[Dataloss] fringe: Public, private sectors at odds over cyber security

[Domonick T. Weaver]

On Tuesday 26 August 2008 06:07:27 security curmudgeon wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: InfoSec News <alerts at infosecnews.org>
>
> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-security26-2008aug26,0,2021258.story
>
> By Joseph Menn, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
> August 26, 2008
>
> Three very big and very different computer security breaches that have
> dominated recent headlines did more than show how badly the Internet needs
> major repairs. They also exposed the huge rift between corporate America
> and the federal government over who should fix it, cyber-security experts
> say.
>
> In the last few months, law enforcement officials cracked an international
> ring that tapped customer databases and trafficked in tens of millions of
> credit card numbers; a researcher uncovered a major flaw that permits
> hackers to steer some Web surfers to fake versions of popular websites
> filled with malicious software; and computer assaults, which some
> researchers said they had traced back to Russia's state-run
> telecommunications firms, crippled websites belonging to the country of
> Georgia.
>
> Yet the episodes did little to boost cyber security higher on the agendas
> of the federal government or the two major presidential candidates.
>
> "Nothing is happening," said Jerry Dixon, the former director of the
> National Cyber Security Division at the Department of Homeland Security.
> "This has got to be in the top five national security priorities."
>
> Dixon is just one of hundreds of technology executives and experts who
> have been saying for years that Washington needs to do much more to
> protect consumers, businesses and the government itself from attacks by
> criminal hackers and those supported by rival nations.
>
> [...]
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I completely concur with your opinion.  I work for a post-secondary school 
system as a contractor for a commercial computer corporation as a technician.  
To save myself frombecoming a victim, I keep a steady eye on my credit and 
banking reports.  But even still, our network isn't even safe.  no where is.  
Until the world government steps into action to make the Net a free AND safe 
environment, these instances will continue.  

It seems as if now, instead of learning from our mistakes, we are just look 
past them to go for the next "big thing"...YouTUBE, Live Search and 
GoogleEarth, etc, etc.  But no one has made the real breakthroughs.  How can 
we better secure our systems?  What are we doing that's making us naked in 
cyberspace?  And how can we make it easier for the common user to protect 
themselves out there?

All of us, as members of the IT world, need to understand that the only way we 
can stop this madness is by increase our digital security.  Not by 
increasing, or even capping, bandwidth.  We just need to get a grip on the 
reality.  I bet if we put all these data breach in the public eye long 
enough, people will start to ask questions...and lots of them.



-- 
"Proper planning prevents poor performance." - Ret. Sgt 1st class Richard 
Weaver