I had a wonderful opportunity this past weekend to gain some insights into the cyber security priorities and concerns out in the real world – beyond the Beltway and being implemented in real life.
On Oct 1st, the Center for Stragetic and International Studies hosted an address by the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Gary Roughead, looking at the Navy’s initiatives to stay ahead of the challenges of the new cyber domain. Roughead contended that the Navy understands networks, and the challenges we face.
IBM hosted a superb conference for its defense clients in Europe this past week. Several key issues discussed were the proper balance between security and privacy, the need for information sharing, and importance of a public education campaign to achieve real cyber “personal hygiene.” Numerous different approaches were raised and considered, each coming from the experiences and the different governments and cultures represented.
Eight years ago I, like the rest of America, was shocked by the events of Sept 11th 2001. The attacks changed our Nation, and for me, it was personal. At the time, I was serving as the Military Assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.
This subject could seem to some like a much less important element of cyber security than others. They could not be more wrong. In fact, this could be the key to success, particularly in the long term. If we fail in this sort of effort, all our other cyber security measures will be wasted.
In today’s world, the definition of security has changed. George Orwell once said, ”People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” That is still true today, as the war on terrorism has shown, but along side of those rough men, we require a new breed of warrior.
DHS still has the lead for the US Government in the cyber arena. That responsibility is a hold over from the Bush Administration. Many experts feel that since DHS could not gain sufficient traction in this area, they should have the duty removed, and given to someone else in the government.
The US-CCU has issued a superb report on its year long analysis of the 2008 Russian Cyber Campaign against Georgia that accompanied their kinetic military assault into Ossetia. The full report has a great deal of detail on IP addresses and other essentially proprietary information, and therefore has not yet been released to the public.
On the morning of Aug 19th, Gov Exec Magazine and Nextgov.com hosted an excellent panel on Coordinated Cyber Defense at the National Press Club. The panel consisted of Brian Fredericks the lead for defending the DIB networks in the Department of Defense’s OASD NII (Defense’s CIO), Jim Lewis, CSIS’s Cyber Leader, LtGen Ken Minihan, former DirNSA, now working for Paladin Capital Group, and Allan Paller, Dir of Research, SANS Institute. The panel was moderated by Jill Aitoro, the Cyber reporter for the two hosting organizations.
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