Bluepurple Pulse: week ending August 20th

Uptick in reporting on criminal targeting of Critical National Infrastructure should focus our minds..

Welcome to the weekly highlights and analysis of the blueteamsec subreddit (and my wider reading). Not everything makes it in, but the best bits do.

Operationally this week nothing overly of note, the usual cyber cha cha cha continues. Well that and what seems to be an uptick in criminal CNI targeting as evidenced by the reporting contained within.

In the high-level this week:

• A Front Row View of the NSA: Reflections from General Paul M. Nakasone (video also available) - “I think the first thing I would say on SolarWinds is when you’re doing an intelligence operation, you never want to get caught. And they got caught. And so I think that should be perhaps the story that goes with SolarWinds”

• White House orders federal agencies to shore up cybersecurity, warns of potential exposure - “Multiple federal departments and agencies have, as of the end of June, “failed to fully comply” with critical security practices prescribed by the executive order, “leaving the U.S. Government exposed to mal…