In Simulation, Government Reels From Cybershock – CQ Homeland Security
This time, it really was a killer app. Former members of the George W. Bush and Clinton administrations drew some real-life conclusions from a massive, make-believe cyber-attack Tuesday.
The Bipartisan Policy Center, which has ported over the 9/11 Commission co-chairs, Lee Hamilton and Tom Keane, is coordinating the major cyber exercise this week. The U.S. Government has conducted closed versions of cyber war games several times before, and the results are held very closely. At other times, cyber attacks have been injected into broader exercise scenarios but almost always are abandoned because it “ruins” the wider training value. That means cyber brings the entire show to a halt because we really do not know how to deal with it.
Former Clinton, Bush Officials to Gather in D.C. for Simulated Cyber-Attack – CQ Homeland Security
One of the most worrisome questions in the national security world is what would happen if the nation were struck by a large-scale, coordinated cyber-attack. A group of former officials from the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations are going to try to provide an answer next week.
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) has published a superb document – Contested Commons: The Future of American Power in a Multipolar World (January 2010). It covers comprehensively all the various domains and is a weighty tome. My interest in it is the fifth chapter, “American Security in the Cyber Commons,” which if it stood alone would be one of the best documents on the issues in the cyber realm I have seen.
IBM has a new cybersecurity white paper. The paper’s executive summary, which I co-authored and is posted below, is titled Meeting the Cybersecurity Challenge: Empowering Stakeholders and Ensuring Coordination. The issues, challenges and possible paths to greater national cybersecurity named in the summary are important concepts. Through a comprehensive, wide-spread cybersecurity effort, all individuals, businesses, organizations, agencies and corporations can play a part in achieving greater national security.
As NASA shifts priorities, officials need to keep eye on cybersecurity – NextGov
Information security will continue to be a key challenge for NASA if it cancels human flight plans to pursue automated rocketry technologies and other robotic missions, according to computer security specialists.
NIST Issues Expanded Draft of Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy For Public Review and Comment – Smart Grid Blog
The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued today the second draft of its Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements.
US Senate condemns hacking of Google in China – AP
A resolution approved by senators Tuesday night urges China to investigate and explain the e-mail attacks. It also describes ways that lawmakers say China restricts freedom of the press and free expression on the Internet.
Much recent talk and writing has focused on the continued need for “real” public-private sector cooperation in the cyber realm. Everyone quotes the famous statistics that 70 percent (or 80 percent, even 90 percent) of our critical infrastructure is owned or controlled by the private sector, and all of that is highly dependent on cyber means to do business. How can the government protect this private infrastructure it if it does not own it?
House leaders move swiftly to launch probe of hackers – NextGov.com
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, have demanded “an immediate and comprehensive assessment” of how computer hackers were able to attack nearly 50 House Web sites Wednesday night after President Obama’s State of the Union speech.
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