Chakravyuh: Cyberbit’s SOCathon against Cyberattacks

The cyberattacks have become quite dynamic and are not as static and uninventive anymore. To offer you a perspective, the digital infrastructure is expanding rapidly on a global level. The integration of embryonic technologies, moreover, is creating extensive gaps in the security of IT infrastructure. For instance, the IoT technology itself has more than 70,000 known-CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) with others still remaining to be found. The technology is used in everything ‘smart’ including smart appliances, smart doors, and internet-controlled devices.

Today, we are also witnessing the blurring of lines between IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) infrastructure. It is introducing challenges of its own within the scenario. With such modifications, it has become hard to keep the digital infrastructure intact in absence of proper security protocols. Nothing short of military-grade security framework and an abled cybersecurity team can work.

In 2018, the city of Atlanta in the US was left crippled for two weeks after once such ransomware attack took place. A month later, the Caribbean nation of Sint Maarten observed a total public shut down for a day due to a cyberattack. A year later, a similar shutdown took place in Baltimore and they don’t seem to stop. Such attacks have been taking place ever since with the most recent ones happening as recently as December 2019. It is critical to note that a majority of these attacks occurred after the respective cities transitioned to smart city technology. Now, as India takes bold strides on the Smart City front, we have to timely ensure that we don’t face such challenges.

This was precisely the vision behind Cyberbit’s SOCathon called ‘Chakravyuh’. Many SOC teams from prestigious organisations including HCL, Genpact, CERT-In, IOCL, IIT Kanpur, Indian Navy, Airtel, and NCIIPC took part in the SOCathon. They had to mitigate some of the advanced and evasive simulated attacks which are typically experienced by less than 15% of the SOC teams globally. The main objective was to provide a great experiential learning to SOC managers and ensure that SOC teams are well-equipped with the right strategies, solutions, and talent to operate smoothly.

The SOCathon was conducted on Cyberbit Range, the world’s leading cybersecurity training and simulation platform. It is used to prepare security teams for advanced cyberattacks by providing a hyper-realistic, virtual SOC environment, in which they can train while responding to real-world, simulated cyberattacks, and dramatically improve their SOC efficiency. Overall, everyone’s experience was a positive one.

Director-General from CERT-In Dr. Sanjay Bahl also graced the occasion with his insightful speech. In his keynote, he stated that the cyber space is expanding rapidly and gap in the skills of people is widening. He also raised an interesting question on training methods currently adopted by organisations today. Cybersecurity professionals are currently trained through certifications that lack hands-on knowledge and is more individual-driven. The right way of training them is to impart experiential learning, teamwork skills and build muscle memory that can be achieved via such simulation exercises.

Only such approaches can help India and its institutions (both administrative and corporate ones) brace themselves against the arising threat landscape. Our IT infrastructure – especially the novel ones should further be protected with military-grade security solutions. It will go a long way in terms of securing critical assets as well as the dream of ‘Digital India’ – building an impenetrable Digital Chakravyuh of our own.