With Halloween right around the corner, many of us are casting about for creative costume ideas. Here's a suggestion for a truly frightening option -- try being a cyber criminal or a terrorist.
If you think cyber crime and cyber terrorism aren't real, let alone scary, think again. According to the FBI, in 2008 a wave of thieves fanned out across the globe and almost simultaneously walked off with more than $9 million within 12 hours, using cloned credit card numbers they got by hacking a major credit card company in Atlanta. Further, in 2009 Lockheed Martin and the Department of Defense lost plans to America's future advanced jet fighter, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter -- one that isn't even mass-produced yet -- to suspected Chinese hackers. I'm hard pressed to think which is scarier - the cyber criminals who can hack into businesses or personal networks and steal millions or the cyber terrorists who can attack everything from power plants to military installations with a few key strokes.
Given the truly scary potential these cyber criminals and terrorists possess, it's entirely fitting that we observe National Cybersecurity Awareness Month every October. This year marks the seventh annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month which is conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). As part of the Department of Homeland Security's "Stop.Think.Connect." campaign to increase public understanding of cyber threats, this annual cybersecurity awareness campaign is designed to encourage Americans to protect their computers and our nation's critical cyber infrastructure.
Across the country, people are working to build awareness of the importance of cybersecurity and the significant threat posed by cyber attacks. In my home state of Delaware, we recognized National Cybersecurity Awareness Month with activities designed to educate Delawareans about the importance of protecting the cyber networks that underpin everything from our bank accounts to the electricity grid and the systems we depend on for our national security. Under the theme "Cybersecurity is Our Shared Responsibility," Delaware's top professionals, government officials and students participated in training, simulation exercises and presentations. I am proud that Delaware continues to be a leader in teaching others about the importance of being vigilant online, not just during the month of October, but throughout the year.
As National Cybersecurity Awareness Month comes to a close, I hope this campaign's outreach was successful in educating Delawareans and all Americans about the importance of cybersecurity and the new technological threats we face. Eventually, I hope Americans focus on this critical issue every day, not just one month out of the year.
Given the serious nature of this growing threat, we have to do more to protect our critical information networks. That's why I will continue to work with my Congressional colleagues to pass comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, which I authored with Sens. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Me.). This legislation will help provide the government and the private sector with the tools and resources they need to more effectively protect our vital cyber networks.
To learn more about National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and download free online safety tips and resources, I encourage you to visit the Department of Homeland Security's website on Cybersecurity: Our Shared Responsibility.
http://www.truth-out.org/outsourcing-security-defense-manufacturing-goes-way-automobile60818
t r u t h o u t | Outsourcing Security: Defense Manufacturing Goes the Way of the Automobile
"...According to William R. Hawkins, a defense expert on military contracting and former Republican Party staffer, foreigners have been manufacturing critical and sophisticated components of US weaponry for nearly 20 years now.
He says the Pentagon started outsourcing the manufacturing of "high-end" computer chips to Taiwan in the early 1990s - microchips used in US fighter jets and missile defense systems, for instance. Over time, the Taiwanese have "second-sourced" most of these contracts to the Chinese, he says.
"Can we trust buying [high-end] chips from China for our military systems? Will they perform as well?" asks Hawkins. "We have found Chinese chips do not perform as well. They've also found counterfeit chips in the supply chain. Can we be sure the Chinese won't plant Trojans or bugs in them?"
Indeed, on June 13th on 60 Minutes, Jim Gosler, an expert on cyberwarfare, said the US government has uncovered sabotaged microchips within some of the nation's most powerful weapons. "It's very clear that a foreign intelligence service put them there," he added..."
You want to infringe on my freedom of speech because Lockheed Martin and the Department of Defense need to outsource their I.T. to someone competent? Perhaps legislate private networks for things like 'future advanced jet fighters and electricity grids' and all those other “systems you depend on for national security” ?
Cyber security awareness and legislation is a sham under the guise of national security and that freedom-snatching ‘blank cheque’ synonymous with your feigned “war on terror”.
If not undone by your immense lack of substantive justification, you certainly released the cat from that bag at the mention of Joe Lieberman and the always comforting assurance that “legislation will help provide the government with the tools they need…”
Nobody with a free thought is buying what your selling Mr. Senator and free thinking is becoming contagious….pass it on. ; )
This is the big question. Nobody has ever taken the time to explain why. Yet, every time this issue comes up, it involves questions where the rest of us are asked or demanded to sacrifice our civil liberties. Does a nuclear reactor or a dam need public access points over a computer network? Nobody has explained why such access is necessary. I'll take the threats more seriously when someone can explain to me the rational reason for why the threat exists in the first place.
http://www.infowars.com/under-threat-a-free-and-open-internet/
http://www.phibetaiota.net/?p=4329
http://www.phibetaiota.net/2010/02/2010-opinion-americas-cyber-scam/
The new yorker has an article about "cyber war". http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/11/01/101101fa_fact_hersh
It's all about scaring people to get contracts.
It's interesting that things happened while W was going out. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I don't find it to be coincidence that a jet is lost near China.
Suspect same of this: a hoax that could greatly increase economic growth. I'm for it :-)
Did he not know the significance of this act of war? Previous hacks were for information, not physical destruction of facilities.