Brad D. Williams
Reporter, Cyber and Networks, Breaking Defense
Brad D. Williams covers cyber, networks, and emerging tech. He has worked as a journalist and tech writer for 20 years, much of that time focusing on cybersecurity. He began his career on the night desk at a daily newspaper and then spent a decade as a senior tech writer in security operations centers, on cyber red teams, and embedded with engineers building tech for the public and private sectors. In 2015, Brad started a business specializing in cybersecurity content strategy and development. He joined Fifth Domain: Cyber at the publication’s launch in 2017 and developed an enterprise beat covering cybersecurity strategy, policy, operations, and emerging tech. Brad holds a master's degree in English and technical cybersecurity certification. Outside of work, Brad is a member of the United States Chess Federation and writes literature. bwilliams@breakingmedia.comStories by Brad D. Williams
JAIC’s plan to rapidly grow capabilities, which it will do via a series of monthly updates, reflects the current AI competition with adversaries, including China which has said it plans to dominate AI by 2030. “To a Marine, this is dangerous close,” Lt. Gen. Michael Groen says.
By Brad D. Williams
America’s inability to progress beyond “Cold War capabilities” in this “most important environment to modern warfare” follows three EMS strategies over eight years. “They weren’t bad strategies,” experts agreed, but DoD simply failed to fully implement them. Now GAO is warning the latest strategy, just months old, may face the same fate.
By Brad D. Williams
Corell spoke on information and communications tech (ICT) supply chain risks on the same day DARPA and Intel announced a three-year partnership to develop and domestically manufacture new semiconductors for DoD applications.
By Brad D. Williams
The task is mammoth and entails integrating “millions of lines of code,” according to Air Force Brig. Gen. Jeffery Valenzia. But “with innovation comes opportunity,” Army Brig. Gen. Robert Collins observed. “Speed is what will really give us that overmatch against adversaries,” said Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher.
By Brad D. Williams
Only after months of investigation by nearly 100 highly skilled digital forensics experts did FireEye discover the malicious “implant” in the most unlikely place. We break it all down in plain language.
By Brad D. Williams
Following CISA’s weekend updates on continuing Exchange server hacks, Microsoft is investigating the significant uptick in exploits just days before patches were released.
By Brad D. Williams
Three experts gave us exclusive in-depth insights into the administration’s potential menu of retaliatory options, along with U.S. cyber strategic, policy, and operations considerations.
By Brad D. Williams
Gurucul CEO Saryu Nayyar told Breaking Defense, “A threat like this really is one of those rare ‘Stop what you are doing and fix this now!’ events.”
By Brad D. Williams
Approximately half of NSCAI’s final recommendations focus on defense. “We’re already working on two-thirds of them,” Groen said, adding that partnerships with the U.S. domestic private sector and academia are important in pursuing JAIC’s defense-focused AI goals.
By Brad D. Williams
Security professionals are increasingly observing multiple threat actors, from nation-states to cryptominers, exploiting the vulnerabilities. As for China-based HAFNIUM, “This is part of the much larger Chinese effort to constantly be ferreting out new vulnerabilities and then exploiting them — with no end in sight,” said Heritage’s Dean Cheng. “The Chinese will pay close attention to the Biden administration response.”
By Brad D. Williams
The cyberespionage campaign is said to be affecting the U.S. defense industrial base, think tanks, and “hundreds of thousands” of organizations globally. Microsoft is implicating China.
By Brad D. Williams
As the government investigation continues, security firm FireEye published details of newly discovered backdoor, SUNSHUTTLE, which has “possible connection” to the SolarWinds hack.
By Brad D. Williams
Some of the tech built to quickly restore power after a cyberattack is now operational on parts of the U.S. grid, with more deployments to follow. This week’s news of RedEcho shows, yet again, it can’t happen soon enough.
By Brad D. Williams
Microsoft President Brad Smith testified that a team of internal Microsoft security experts investigating the breach at the company estimated that the SolarWinds hack involved the work of “at least 1,000 engineers,” the sort of scale that would require a government’s commitment of people and money. Three top cyber leaders told lawmakers that old security models are no longer adequate for today’s IT environments.
By Brad D. Williams
JAIC’s plan to rapidly grow capabilities, which it will do via a series of monthly updates, reflects the current AI competition with adversaries, including China which has said it plans to dominate AI by 2030. “To a Marine, this is dangerous close,” Lt. Gen. Michael Groen says.
By Brad D. WilliamsAmerica’s inability to progress beyond “Cold War capabilities” in this “most important environment to modern warfare” follows three EMS strategies over eight years. “They weren’t bad strategies,” experts agreed, but DoD simply failed to fully implement them. Now GAO is warning the latest strategy, just months old, may face the same fate.
By Brad D. WilliamsCorell spoke on information and communications tech (ICT) supply chain risks on the same day DARPA and Intel announced a three-year partnership to develop and domestically manufacture new semiconductors for DoD applications.
By Brad D. WilliamsThe task is mammoth and entails integrating “millions of lines of code,” according to Air Force Brig. Gen. Jeffery Valenzia. But “with innovation comes opportunity,” Army Brig. Gen. Robert Collins observed. “Speed is what will really give us that overmatch against adversaries,” said Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher.
By Brad D. WilliamsOnly after months of investigation by nearly 100 highly skilled digital forensics experts did FireEye discover the malicious “implant” in the most unlikely place. We break it all down in plain language.
By Brad D. WilliamsFollowing CISA’s weekend updates on continuing Exchange server hacks, Microsoft is investigating the significant uptick in exploits just days before patches were released.
By Brad D. WilliamsThree experts gave us exclusive in-depth insights into the administration’s potential menu of retaliatory options, along with U.S. cyber strategic, policy, and operations considerations.
By Brad D. WilliamsGurucul CEO Saryu Nayyar told Breaking Defense, “A threat like this really is one of those rare ‘Stop what you are doing and fix this now!’ events.”
By Brad D. WilliamsApproximately half of NSCAI’s final recommendations focus on defense. “We’re already working on two-thirds of them,” Groen said, adding that partnerships with the U.S. domestic private sector and academia are important in pursuing JAIC’s defense-focused AI goals.
By Brad D. WilliamsSecurity professionals are increasingly observing multiple threat actors, from nation-states to cryptominers, exploiting the vulnerabilities. As for China-based HAFNIUM, “This is part of the much larger Chinese effort to constantly be ferreting out new vulnerabilities and then exploiting them — with no end in sight,” said Heritage’s Dean Cheng. “The Chinese will pay close attention to the Biden administration response.”
By Brad D. WilliamsThe cyberespionage campaign is said to be affecting the U.S. defense industrial base, think tanks, and “hundreds of thousands” of organizations globally. Microsoft is implicating China.
By Brad D. WilliamsAs the government investigation continues, security firm FireEye published details of newly discovered backdoor, SUNSHUTTLE, which has “possible connection” to the SolarWinds hack.
By Brad D. WilliamsSome of the tech built to quickly restore power after a cyberattack is now operational on parts of the U.S. grid, with more deployments to follow. This week’s news of RedEcho shows, yet again, it can’t happen soon enough.
By Brad D. WilliamsMicrosoft President Brad Smith testified that a team of internal Microsoft security experts investigating the breach at the company estimated that the SolarWinds hack involved the work of “at least 1,000 engineers,” the sort of scale that would require a government’s commitment of people and money. Three top cyber leaders told lawmakers that old security models are no longer adequate for today’s IT environments.
By Brad D. Williams