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The new Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff announced a reorganization of his department with some new positions being created. One of those new positions will be the Assistant Secretary of Cyber Security and Telecommunications. The position will receive much praise from Congress and those in the industry to address ongoing cyber security concerns.
The new position will entail responsibility for identifying and assessing vulnerability of critical telecommunications infrastructure and assets; providing timely, actionable and valuable threat information; and leading the national response to cyber and telecommunications attacks. This is according to the information provided yesterday by Chertoff.
 It will be interesting to see how this new division will handle security threats on the telecommunications side of things. Right now, the vast majority of telecommunications and cyber security is handled through private firms either through software, hardware or some combination of the two. For the most part, when one has security questions relating to the Internet or telecommunications, one goes to a firm like Symantec to help address those questions. In many cases, they or a firm like them are who the government goes to when problems like this proliferate.
A prime issue for cyber security is the nature of the beast itself. While it is certainly possible for a traditional terrorist cell like Al Quaida to attack through the Internet, in most cases, they aren't the likely villains. Their high school and college kids looking to make a name for themselves, prank a bit, or have a deep hatred of some company like Microsoft.
Also, extortion happens too. Hackers will hold a website hostage by bombarding it with hits until the site shuts down, they contact the owners of the site and demand large sums of money.
A case in point would be the recent guilty plea of the creator of the Sasser worm. The kid was 17-years-old when he created the virus. He was working from his mom's business in the backroom. He decided "it might be fun if" and proceeded to wreak havoc on companies around the world. He received some community service and a suspended sentence. Part of that's the German legal system but at the same time, what if he'd been a couple of years younger? Would he be sent to prison for 20 years? Ask Delta Airlines what they think the appropriate punishment should be. I wonder if he knows what the inside of the revving jet engine of a 747 looks like?
While many are fearful of attacks over the Internet from those terrorist cells, as the Internet goes, in most cases, they aren't the real enemy. The real enemies are people who sit at home bored and want to be annoying. In most cases, there's no immediate financial gain, there's no political agenda to advance, it's either basic extortion or some hacker who gets excited about being a jerk. Of course, the hacker will end up with a job at the DOD or one of the big cyber security companies.
 These are just a few of the issues this Homeland Security will need to work on. Spyware, adware, worms, viruses, spam and others will need to be addressed. If people use various vulnerabilities to break into computers to steal credit card numbers and use them to make purchases or create other problems, wouldn't his fall into the jurisdiction of the HSD? They may seem like basic theft crimes, but when the job is being done via an operation in Austria or Mongolia and is being used to funnel money back to some terrorist endeavor, wouldn't it then fall into their area.
All of these are questions that must be answered as the scope of this new organization is defined. In order to be the best at cyber security, they must be willing to work with many of the private security firms, which dominate right now, and be willing to move ahead with their own technology not only to protect vitals like NASA or the DOD, but also to keep the average user at home safe from intrusions, invasions and hazardous behavior and the average small business safe from extortion. The organization will new so time must be allowed to organize but we won't be able to wait long.
About the Author:
John is a recent PR grad with a big interest in international security |
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