Posted on 07/08/2010 5:29:09 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Also found a related article about the author and this subject that is revealing.
"Charges ex-NSA Official with Leaking to Intelligence Reporter Siobhan Gorman"
http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/2010/04/15/justice-charges-ex-nsa-official-with-leaking-to-intelligence-reporter-siobhan-gorman.html
(note- I do not consider Newsweek as a credible source for most things)
If George Bush had launched a massive internet intelligence gathering initiative called “Perfect Citizen”, I bet Newsweek and the New York Times would have been very much in favor. [/s]
Your sarcasm is warranted.
It does appear that the author in the WSJ article has a history of credible writing about the NSA. My question is that because of a “source” or her background (or biases).
Here is a list of articles she has written on this type of subject. http://www.thetakeaway.org/people/siobhan-gorman/
I’m all for protecting our infrastructure. This sounds like a good idea. I respect and trust Raytheon as a Company, they seem to do the right thing and have a good reputation. But couldn’t they (NSA?) have picked a better name than “Perfect Citizen?” Doesn’t that freak you out, just a little bit? “Perfect Citizen” ... NSA ... and Internet monitoring in the same package... :-/ Maybe NSA should’ve first hired a media consultant or spent a little money on PR to come up with a better name.
CyberSecurity bump for later............
“Perfect Citizen” is perhaps the most cynical term that the crafters could come up with at the moment. It is a huge red letter warning to the rest of us about the tentacles of this Banana Regime. There is no action this government has taken or is going to take to strengthen or protect this country. They are all about setting up their Rev. Wright style third world dictatorship.
After 20 years as a network engineer, I may have to rethink my line of work if they start imposing this on all networks.
You're right! OMG, the media abroad would have been up in arms too.
However, this is completely needed. Already in the late 90s it became apparent that the emerging threats that pose the greatest risks and where we have the lowest level defense are:
Ballistic Missiles
Information Operations
Cyber Warfare
Terrorism
(The WMD should not be listed in this. It is merely the tool used as part of the ballistic missile or terrorist- the focus on WMD is a mistake)
Those were the new frontiers, and as usual, our omniscient government, forward thinking and proactive as it is, began aggressively taking these threats more seriously after 911.
Think about this. Banking, the power system, communications to include voice, our traffic camera's, the management of logistics, etc., all run on networks that are essentially highly vulnerable. Do you really think the bad guys out there don't know this? A nation like Libya, Syria, Iran, N. Korea can't really reach out launch an invasion or get bombers over us, but they can reach out and cause havoc in other ways. Take a look at everyone of the despot regimes, from N. Korea to Iran and you realize they have active programs on a national level to develop these capabilities or in fact have already used them extensively as with Iran's leveraging of terrorism against Israel. Consider the use of Information operations by the Serbs against NATO! They created fake alternate NATO look alike web pages, attacked the NATO website......... this isn't fiction or theoretical anymore. This is reality and it already has a precedent. As with the first attacks on the WTC, where we pretended away the threat, we are today pretending away N. Korean missile launches/tests and their lighting of a nuke. For the rouge state, a WMD married up to a long range missile is a life insurance policy against retaliation when they act stupid. Do you really think it's a mere coincidence that no action was taken after a S. Korean ship was sunk and 46 sailors died? When the N. shells S. Korean islands? What have we or S. Korea done? Why do you think there is a reluctance to take action?
The real dangerous ones out there are these rouge states because they tend to be less pragmatic, closed societies, ideologically bent, unpredictable, often with little to loose, and few procedures and protocols in effect from preventing crazy scenarios....... While large states like China or even Russia would exploit these avenues as well in a confrontation, the likelihood of this confrontation is far less. Risk = magnitude x probability, and the probability of conflict with a Saddam Iraq, a Venezuelan Chavez..... is significant. These nations while they are no industrial or technological power houses, do have the capability to develop WMD, master orbital mechanics, have a program to develop cyber attack strategies and tools, train and equip terrorists, and develop an Information Operations strategy and tools (Again, Israel is a good example- look at the Information Operations campaign that was conducted against them in their last war).
These backward and corrupt nations with their little despot leaders while they can't feed their people in some instances nor provide power and water reliably, are capable of rising to a level in technology, resourcing (money and manpower), coordination and planning that makes them a great risk in these areas since we are so incredibly vulnerable. 16 year old kids are successful in breaking into networks or shutting down web pages etc. Now imagine if you have people that are devoted to this task, trained, and equipped, if several teams are working on various angles to attack you in a coordinated and synchronized fashion exploiting known weaknesses and intelligence collected on your networks etc....... In 1950 a nation like Iran would not have posed a large threat when it came to missile technology, but already in the late 80s you saw nations like Libya firing missiles at Italy's Sicily. technology trickles down and becomes more accessible and cheaper over time. Today we live in an age where th idea of a nuclear armed despot, a rouge state with long range missiles, is not absurd. Likewise both the higher level and despot/rouge states are developing Information operations and Cyber warfare capabilities because it's a angle of attack and a weakness we and others have. It's not Hollywood, it's reality, but like 911, the layperson will not perceive this threat until they are confronted with it in person. It does not mean that we need to ignore all the other threats, but it does mean that new emerging technologies like the Internet in government and business (90s) and our dependence on them have made us vulnerable to an all new form of attack, and we in the past have done very little to protect ourselves.
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French to English->
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I wonder how long it will take by brother-in-law to hack it?
I am sure they are already doing it.
When they admit it is possible, it is already in operation. Nature of the beast.
Problem now is that the “leftie children” are in charge of the store. 5th column intent on destroying the nation. Traitors all, and must be tried/conviced/punished as such under the laws that they choose to ignore.
“We the People” must force this issue when we repel the enemy within.
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