cyber operations – Writings of Pukhraj Singh

13th November 202013th November 2020

Deconstructing Ciaran Martin’s speech in 18 tweets

Ciaran Martin was the founder of the UK’s National Cyber Security Center and the former head of cyber operations at GCHQ. He gave a thought-provoking speech busting many myths around cyber power and cyber operations (text and video ).

I try to deconstruct it in 18 tweets. Click on the tweet to follow the thread:

1. Deconstructing @ciaranmartinoxf‘s speech from a cyber policy perspective in 18 tweets. Here, he alludes to the technical ambiguity which plagues policy work, i.e. reliance on effects-based frameworks. Operators only control effects to a certain degree for complex intrusions pic.twitter.com/HHUyIo07uI

— Pukhraj Singh (@RungRage) November 12, 2020

20th August 202026th September 2020

The chimera of cyber offence

This is a hot take on a recent piece by two National Law University Delhi academicians, Gunjan Chawla and Vagisha Srivastava: What are ‘offensive cyber capabilities’?

The article starts on the right note: briefly pointing out the evolution of terminology using which Western militaries have tried to circumscribe cyber operations within a quasi-legal framework.

23rd June 202015th October 2020

On China, it’s time to consider cyber operations – Hindustan Times

My opinion piece for Hindustan Times: https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/on-china-it-s-time-to-consider-cyber-operations/story-crMraUyDc64taDRHMhEnhP.html.

The recent border clashes between India and China have led analysts, habituated to conventional warfare, to compare the relative strengths of the two adversaries in terms of the number of tanks, aircraft and other military paraphernalia.

It appears that Indian strategic discourse has yet again discounted cyber operations as an instrument of power projection, which could have offered a degree of flexibility when it comes to coercing, compelling and imposing costs on the contentious neighbour. This is unfortunate considering how much Indian think-tanks have glamourised the cyber domain.

20th December 201925th July 2020

“In cyber, the generals should lead from behind” – College of Air Warfare

My talk at College of Air Warfare, Secunderabad, delivered on 17th Dec, 2019. Exquisitely titled, “In cyber, the generals should lead from behind.”

In cyber, the generals should lead from behind – College of Air Warfare – Pukhraj Singh – Dec 2019 from Pukhraj Singh

24th November 201924th November 2019

Lessons from Kudankulam – Part II: Targeting, jointness & offensive toolchains

I may (or may not) do a series of quick posts highlighting the strategic challenges encountered while investigating a cyberattack like Kudankulam. They would be filed under the ‘lessons-from-kudankulam‘ tag. Since our agencies were literally caught napping, this is a good primer for understanding what nation-state-level cyber capabilities entail:

Some dumbified excerpts from my dispatches to the government:

2nd October 201913th October 2019

A rejoinder to a rejoinder

Arindrajit Basu and Karan Saini wrote a detailed critique of my essay on cyber norms for the Modern War Institute: Setting International Norms of Cyber Conflict Is Hard, but That Doesn’t Mean We Should Stop Trying.

Here’s my rejoinder to their rejoinder:

15th March 201917th October 2020

Synergy in Joint Cyber Operations – Indian National Defence University

In 2010, I led the first joint cyber operations with the Indian Air Force. Nine years too late, we have started talking about cyber jointness.

“Synergy in Joint Cyber Operations,” presented at an Indian National Defence University event, backed by the Integrated Defence Staff. The first time ever that jointness was discussed in the Indian context. Not very verbose for obvious reasons – I flagged politics and turf wars. Some shakeups are happening; the Defence Cyber Agency is up. Winds of change…

Synergy in Joint Cyber Operations – Indian National Defence University – 2019 from Pukhraj Singh