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Cybersecurity

EPA – Proving How "Small" Government Can Be

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April 4, 2012

The EPA was set to disregard the counsel of the Department of Justice, water system owners/operators and security experts by posting the non-Off-site Consequence Analysis (non-OCA) sections of the water sector’s RMPs this summer. Amid industry outcry, the EPA changed course and decided to postpone re-establishing public Internet access for certain highly security sensitive categories of information collected by its Risk Management Plan (RMP) Program. Irwin Fletcher said, “It takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong. I am NOT a big man.” Such is the case with the EPA.

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Critical Infrastructure – Making Congress the Scapegoat

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March 27, 2012

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, speaking before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, made a “dire prediction.” She warned the Senate that if Congress does not give DHS “the authority to designate critical infrastructure and set risk-based cyber security standards for it” [in] “a year or 18 months…we would have suffered a major infiltration or attack, and we will find that some part of our critical infrastructure was a gap.” The Secretary’s prediction and roundabout effort to foist responsibility on the Congress for her Department’s obvious lack of progress in assuring, beyond their protection, the operational resilience of America’s interdependent cyber and physical infrastructure challenges is — at best —ill-conceived.

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Protecting Networks – Public or Private Sector Responsible?

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March 14, 2012

The two distinctly different Senate Cyber-Security bills currently making their way through the US Congress respond to the ever-increasing cyber assaults on the US, and particularly the CIKR sectors. It is clear that action must be taken to further harden our IT systems from these asymmetrical and often successful attacks. But remember cyber-security is a balancing act based on the risk tolerance of corporations and agencies. We have enough regulations already in place. What we need is more information sharing on a two-way street.

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Stuxnet Makes 60 Minutes

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March 5, 2012

The issue that many of use have discussed at length has now gone mainstream. 60 Minutes yesterday offered a report on Stuxnet that was actually fairly well done. Once again, cyber security has reached the apex of popular attention. Boy, if it would only stay there. The general public needs to understand that cyber security is more than just a matter of losing credit card passwords or getting one’s computer hooked into a spam-spitting botnet.

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Critical Infrastructure Resilience – Effectively Addressing America's Achilles Heel

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February 27, 2012

Today’s reality is the Internet is the repository of a huge and growing amount of code (including malware) whose origin and ultimate purpose are unknown. Yet, well-intentioned, repeated government calls for action have not and will not fix a problem enabled by globally deployed technologies. There has been (and continues to be) a great deal of rhetoric and staff activity on the subject, rhetoric is not results and activity is not accomplishment. The current approach to ensuring the operation of America’s critical infrastructures can only be characterized as lessons-observed because we have failed to change our behavior.

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American Doctrine in Cyber Space

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February 24, 2012

Two of my favorite characters from the Muppets are called Waldorf and Statler – they sat in the balcony during the show and grumbled in their crusty, old states about the silly goings on below them. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Statler, and what the United States government is doing in cyber space is ridiculous. What we lack right now in cyber space is a doctrine from which comprehensive and sensible tactics and strategies can flow.

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A Conversation on Cyber Security Legislation with Mike McConnell, Michael Chertoff and Congressional Staff

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February 21, 2012

Join The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute on Wednesday, February 22 for a special Policy and Research Forum Series event featuring Vice Admiral Mike McConnell, USN (Ret.), former Director of National Intelligence, and the Hon. Michael Chertoff, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. They will be joined by senior staff of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives for a roundtable discussion regarding pending legislation to address the growing cyber threat to U.S. national security.

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Cyber Protester Threat Gains Ground on Physical Counterparts

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February 13, 2012

Cyber-protest reflects cyber-warfare in its advantages over its physical counterparts; it is difficult for law enforcement to identify and prosecute the cyber-perpetrators. Cyber assaults in all forms are economical to conduct and the financial returns are overwhelming – causing potentially millions of dollars in actual and reputational damage with an attack like the one on Sony or STRATFOR (where payment information was compromised and published causing reputational damage) at a fraction of the cost. Companies MUST understand their protestor risk, particularly online.

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The Effect of Cyber on Intelligence

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February 10, 2012

Let’s start with a quiz. Who is the biggest spy in modern US history? If you said Aldridge Ames, or Robert Hanson, you’d be wrong. It was PFC Bradley Manning, of WikiLeaks fame, who despite being a very junior analyst in a tactical military HQ, gave away to his accomplice/handler Julian Asange more volume of stolen intel than anyone ever. Bottom line, cyber has changed the world of intel, and this is just one example.

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Working with Homeland Students – A Grand Opportunity, A Great Relationship

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February 6, 2012

I spoke to students at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. The school helps military officers get their master’s degrees, but mine was not a military audience at all – many were homeland leaders from throughout the public and private sectors. To be sure, America has gained a lot since the 9/11 attacks, part of which is a brotherhood shared by all homeland professionals..

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