The U.S. Cyber Challenge aims to identify 10,000 patriotic geeks and make them experts.

The potential threats against the United States from malicious foreign hackers are as poorly understood as they are scary. China’s military has trained more than 60,000 “information troops,” and its official doctrine calls for pre-emptive strikes on networks of nations it sees as a threat. Russian hackers—probably with Kremlin support—have attacked Internet sites in pro-Western Estonia and Georgia. And a mysterious “worm,” Conficker, infects an estimated 5 million computers around the world. Authorities don’t know who controls it; cyberintelligence expert Jeffrey Carr calls it “the equivalent of a nuclear bomb” that could shut down the entire Internet.

Read more ….

My Comment: Join the Government’s call, and get paid like a civil servant …. or …. join the private sector and get an increase in pay with stock options.

Hmmmm …. the government cannot compete.

U.S. Government Looking For 10,000 Geeks is a post from: Updated News

Obstacles and Lack of Authority Frustrated Director, Sources Say.

A top operational official in charge of protecting civilian government computer networks has resigned, dealing another blow to the federal effort to enhance cybersecurity.

Mischel Kwon, the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, submitted her resignation letter this week. “Moving on is a hard step for me, but one I must take,” she said, according to the letter obtained by The Washington Post.

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My Comment: The key phrase in this story is the following:

Two months after President Obama pledged to “personally” select someone to be the White House’s cybersecurity coordinator, the position remains unfilled.

This symbolizes a lack of focus and prioritization …. why stick around when there is more focus, prioritization, and money in the private sector.

Another Top Cyber Security Official Resigns is a post from: Updated News

The US has long pondered how best to use its offensive cyber capabilities and has long shied away from using them, fearful that we might pull down the Internet curtain on ourselves if we tried to wipe out an enemy’s networks. The New York Times ran a piece this weekend about just how daunting is this balancing act.

The central point of the Times’ piece: “We knew we could pull it off — we had the tools,” said one senior official who worked at the Pentagon when the highly classified plan was developed.

But the attack never got the green light. Bush administration officials worried that the effects would not be limited to Iraq but would instead create worldwide financial havoc, spreading across the Middle East to Europe and perhaps to the United States.

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Update: Securing Against BotNets – Defense tech

My Comment: Kudos to both DoD Buzz and Defense Tech. They are asking the right questions.

Securing Our Networks From Attacks Using BotNets is a post from: Updated News

The White House’s senior aide on cybersecurity has decided to resign following delays in the appointment of a coordinator to spearhead the government’s efforts to protect the nation’s computer networks.

Melissa E. Hathaway, who also served as a cybersecurity aide during the Bush administration, had been a contender for the position of cybersecurity coordinator. But in an interview Monday, she said she had withdrawn her application.

“I wasn’t willing to continue to wait any longer, because I’m not empowered right now to continue to drive the change,” she said. “I’ve concluded that I can do more now from a different role,” most likely in the private sector.

Read more ….

My Comment: There has always been a problem with cybersecurity policies/issues and their implementations in past administrations … and now (it appears) for this one also. A big speech is made, and there is little if any follow through.

Top Cybersecurity Aide At White House Resigns is a post from: Updated News

Cyber-defense and capture-the-flag contests will help train future defenders of cyberspace.

In the 1950s, shocked by the Russians’ launch of Sputnik, the United States embarked on an initiative to boost its numbers of scientists and engineers. Now, private industry, academics, and government agencies are banding together to create a similar push to educate and train at least 10,000 students to become the future defenders of cyberspace.

On Monday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the SANS Institute, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and several university and private-industry partners plan to announce the U.S. Cyber Challenge, a triathlon of competitions designed to inspire students to learn the technical skills needed to defend–and, in some cases, attack–computer networks.

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My Comment: Intriguing article …. I am sure there are going to be many applicants.

A Contest To Train Cyber Combatants is a post from: Updated News

WASHINGTON — Federal agencies are facing a severe shortage of computer specialists, even as a growing wave of coordinated cyberattacks against the government poses potential national security risks, a private study found.

The study describes a fragmented federal cyber force, where no one is in charge of overall planning and government agencies are “on their own and sometimes working at cross purposes or in competition with one another.”

