space, but this no longer holds true.

Currently, the German armed forces have the capacity for global imaging reconnaissance and satellite communication and are investigating the possibility of developing satellite-based early warning systems. However, there has been no work toward developing defense systems for satellites. Instead, the German military relies heavily on American assets to gain space situational awareness. Since the German government rejects the use of debris-generating systems in space, it is unlikely that its armed forces will develop kinetic physical anti-satellite weapons, such as missiles, in the foreseeable future. In fact, they currently rule out any offensive means in space, even those that would not result in more debris.

The reasons for Germanys reluctant approach are complex. Germany has a generally careful strategic culture in which security policy does not win elections. To this day, Germanys politicians have trouble talking about the use of military force from a strategic, national interest-dominated standpoint ideological arguments abound. Military might, for example, is instead often framed as enabling economic development.

This reluctant strategic culture has translated into space. The to German eyes martial American approach to space in the 1980s, particularly President Ronald Reagans Strategic Defense Initiative (also dubbed Star Wars), made it difficult to sell space security policy to an already hesitant German population. The American initiative was a space-based missile defense program and aimed to make the doctrine of mutually assured destruction and by extension nuclear weapons obsolete. Many European allies, led by France, feared a new arms race and had concerns about the technological feasibility of the system and its efficiency in the European area.

Germany was divided. While the government led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl supported the American project, expecting it to provide access to innovative technology, the Social Democratic Party , a left-leaning party not known for an active and forward-looking security policy, was against it. More than 350 scientists wrote an open letter to Kohl opposing participation because stationing weapons systems in space would destroy any hope for disarmament. Germanys current chancellor, Olaf Scholz, joined the Social Democrat Party in 1975. He is currently criticized for not stepping up enough to the changes in Europes security brought about by the war in Ukraine.

Germany has not always been this passive. The previous government, a grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union, its sister party, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, and the Social Democratic Party, took various measures to highlight the importance of space for the German army. In 2017, for instance, the Ministry of Defense published a strategy paper on space, stressing, among other things, the need to develop further capabilities necessary for the planning and command of military missions abroad. In 2021, the German armed forces even created their own space command, run by the German air force. The German Space Situational Awareness Center, which aims to provide the armed forces with an understanding of what is happening in space, was integrated into the space command, and a project was initiated to update its hardware and software. However, there are currently no ambitious plans to build on these initiatives because of a lack of political will by the current government.

How Can Germany Take Space More Seriously?

The German government should, instead, consider space from a security-policy perspective. Germany is currently developing its own national security strategy, the first of its kind for the Federal Republic. Originally planned to be unveiled at the Munich Security Conference in February, its release was delayed, and it has not yet been published. Any strategy should consider the fact that space, especially lower earth orbit (below an altitude of 1,200 miles), has become more crowded and congested of late and that fact should inform Germanys strategic interests. Critically, the German government should consider to what extent it wants to depend on others, including for the launch of satellites the last satellite owned and operated by the German army was brought into orbit by SpaceX. Ideally, a more detailed space security strategy would follow this broader security strategy, which would make it easier to allocate resources.

Strategy, however, is moot without subsequent action. Once Germany has defined its goals, there are two things that need to be done. First, Germany should spearhead the formation of a European coalition to collectively develop space assets, gain independence, and ensure Europes access to space. Germany does not have the same means that the United States or China has it needs its European allies for grander ambitions, such as a European mega-constellation of small satellites. The window for building such a network, however, is closing players such as Starlink are rapidly securing usage rights for the limited number of radio frequencies available for signal transmission in space for their own mega-constellations.

The government should also build a national coalition between the government, academia, and the private sector, including both start-ups as well as established industry players, with the aim of reducing dependence on foreign space companies. This would nurture innovation in Germany and Europe and advance the countrys strategic interests. There is a vibrant space tech scene in Germany and many start-ups have developed innovative and intelligent solutions to developments in space, such as a means of traveling into space without a rocket or new approaches to space traffic management. A lack of funding and interest in these projects, however, could result in a brain drain. German universities are also home to renowned engineers and researchers who are developing important solutions for problems in space. The government needs to reverse its traditionally reluctant approach to collaboration with the private sector and initiate ties with players in both the private sector and academia to collectively develop space infrastructure.

Finally, the German military also needs to invest more in analyzing and developing its own offensive capabilities. Currently, the government says that it does not want any offensive capabilities in space. However, there is a twofold rationale for Germany to reconsider. First, these capabilities can act as a deterrent against attempts to interfere with Germanys space-based infrastructure. Second, Germany can hardly maintain its stated aspiration of becoming the best equipped armed force in Europe without protecting itself in space. Instead of targeting satellites, offensive capabilities could target ground-based control systems for adversarial space infrastructure. In cyber security, its accepted that the lines between defense and offense are blurred the same goes for space.

There are also several technologies that Berlin should consider investing in that would make for more resilient satellites. One is laser communication, which could replace radio waves. This would allow more data to be transmitted in less time. There are also satellites that are able to observe their near environment, which could help to avoid collisions in increasingly crowded orbits. The government could also consider investing in sensors that screen the Earth for missile launches. Such early-warning capabilities would be a contribution to both German and broader European security.

There is no time to lose. SpaceX is launching several mini-satellites regularly. Already, the company possesses the power to intervene in an ongoing conflict: If Elon Musk decided to cut his services, the Ukrainian army would lose a serious warfighting advantage. The German government is uniquely positioned to take the lead in space security policy in Europe, but it should start being ambitious now.

Dr. Carolin Busch is a senior manager and Lorne Slous is a junior consultant at Eviden, an Atos business and multinational company that focuses on high-tech, cloud, big data, and cyber security services. Carolin holds a Ph.D. from the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich and specializes in military capability development. Lorne has studied and worked in both Paris and Berlin and is currently working in IT projects that deal with space situational awareness.

Image: German Space Agency

Originally posted here:
Germanys Reluctant Approach to Space Security Policy - War On The Rocks

Dive Brief:

SLP was originally developed in 1997 as a mechanism for systems on a network to communicate with each other. However, researchers say SLP was never designed to be exposed to the public internet.

VMware has disabled SLP by default since 2021 after issuing prior warnings about vulnerabilities in ESXi products. The company warned customers in February to apply security updates and disable OpenSLP after a series of ransomware attacks.

Researchers warn such an attack using this vulnerability could result in one of the most powerful DoS attacks ever committed.

This flaw is easily exploitable and should be considered particularly dangerous to the global community given the large-scale amplification that can be achieved, Pedro Umbelino, principal security researcher at BitSight, said via email.

VMware said in a blog post that earlier unsupported releases of ESXi, have been shown to be affected by the vulnerability.

As noted by the researchers, many SLP services visible to the internet appear to be older and likely abandoned services, a spokesperson said via email.

Currently supported services, including ESXi 7.x and 8.x lines are not impacted by the amplification attack, according to VMware.

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More than 2K organizations at risk of major attacks linked to SLP ... - Cybersecurity Dive