[dvd-discuss] Re: [DMCA_discuss] [Fwd: Bush taps Clarke as CyberdefenseChief]

["John Zulauf" <johnzu(at)ia.nsc.com>]

The irony of this:
 
> Clarke has been an outspoken proponent of preparing for what experts
> have described as an "electronic Pearl Harbor," a debilitating surprise
> cyberattack against the nation's critical computer and
> telecommunications networks by terrorists.

is that the best way to avoid this is:

(a) a complex ecosystem of strong encryption protecting IT assets with
no common attacks or backdoors to allow the invaders easy access to
personal, corporate, or critical infrasture information

(b) a diverse complex ecosystem of operating systems, web-browsers,
web-servers, email clients denying an easy common attack

(c) constant non-destructive testing of information infrastructure
assets, rapid publication of weaknesses and patches

This is of course exactly the opposite of the current political
environment where encryption is to be banned or weakend (and
standardized), where monopoly power is unchecked (leaving a fertile
field for viruses), where even non-destructive, prank hacking is a
felony, where disclosure and demostration of encryption weaknesses
(sklyarov, corely) is a crime whether performed in country or as part of
the freedom of the press.

My old engineering professors had a few terms for this.  Politely --
"exactly backwards", or less so "ACI: anal/cranial inversion"

Ugh.   I hope this new guy knows what he's doing enough to recoginize
the fact we are in fact doing almost as well now as Pearl Harbor air
defense did in 1941.  They mistook the attack of 300+ aircract for 2
dozen B-17's coming from the opposite direction.  If uncorrected we are
likely to have the same result.

.002






Seth Johnson wrote:
> 
> (Forwarded from isn@attrition.org list)
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 04:29:33 -0500 (CDT)
> From: InfoSec News <isn@c4i.org>
> 
> http://www.computerworld.com/storyba/0,4125,NAV47_STO64376,00.html
> 
> By DAN VERTON
> October 01, 2001