CyberWire Daily - Encore: Bilyana Lilly: Turn challenges into opportunities. [Policy] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: February 4, 2024

Cybersecurity and disinformation researcher Bilyana Lilly shares her career path from studying where she was always a foreigner to an expert on the Russian perspective. While studying international law in Kosovo, Bilyana realized there are no winners in war. Through her work, she hopes to bring a greater understanding of Russia's strategic thinking. Our thanks to Bilyana for sharing her story with us.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Cyber Wire Network, powered by N2K. and VPNs, yet breaches continue to rise by an 18% year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks and a $75 million record payout in 2024. These traditional security tools expand your attack surface with public-facing IPs that are exploited by bad actors more easily than ever with AI tools. It's time to rethink your security. Thank you. Learn more at zscaler.com slash security. My name is Biljana Lili, and I'm a cybersecurity and disinformation researcher with a focus on Russia's behavior in that space at Durand Corporation. I was born and raised in Bulgaria, which is in Eastern Europe. It's a post-communist country, one of the poorest in Europe, and a very pro-Russian country as well.

I thought initially that I wanted to focus on international relations, and at the age of 19, I left my country in order to study in Germany, in Bremen, at the so-called Jacobs University there. And initially I started studying international economics and history and mathematics, but I wasn't as passionate as I thought I would be. I had a really interesting experience one summer in 2005. I studied international humanitarian law in Kosovo a few years just after the Serbian-Kosovo war.

And that experience was really unique because every single morning as I was going to class, I was walking by gutted churches and destroyed buildings. Although the Serbian-Kosovo War has happened a few years ago, there was still this visible impact from the war on the entire country. And it was such an important experience to me because it made me realize that there are no winners in war. So after that, I decided I will focus on disarmament and nuclear proliferation.

This was my first area. And in order to do that, I went first to Oxford University in England, and I did a master's degree in Russian and European studies. And I focused initially on missile defense. I found a really good advisor there and decided that I wanted to understand Russia's strategic thinking. And the idea that came up at that time that was really popular was a research question that a lot of researchers couldn't yet answer in depth was why the Russian government is so opposed to missile defense in Europe and I thought that theory was really interesting and I started researching it and I eventually wrote a book about it. a book about it. I've always been a foreigner in the countries where I've studied and worked.

And when I started to work in the space, I was in my early 20s. And usually the people that work in the space are in American or Russian, and I'm Bulgarian with a Russian sounding accent. So it took a while to gain the trust of the community that I wanted to belong to. But I think I welcome those challenges because to me, they have made my life very interesting. Mostly, I have managed to turn my challenges into opportunities. I would advise any researcher or any student or individual who wants to join the space, read a lot, try to acquire some technical skills, take free classes online. You don't have to really invest a lot of money, especially in the beginning into this. Maybe attend conferences.

I learned a lot from attending DEF CON and SCI CON. Those are my two favorite platforms where I interact with members of the community. And I have found it so fascinating that the community is so diverse. I find it a wonderful opportunity to build my contacts and join the community. I wish I had known earlier that the individuals in this space are so approachable and so friendly that I could ask questions. I wish I had also known that it's okay not to know everything. And I have a certain level of comfort now asking if there's something I'm not aware of, if there is a technique I don't know how to use or a tool I would like to explore, a malware sample I would like to know more about.

Now I have people I can reach out to from the community and ask them directly the question that I would like the answer to. I wish I had known earlier that the community was so open to that sort of interaction. I would like to be known for my ideas, for my research. I would also like ideally to have made an impact on policy and to have contributed to the Western understanding of Russia's strategic thinking. I know that the Russians and the Chinese, they're often considered as our adversaries, but I also know that from their perspective, their positions are relevant, they are righteous, and they're correct. And I would like to bring the West towards being able to better understand the Russian perspective. Thank you. partner with ThreatLocker, the cybersecurity solution trusted by businesses worldwide. ThreatLocker is a full suite of solutions designed to give you total control,

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