Joel Brenner: "America the Vulnerable"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-10-03/joel-brenner-america-vulnerable
These days, spies can operate remotely from anywhere in the world over cyberspace. Operatives have already shown their ability to penetrate power plants, steal submarine technology, rob banks, and invade the Pentagon's secret communications systems. As the first as the inspector general of the National Security Agency, Joel Brenner knows first hand about the new faces of war and espionage and the dangerous implications for government, business, and all of us.
Guests
Joel Brenner
attorney specializing in cyber-security and related issues and a former senior counsel at the National Security Agency.
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Program Highlights
The United States has fought on land, at sea, and in the air, but America's new security challenges are in cyberspace. We've entered an era of digital war and espionage. Joel Brenner, former inspector general at the National Security Agency, has much to say about what needs to happen if we are to be protected from cyber intrusions.
The Internet Wasn't Created With Security in Mind
Brenner points out that the Internet was originally designed for a small group of people in universities, government, and research institutions to communicate and collaborate. Even as late as a decade ago, he says, the commercial uses of the Internet were pretty trivial. "we've taken that network which was designed to be used by a small group of people, which was not built with security in mind, and we've turned it into the backbone of all of our commerce, all of our finance, and virtually now all of our operations from air traffic control to manufacturing. Things are connected to that Internet. It's porous and it's insecure," he says.
China's Attacks
Brenner: "We've seen the Chinese attempting to really go after the crowned jewels of American industry. The [2008] Google attack was a watershed. Another watershed even more recently after I left the government was the attack on RSA, which is the encryption company. Stealing an encryption key or the algorithms that make those keys work isn't like stealing information. It's like stealing the way into the information in lots of different places. This has made an awful lot of people wake up to what their vulnerabilities are."
Idea of Cyber-war "Overhyped"
Brenner: "I think the notion of standalone cyber war is overhyped. I think that on the other hand there's no question in my mind that there is no future conflict that will not have significant cyber operations as part of it."
Management Problems Versus Technological Problems
Brenner says that many private companies looking at cybersecurity think they're having technological problems, but they are really having management problems. "Failing to implement available technology is not a technological problem, it's a management problem. If you don't know who's on your network and you don't know what hardware and sortware are on your network, and you let all kinds of unauthorized and often suspect hardware and software connect to your network and you don't know what traffic's going through your network, you don't control your own network."
You can read the full transcript here.
Read an Excerpt
Excerpted from Joel Brenner's "America The Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare." Copyright 2011 by Joel Brenner. Excerpted by permission of Penguin Press HC.
Comments
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At least US response was not overly broad OR had any chilling effect on free speech
where is everyone? camping at Wall St?
soon US camping... and r3evisiting foreclosure court... no job no luck no way!
'As a politician, I have learned that the rights of the commoners are never enforced against the noble, but that the monopolies of the noble are always enforced against commoners. This is not being equal before the law. When did this division of people happen? How did some become more equal than others?'- said a different 'pirate'
US waiting 'bail out'- though job would be nice surprise TOO
(remember still when US were the bailor... wish Wall St remembered)
Judge Grady's Verdict: Domestic Scare Terrorism
(The only thing threatened by communications freedoms is Oligarch Power.
Use your head: Compare with Egypt. why in Hell do the "talks" keep harping on something irrelevant to neglected human needs??????)
Why do these discussions never talk about the arms race. The US is investing billions in offensive cyber capacities and, in all likelihood, using these capabilities for the same kind of espionage and intrusion. We cannot solve the problem until this is recognized.
Good points. Having worked on projects in that country since 1996, the hacking also extends to mobile phones. Why are we the lillies of the field - our govt does not support US business re: protection. Industrial espionage is also required on our part simply to protect ourselves.
Don't you just love the statement in the book (above):
In effect, we’re buying back our own technology.
Pass it on...
Grady Lee Coward's "verdict" don't count for squat because Grady Lee Coward has no credibility.
He calls peple "racist" because they oppose BHO's policies, then runs away when he can't back up his statement. Got that post yet, GLC? Still waiting!!!
-ecgberht
Chairman
Racist Tea Partiers for Herman Cain
Loose lips may sink ships, but loose threads diss-spell dread, that is actually there yet culturally ignored. Remove the cultural weakness at the point where/when it emerges from the [cultural/social] fabric, and balance a level field. The stronger threads are the frames upon which security and responsibility hinge. If the maps, manifest and purpose are to be safe, a secret-ballot-box ["?"} must be counted and preactively stationed, where love takes a second look, and fear actually works.
However, theory is neg [dbl ambig 2nd station], but action is positive, A-safety-NNNyT below the one and only Skynet, you know like the one in the movie? such locational comfort should reflect our 3D cyber normality and access. and the origin of the fiber on a moonraker of closure, wax plugs, active tension [oh Gez Krist] and big hugs- the Mummy download.
Uh, the internet is sort of a 3rd-Dimensi "tertiary norm", faster than TV, deeper than a phone, and because traditional society opperates on a "primary norm" of obvious navigation. It is indeed the geographic {vs cyber travel} or "secondary norm" -just over our heads- that is actually balancing that [3rd]tirshiery internet thing, that high pressure hose of information , up there, that is iether balanced or unbalanced, litterally like wrangling cattle, through the Golden gate to the silicon glass structures, ...there are obstacles, but if you line up the thread and stitch in time, colonial "effects" will be sublime. the shadow between tradition and light, is the gauge that monitors and pre-lineates actual responsibility wresting on peoples shoulders.
Ever notice how the cyber scare always comes around the first of the FY? Brenner, Alexander, Cartwright, even ole Assante - all are priming the cyber funding pump with the classic fear monger stump speech that has been given again and again. This issue, while important, has become awash in misinformation and these people are artists in painting the canvas black and bleak. Let nobody mistake their motives - drain the coffers of every dime they can rub between their fingers before this golden goose lays her last egg. Circa Y2K.
Thiz one reason you don't want all your comments, account info, etc., on, or accessible through, one website; such as Facebook.
Big respect to The Diane Rheem Show for keeping track of my userID and passwerid!
Sincerely,
J. David