NSA Cyberprotection

Did you know that one of the strongest criticisms about United states cybersecurity is that the US government does not provide security for non-governmental organizations or corporations? This is very surprising and alarming because attacks against defense contractors,electric power companies, dams, universities, banks, and other systems are actually a serious threat to US national security and stability. So now comes the first news that the government may be moving in the right direction - of using the cyberwarfare and cyberintelligence tools of the government to more broadly protect the United States and American public and private interests.

"The National Security Agency is working with Internet service providers to deploy a new generation of tools to scan e-mail and other digital traffic with the goal of thwarting cyberattacks against defense firms by foreign adversaries, senior defense and industry officials say. (The Constitutional risks are that the intrusion will violate American's civil liberties and privacy. We do NOT want to become an Orwellian 1984 with "Big Brother" everywhere.)

The novel program, which began last month on a voluntary, trial basis, relies on sophisticated NSA data sets to identify malicious programs slipped into the vast stream of Internet data flowing to the nation’s largest defense firms. Such attacks, including one last month against Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, are nearly constant as rival nations and terrorist groups seek access to U.S. military secrets." The Washington Post

We hope this is only the opening shot of a battle that will be long, hard fought, and very sophisticated. It's about time that we man up and muscle up the defensive capabilities of the United States to counteract a fast developing global cyberwar at the military as well as commercial level. It's WW III folks and we civilians cannot fight it alone.

LATE BREAKING NEWS. "The hacker group LulzSec claimed credit Wednesday, June 15, 2011 for taking down the CIA’s Web site for a couple of hours, the latest in a string of embarrassing Web site disruptions the group has pulled off — apparently more to poke fun and highlight vulnerabilities than to cause real damage. At 5:48 p.m., LulzSec, which dubs itself “the world’s leaders in high-quality entertainment at your expense,” posted an alert on Twitter: “Tango down — cia.gov — for the lulz.” Source - Wash Post

So the question remains, is our government any better prepared to take down or penetrate Internet sites than civilians? The answer is not yet!
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