China: Cyberterror or Academic Research?

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Peter Vogel

A Chinese graduate student’s “paper on how to attack a small U.S. power grid sub-network in a way that would cause a cascading failure of the entire U.S.” was recently reported to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee. The paper entitled “Cascade-Based Attack Vulnerability on the U.S. Power Grid” was published in Safety Science a year ago. American scientists who read the paper agreed that there was no way that the power grid could be taken down as explained in the paper. Famous last words! The US is barely managing Cybersecurity and this paper should give us all pause to consider the implications.

Google Set to Depart

China is demanding that Google obey Chinese law as it departs which seem imminent now. Since Google entered China in 2006 it has been censoring content just as “China routinely blocks Internet content, shutting off access to sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.” The dominant search engine in China, Baidu continues to be successful albeit with Chinese censorship. Time will tell about other US based Internet companies such as Microsoft and whether they will stay in China and participate in Chinese censorship.

Chinese Media Furor

A recent report about a Chinese provincial Governor’s response to a scandal led to “rare display of unity, journalists, lawyers, academics and activists posted a letter of protest on the Internet demanding the Governor’s resignation.” Li Hongzhong, the Governor of Hubei Province, was incensed that a reporter had the gall to question him about a waitress at a karaoke bar killed a government official in self-defense. The waitress was later released and the Governor got a lot of heat on the Internet. Given the economic power and population, the Internet will continue to impact China whether the Chinese government wants the Internet impact or not.

Tags: , , , ,

Cyber Czar Finally

Posted on December 22, 2009 by Peter Vogel

Months after declaring the importance of CyberSecurity as a national priority President Obama will name Howard Schmidt as Cyber Czar today. “Schmidt served as special adviser for cyberspace security from 2001 to 2003 and shepherded the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, a plan that then was largely ignored. He left that job also frustrated, colleagues said.”

Not the Rock Star that the President Was Looking For

Schmidt appears to have the right credentials. Before he joined the Bush administration he work as Chief Security Officer at Microsoft and later VP and Chief Information Security Officer at eBay.  Before the appointment Schmidt was head of the Information Security Forum (ISF) a cybersecurity research consortium. “In addition to his role leading the ISF, He's the chief executive of R&H Security Consulting and serves on the board of several security companies including PGP, Fortify, and BigFix. He's served as vice chair of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and as chief security strategist for the US CERT Partners Program under the Department of Homeland Security.”

Cyber Czar Not Part of Cabinet

Based on the May 2009 Cyberspace Policy Review Schmidt will report to both the National Security Council and National Economic Council, but will not part of the President’s Cabinet. There were many reports that no one wanted the Cyber Czar job and that’s probably because there are so many federal agencies in the mix including NSA, CIA, Justice, and DOD. It will be interesting to see how well the new Cyber Czar will succeed. Time will tell and everyone will be watching!
Tags: , , , , , ,

President Obama: "America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity"

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Peter Vogel

When President Obama spoke about cybersecurity last week the Whitehouse also released a 40 page “Cyberspace Policy Review” that included a thorough analysis concluding that the world’s economy is dependence on the Internet. The Cyberspace Policy Review reinforced my Five Big Bang Theory of the Internet and is detailed in an Appendix (see chart below) which includes a reminder to the US about the October 1957 launch of Sputnik got the US started on its space race. Sputnik led President Kennedy to his 1961 promise to put a person 'on the moon by the end of the decade.’ President Kennedy’s promise directly led to funding of DARPA in 1962 that started to the Internet.

 

 

How Secure is the Internet?

Recent blogs questioning the state of Internet security and how well the US manages cybersecurity reinforce the need for an improvement in cybersecurity not only by the US, but other countries around the world. To improve cybersecurity countries around the world will have to unite, it is not possible for the US to succeed without partnerships with its allies which is stressed in the Cyberspace Policy Review. Last year there were reports that the Russian Business Network hijacked the websites of the Georgian government, and there continue to be headlines in that vein with militants and countries with political unrest.

Partnerships Required

The Cyberspace Policy Review makes the point that partnerships of all sorts are required between federal, state, and local governments, as well as private enterprise. Ironically enough the Cyberspace Policy Review points out that most of the Internet infrastructure is owned by private enterprise for commercial reasons. Accordingly if the new cybersecurity plans are to be successful surely all the players will have to work together as partners. Appointing a Cybersecurity Czar will not solve the problems identified in the Cyberspace Policy Review, rather hopefully the Cybersecurity Czar will allow the US to focus energies to help protect the Internet and its infrastructure.

Tags: , , ,