History of how war and now cyber war flourishes and flourished due to ignorance and lack of action continues.

If only people would listen and take action.

I watched an excellent documentary on the short life and stand that Hans Litten made as a young lawyer in Germany in 1931. Litten tried to get the country to see reason and stop the Nazi party in its tracks, with law and legislation.

It reminded me of the ridiculous situation we, as cyber security experts, find ourselves in when trying to provide security to organisations and governments (sometimes totally free of charge) only to be ignored, overlooked with disdain and often animosity. How dare anyone call them out for incompetence?.

Interestingly, some of the very same people engage with cyber gangs and are polite when breached. Unquestionably with the findings from our research showing RAT's and certificates from sanctioned countries, breached they most certainly will be, if they have not been already.

In 1931 Hans Litten became the nemesis of Adolf Hitler, after he subpoenaed him to a German Court room as a witness. The masses listened, but chose not to hear, they looked, but simply chose not to see. When they continued to overlook Litten’s three hour cross examination that unequivocally proved (and indeed rattled Hitler) of the physical and violent nature of his party, they ignored. The brutality continued soon thereafter unabated and if anything, increased.

Unfortunately and incredibly sadly, no action took place and the tyranny continued.

By November 1932, the Nazi party had most of the seats in the Reichstag and in 1933 Hitler became the chancellor. Also, in 1933 the Weimar Republic was also transformed into Nazi Germany.

Litten was among one of the first to be arrested when Hitler achieved control and spent five years in various prison camps and was tortured on a regular basis. Litten's name was never allowed to be mentioned in Hitlers presence. Litten committed suicide five years later by hanging himself whilst in custody.

Hitlers aggressive foreign policy and violent dictatorship is considered the primary cause for World War II and on the 1st September 1939, Hitler directed the invasion of Poland, which commenced World War II.

Between 1939 and 1945, over fifty million people lost their lives.

It wasn’t until decades later and after much atrocity, that Litten was acknowledged for his efforts, as was the confirmation of his stand in 1931 and wanting to do the right thing for the German people and beyond. He should have been listened to. Hindsight often fails everyone.

As harrowing as the second World War was, make no mistake, today we are facing another major milestone of war and that is cyber war. The ridiculous jostling of ego’s abound within governments, agencies and so called digital humanitarian groups. It is no longer the case that we can identify our opponents by picking out different uniforms and all groups clearly demonstrate an insular, often selfish viewpoint of what should be done. However is this really security for the masses, or for just the few wishing to manipulate, abuse and control?

We need to be proactive and ensure security for everyone, but are unquestionably failing miserably. Just like Litten's stand in 1931, people are listening but not hearing, people are looking, but not seeing. People are simply not taking action (certainly not the right action) which is why we are witnessing, spiralling out of control cyber attacks and losses.

In monetary terms, by 2021 the Global economy will lose $6 trillion a year to cyber theft and losses. That is roughly the equivalent of 50 % more than the entire cost of the second World War II and it will continue increasing year on year unless we make a sea change on a Planet Scale. Cyber War income will effectively create the world's third largest economy.

Ask yourself, what are you personally doing to provide security and to reduce that figure? Sadly and all too often, the answer is not enough. It is all too often the wrong thing at the cost of doing the right thing. Any organisation, CISO or government with any Not Secure internet presence, is simply not doing a good enough job and sadly, there are hundreds of thousands of them.

One thing for sure, governments paying ransomware along with other organisations, often due to their own negligence and lack of security are incompetent, so the costs and losses will continue to rise and the downward spiral continue.

Just to remind you all, as with the onlookers in Litten's day, this is under our watch and far too many are looking, not seeing and not taking action.

[email protected]