News, analysis and context on enterprise technology for the CTO
Earlier this month, a pump burned out mysteriously at a water plant in Springfield, Illinois. Log data traced the problem back several months to a command from an IP address in Russia that forced the pump to turn on and off repeatedly until it broke. When this news was leaked to the media from a cyber expert convinced that we were under attack by Russian hackers, a media frenzy ensued that made it all the way to Congress. On MSNBC, Rep. Jim Langevin, … [Read more...]
Richard Spires, CIO of DHS, provided written testimony on 12 services that they have moved to the cloud. The first service often moved to the cloud is email, which DHS has started by putting FEMA's email to the cloud. They have 8 private clouds already set up, and 3 services in the public clouds. The private cloud services are below: SharePoint as a Service - "We are currently migrating Headquarters and United States Citizenship and Immigration … [Read more...]
On 12 May 2011 the Obama Administration unveiled its cybersecurity legislative proposal. The entire proposal is available for your review at this link: cybersecurity legislative proposal. But I most strongly recommend you read the context provided by the government's Cybersecurity Coordinator and Special Assistant to the President Howard Schmidt first. Howard provided a clear introduction to this legislation that includes a framework that will make … [Read more...]
In February 2011 we reported on a Department of Homeland Security research agenda for cyber security, providing the opinion that this was "the most mature research agenda on the topic of cyber security." That research agenda is fantastic and should help shape the future cyber ecosystem in very positive ways. Now in March 2011, DHS has produced another significant, positive, virtuous document on the topic of Cybersecurity that deserves the attention … [Read more...]
Last week, General Alexander (director of NSA and commander, USCYBERCOM) spoke at the RSA conference in San Francisco. He pointed out the the explosion of technology over the past 10 years. That users went from an average of 250MB of personal files, to over 128GB. The fact that 70% of Americans online are on Facebook - that 600M users worldwide are as well. This, mixed with the huge advances in programming (Watson and Deep Blue) lets us know that we do … [Read more...]
The folks organizing the GovSec 2011 Conference and Expo have just given me a code that will give you a 10% discount when you register for their event, and they would like me to share that with you. That's nice of them isn't it? I try to go to this conference every year. When I'm lucky they ask me to speak, but the decided instead this year to have interesting speakers. Oh well. Maybe next year. But I do plan on going and taking note to share with you … [Read more...]
The deputy secretary of Defense, the Honorable William J. Lynn III, delivered remarks at the RSA conference that captures a snapshot of DoD cyber policies. This is consistent with the continually improving path the department has been on for the last several years. I recommend a good read of the remarks and hope you share my excitement over the great work here. I would only add that I continue to hear from practitioners of cyber security in the field … [Read more...]
Opinion: the most mature research agenda on the topic of cyber security is the one established by our nation's Department of Homeland Security. I'm keeping an open mind, and would love to learn of other cyber security research agenda's that might be as well defined. But I have to tell you I have seen research programs associated with cyber for years and this one is impressive. The details of the topic areas of this research activity are embedded in a … [Read more...]
Forbes ran a nice piece on In-Q-Tel. The article is worth reading in its entirety. Here is a link: Startups Backed By The CIA. The In-Q-Tel mission is to identify, adapt and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the Central Intelligence Agency and the broader US Intelligence Community, including the Department of Homeland Security. As a teaser till you get around to the article, here is a list of companies in the order … [Read more...]
I am so proud to be associated with Twiki. Some of the personal reasons I enjoy working with them is an ability to interact with and learn from their CEO Jitendra Kavathekar (@JeetKavathekar) and their founder Peter Thoeny (@peterthoeny). Both are enthusiastic teacher/leader/thinkers. I also appreciate the opportunity to work with members of the advisory board they have established. Rod Beckstrom (@RodBeckstrom), Dion Hinchcliffe … [Read more...]