The report, scheduled to be released Wednesday, arrives in the wake of a series of cyberattacks this month that shut down some U.S. and South Korean government and financial Web sites.

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My Comment: The reason(s) why computer specialists are not rushing to apply for jobs with the government are multiple …. but the main reasons are (1) pay …. there is more money in the private sector. (2) Computer geeks have a culture of working the hours that they want …. government operates slightly differently. (3) Politics and bureaucracy …. two environments that computer specialists stay away from (another cultural component of the field). (4) The best in the computer industry respond negatively to bureaucracy and a vertical type of management of management structure …. government is all vertical.

Shortage Of Cyber Experts May Hinder Govt is a post from: Updated News

From Popular Mechanics:

A major denial-of-service attack on American and South Korean government sites—suspected but unproven harassment by North Korea—has raised the specter of cyber vulnerability. Twenty-six sites, including those operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration, Defense Department and the Federal Trade Commission, were affected. While the attack itself, a type which uses hijacked personal computers to overload target networks with data, is unsophisticated, the scope of the effort and the apparent political overtones are alarming. Still, none of this is news to us; PM has covered cyber-security incidents ranging from threats to oil pipelines to compromised personal electronics. Here is a compilation of our past coverage.

Read more ….

Popular Mechanic’s GuideTo Cyber Security In The U.S. is a post from: Updated News

DHS Officials Debating The Privacy Implications.

The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site, according to three current and former government officials.

President Obama said in May that government efforts to protect computer systems from attack would not involve “monitoring private-sector networks or Internet traffic,” and Department of Homeland Security officials say the new program will scrutinize only data going to or from government systems.

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My Comment: When President Bush’s administration proposed this a few years ago …. there were howls (and I agreed with these howls) from the left.

Today …. I hear tumbleweeds.

I now realize that the battle is lost …. and all in the name of national security. Jefferson was right …. people will always give up their liberty for security.

Cybersecurity Plan To Involve NSA, Telecoms is a post from: Updated News

From The New York Times:

The United States and Russia are locked in a fundamental dispute over how to counter the growing threat of cyberwar attacks that could wreak havoc on computer systems and the Internet.

Both nations agree that cyberspace is an emerging battleground. The two sides are expected to address the subject when President Obama visits Russia next week and at the General Assembly of the United Nations in November, according to a senior State Department official.

But there the agreement ends.

Russia favors an international treaty along the lines of those negotiated for chemical weapons and has pushed for that approach at a series of meetings this year and in public statements by a high-ranking official.

The United States argues that a treaty is unnecessary. It instead advocates improved cooperation among international law enforcement groups. If these groups cooperate to make cyberspace more secure against criminal intrusions, their work will also make cyberspace more secure against military campaigns, American officials say.

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My Comment: The Russian proposal is not workable. It would only take one nation and/or network in the world that does not fall under the purview of an international treaty, and it will be from there that cyber attacks and criminal enterprises will flourish. The U.S. approach towards law enforcement is also a stop-gap measure. It cannot prosecute rogue nations and networks since they are operating out of the jurisdiction of U.S. law.

So what is the solution …. hmmmm ….. unless we want to alter how the internet works (a recommendation that I would not agree to), there is no solution at the present time.

U.S. And Russia Differ On A Treaty For Cyberspace is a post from: Updated News

A senior U.S. Air Force warfighting commander recently talked with Aviation Week about some of the weaponry that can used against cyber targets. At his disposal, as an airpower commander, is an arsenal that doesn’t intrude into the murky ethical and legal quicksand of cascading computer network attacks.

Some of it is familiar kinetic weaponry that you would not normally associate with cyber-warfare. Other capabilities fall in the specialties of jamming, denial of service, exploitation and false-target generation.

What he can’t use are digital weapons that can launch pre-emptive cyber attacks to ward off those seeking to damage or exploit the country’s digitally dependent organizations. Ironically, there is pressure to create even better, “game-changing” technologies.

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My Comment: Sounds typical …. the troops have the will and the tools to fight any threat …. but Washington has other priorities.

U.S. Cyber Weapons: The Toothless Threat? is a post from: Updated News