70% or better of all cyber vulnerabilities are internal threats.

Timin203 on January 28, 2013 at 7:29 PM

Thanks again.

I’d watch what they are doing. Anything they say they are protecting against…they are probably doing.

tomas on January 28, 2013 at 6:39 PM

I wouldn’t be surprised.
When a rag-tag cluster of computer nerds can supposedly hack computer systems that should have the most cutting edge security, it make you wonder.

Thank you for the clarification, it sounds less dangerous than the hype would suggest.

OldEnglish on January 28, 2013 at 7:20 PM

I mean, it certainly isn’t something we should IGNORE, but taking standard security precautions, that basically every company in america takes to protect data is sufficient to stop just about any data breach.

Yes, it can still happen, but it would be a huge effort (and probably require a state actor, which would be an act of war) for what kind of pay off? Maybe forcing a utility off line for a few hours to fix a computer glitch? I’m talking like electric sub stations and water pumps.

Nuclear power plants and things that could really cause damage are protected much more securely then I described. The pentagon should worry about protecting the computers on their ships and with confidential data, and nothing else.

I don’t see why they’d legitimately want 4,000 additional people.

Pentagon moving to enhance fighting force against a potential “cyber-Pearl Harbor”

Let’s make sure we have enough women in this effort!!

Timin203 on January 28, 2013 at 7:17 PM

Thank you for the clarification, it sounds less dangerous than the hype would suggest.

Shouldn’t major infrastructure networks be fully isolated from the net – accessible only from within the system?

OldEnglish on January 28, 2013 at 6:41 PM

“Major infrastructure” is not running Windows 7 on an unsecured network. It’s mostly unix coding, totally internal, and all external computers do is monitor it. Conceivably someone could gain access through the firewall, get into the Windows interface, have the knowledge and skill to plant malicious code, and withdraw without being noticed. That, theoretically, is always possible, no matter what security is present.

However, it’s not something that is likely to happen, or to have any real effect. Most computer-run systems have manual over rides because everyone knows programmers aren’t perfect and things can and do go wrong even without outside intervention.

Pentagon moving to enhance fighting force against a potential “cyber-Pearl Harbor” email leak of Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

I don’t think that the potential for government-overreach, privacy-infringement, and crony-capitalism should ever be dismissed out of hand; but the threat of aggressive and damaging cyberattacks from nefarious actors is definitely not going away

Are you KIDDING me? We have the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, and DHS in general currently monitoring world wide internet traffic.

Why in the hell would the DoD need an additional 4,000 people for a cyber command unit on top of all that?

The threat of cyber terrorism is way overblown, its not like a few terrorists in a cave somewhere can write some easy code and bring down the US’s infrastructure.