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Changes afoot in US as Obama and military go on cybersecurity warpath
23 Apr 2009 | 17.05 Europe/London
For US President Obama, cybersecurity is a national-security issue - up there with the threat of nuclear and biological weapons. After he made getting a grip on American net security one of his campaign pledges, now we're starting to see how his administration intends to turn the United States into a cyber-superpower.
First off - according to current and former officials familiar with the plans - the White House wants a new military command to oversee the defence of the Pentagon's computer networks and upgrade America's cyberwarfare arsenal. With an official announcement's expected in the next few weeks, it's emerged that they're particularly worried about Russian and Chinese cyberspies.
The US government has good reason to be paranoid. Earlier this week American newspaper The Wall Street Journal ran a front page story about hackers breaking into the Pentagon's biggest weapons programme: the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter. That prompted the biggest contractor involved, Lockheed Martin, to issue a statement saying the article "was incorrect in its representation of successful cyber attacks. To our knowledge, there has never been any classified information breach." But with the Wall Street Journal not reporting on any classified information being stolen, it looks like there could have been a "successful cyber attack" after all - just one not involving secret data.
Secondly, the woman many expect to become the new US cybersecurity Czar says the White House should take direct control of American Internet security. Melissa Hathaway, currently acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils, has just completed a 60-day review of cybersecurity for Obama.
"It poses one of the most serious challenges of the 21st Century. Cyberspace won't be secured overnight on the basis of one good plan," she said, addressing the RSA conference in San Francisco. "We have witnessed countless intrusions that have allowed criminals to steal hundreds of millions of dollars and allowed nation-states and others to steal intellectual property and sensitive military information."
Also at the RSA conference, one American net security expert is calling for "special-ops" teams to be created to deal with cybercrime. Joe Stewart, director of SecureWorks Incorporated's counterthreat unit, says teams of paid researchers are needed to stalk and take down criminal gangs and botnets - and that they could be funded by banks.
While the exact details of Ms. Hathaway's own vision are unclear, she says all Americans have a role to play - not just those in state employ: "Cybersecurity isn't only the responsibility of governments and corporations, but that of individuals." Her US Internet security review is expected to be published at the end of the month.
[ BBC | Wall Street Journal | Computer World ]
First off - according to current and former officials familiar with the plans - the White House wants a new military command to oversee the defence of the Pentagon's computer networks and upgrade America's cyberwarfare arsenal. With an official announcement's expected in the next few weeks, it's emerged that they're particularly worried about Russian and Chinese cyberspies.
The US government has good reason to be paranoid. Earlier this week American newspaper The Wall Street Journal ran a front page story about hackers breaking into the Pentagon's biggest weapons programme: the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter. That prompted the biggest contractor involved, Lockheed Martin, to issue a statement saying the article "was incorrect in its representation of successful cyber attacks. To our knowledge, there has never been any classified information breach." But with the Wall Street Journal not reporting on any classified information being stolen, it looks like there could have been a "successful cyber attack" after all - just one not involving secret data.
Secondly, the woman many expect to become the new US cybersecurity Czar says the White House should take direct control of American Internet security. Melissa Hathaway, currently acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils, has just completed a 60-day review of cybersecurity for Obama.
"It poses one of the most serious challenges of the 21st Century. Cyberspace won't be secured overnight on the basis of one good plan," she said, addressing the RSA conference in San Francisco. "We have witnessed countless intrusions that have allowed criminals to steal hundreds of millions of dollars and allowed nation-states and others to steal intellectual property and sensitive military information."
Also at the RSA conference, one American net security expert is calling for "special-ops" teams to be created to deal with cybercrime. Joe Stewart, director of SecureWorks Incorporated's counterthreat unit, says teams of paid researchers are needed to stalk and take down criminal gangs and botnets - and that they could be funded by banks.
While the exact details of Ms. Hathaway's own vision are unclear, she says all Americans have a role to play - not just those in state employ: "Cybersecurity isn't only the responsibility of governments and corporations, but that of individuals." Her US Internet security review is expected to be published at the end of the month.
[ BBC | Wall Street Journal | Computer World ]