Seven days later

Last Updated on Sunday, 27 December 2009 01:12 Written by Jeffreycarr Sunday, 27 December 2009 12:36

On December 20th, I posted an abbreviated warning on this blog that I expanded upon for the benefit of IntelFusion FLASH Traffic subscribers on December 21. In the IFT article I pointed to the confluence of three events on or about December 27, 2009:

• It is the anniversary of the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas known as Operation Cast Lead.
• It is the Day of Ashura, a Muslim holy day which marks the martyrdom of Imam Husayn.
• It is the 7th day after the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri (7 being a significant number in the Koran).

My recommendation, both in this blog and in IntelFusion FLASH Traffic, was that heightened network and physical security measures be implemented for high value targets.

The NWA 253 incident occurred on Dec 25th. Today is the Day of Ashura and Tehran is in a state of chaos as protestors clash with Iranian security forces. The hard question here isn’t “Can we anticipate emerging threats?” We can, albeit not all of them.

The real question is how can the Dept of Homeland Security, which is tasked with safeguarding our communications, travel, water, power, and other critical infrastructures, anticipate ANYTHING if all they do is look backwards? As U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said, had this attempt been successful, we would have had another tragedy on our hands. Janet Napolitano, on the other hand, thinks that the present system worked just fine but that officials will be “really looking” at those watchlists to see if they need to be changed.

Holder, as AG, oversees the FBI which actually does have a track record of uncovering and interrupting serious emerging threats. Napolitano oversees DHS and more specifically TSA, which needs a make-over from the top down, starting with Janet Napolitano and Kip Hawley Gale Rossides.

The Next U.S. Cyber Command will be run by …

Last Updated on Monday, 22 September 2008 04:53 Written by admin Monday, 22 September 2008 04:26

There hasn’t been a formal announcement yet but Bob Brewin has made a prediction on information derived from un-named sources that it will be the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in Omaha, NE. 

I have picked up strong signals that Pentagon leadership has decided that the U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha, Neb., will create and run a joint cyber command, dashing any hopes the Air Force has to own all things cyber in the Defense Department. 

I’m told STRATCOM will announce formation of the new organization by the end of October, with a formal stand-up of the group planned by spring 2009.

Putting STRATCOM in charge of a joint cyber command makes more sense, sources told me, than handing over the mission to the zoomies, because STRATCOM already has under its wing the Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations, which is charged with defense of the military’s Global Information Grid.

The new joint cyber command will have the responsibilities of network attack as well as defense, and it makes sense to put the two missions under one organization, sources told me.

There are three independent Cyber divisions within the Armed Services: The 8th Air Force Cyber Command (suspended last month), the Naval Network Warfare Command, and the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command.

Questions remain about how the new Cyber Command will interact with the Department of Homeland Security which supposedly owns cyber security for the .gov and .ic domains. Of course, DHS’ ability to deliver on that role has been severely questioned by members of a nonpartisian cybersecurity commission that testified before the House Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology Subcommittee last week.

“The consensus is, ‘We’re under attack now and we can’t wait three years to fix DHS.” (Jim Lewis)

Hopefully, with a new Administration will come a new approach to managing this critical issue. I’d like to see a Cabinet-level post created for  Cyber Security, which would oversee the entire sub-structure of the federal governments efforts in this regard.

The Friday Brief

Last Updated on Friday, 19 September 2008 04:27 Written by admin Friday, 19 September 2008 04:27

Between Project Grey Goose and my responsibilities at my regular gig, posting has been light, but here’s your Friday Brief in time for the weekend. Enjoy!

• DHS is seriously in denial. I read the full transcript of the hearing (if I can find an online source for it, I’ll post it in an update), and I can assure you that the criticism wasn’t just “re-arranging the deck chairs“.
• Being in “uncharted territory” is a sobering experience for Congressional leaders.
• 7 Technical Security Benefits of Cloud Computing.