Ever since the President gave the May 2009 speech on cybersecurity, people like me have been bemoaning that there seemed to be little meat added to the well-crafted bones that were the original cyber strategy. In the last week or so, we got plenty: the White House’s cybersecurity legislative proposal and Cyber International Affairs initiative.
Many commentators will point out that the biggest hindrance to wide acceptance of the cloud model for enterprise computing is doubts to its security. For many folks, this concern is real. Can the cloud be secured? Absolutely yes! But we should not be unwise. If the cloud is beckoning you, you have responsibilities as a potential consumer.
The cyber conference world continues to grow. There are several dozen cyber-specific events in the next few weeks. This is indicative of a couple things. First, it shows the entire cyber field is still growing unabated and that we are taking it seriously, and second, it shows that lots of conference builders are riding the train. For my part, I’ll be participating in some upcoming cyber events this month.
Many are still fighting what they see as the “good fight” to keep social media (Facebook, Twitter and their ilk) banned from enterprise computer networks. But I’m a security guy. Why am I defending social media when nearly everyone who has any knowledge of this subject says they introduce potential vulnerabilities into networks? It is because I am also a realist. Social Media does introduce vulnerabilities, but we are not going to live without it.
The leadership of the Financial Sector has met in Miami to discuss and learn how to improve their cyber security posture. The financial sector is frankly one of the most lucrative targets available to cyber criminals and other miscreants. For a nation like ours, which is built on democratic capitalism, what sector carries more symbolic value than the financial sector?
I will be one of a million people who opine on the death of Usama bin Laden, announced late Sunday evening. Many will be experts, many will be politcos, and many will have a “personal” stake in it, through a heartfelt loss. Last night, acting on information gleaned from interrogations of detainees (gee, I guess that was worth something), they found him, and the President authorized action. Obviously, it will be a while before all the details come out, but a high-risk, very small operation was executed in the heart of a troubled, but allied country, and it was successful.
This past week, McAfee, in conjunction with CSIS, released a report titled, “In the Dark: Crucial Industries Confront Cyberattacks” at the National Press Club. The threats to control systems and other critical infrastructure are severe and changing and while words have been expended on the subject, precious little action to actually protect it has been taken. The report revealed this and other insights.
This morning, the Heritage Foundation released a new study – “A Strong National Defense: The Armed Forces America Needs and What They Will Cost.” Motivated by requests from both sides of the aisle on Capital Hill, Heritage has tried to do a straightforward analysis of what we need to do to get past the budgeting conundrum with regard to defense. What the Hill asked for – and Heritage has delivered – is an excellent starting point for a serious “adult” discussion on the hard choices that must be made if we are to make progress and properly defend the nation.
Last week, I wrote about the two main tribes that face off against each other when we discuss or try to do cybersecurity. These are the Wooly Headed Wonks and the Propeller Headed Geeks. But if the Wonks are mainly lawyers and political science/international relations types, there is a sub-tribe of behavioral social scientists. America and her allies have the people to deal with the challenges of cybersecurity; we simply need to get them all in harness and pulling together.
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