Last year, OODA was proud to sponsor the first-ever U.S. Cyber Games.  The inaugural US Cyber Games™ was created through the support of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The Games brought together elite cyber athletes, coaches, and industry leaders to help scout, train, and recognize a US Cyber Team to represent the United States at the International Cyber Security Challenge. We are also proud to announce that we will be once again sponsoring this premier cybersecurity competition – including rooting for the home team as the first U.S. Cyber Team selected last year departs for Athens, Greece to compete in the International Cybersecurity Competition (ICC) from June 14-17, 2022.

In a 2019 report by McKinsey, the authors characterized the status of blockchain innovation as “a transition point between Blockchain 1.0 and Blockchain 2.0. In the new era, blockchain-enabled cryptocurrency applications will likely cede their prominence to blockchain business applications that can potentially increase efficiency.” The semiconductor sub-vertical of the technology industry has largely been on the sidelines during the early phase of blockchain innovation, but the technology has always been of interest to the industry because of the potential for increased chip revenue based on bitcoin, crypto, and blockchain deployments.   Inspired by some of the insights from the McKinsey report (which was specifically about the potential of blockchain business applications for semiconductor suppliers), the following is a compilation of blockchain business applications that may create new value propositions and operational efficiencies for the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain.

The better ransomware gangs persevere because of their ability to adapt to changing times. Conti has chosen a course of action that may ultimately prove its most strategic move yet. By disbanding, Conti removed itself from the public eye, scurrying to the safe harbors of other gangs. Its ultimate strength may be in this thoughtful decentralization where it cand diversify its capabilities while providing an opportunity to regroup in the future.

A new research vector has emerged in the last couple of months at the “praxis”  (or intersection) of agriculture and cyber risk based on the following nascent driving force and critical uncertainty:  Ukraine is a crucial breadbasket in the global food system. The war is impacting the entire agriculture supply chain and value chain in Ukraine and Russia.  Ukraine not only provides wheat and other grains to Europe but to parts of Asia and Africa.  Broad global food shortages are forecast – and may have a duration of years (not days, weeks, or months).

As summer approaches, we return to our OODA Special Report on the business impacts of drought conditions.  Initiated by OODA CTO Bob Gourley is his June 2021 post – How Drought In The US Should Impact Your Mid To Long Range Strategic Planning   – about the unprecedented heatwave in the Pacific Northwest driven by climate change, which focused on the major weather system known as a stationary Heat Dome…making existing drought conditions even worse than they were before.

In 2022, open our aperture globally, to assess how a concern for regional “megadroughts” has now morphed into what has been called “perpetual drought” conditions globally.  We now apply a global filter to our research, analysis, and scenario planning.  Specifically, Step 2 of the scenario planning process is an effort to explore the external environment for patterns and trends since our assessment last year.