Re: CIA Director Leon Panetta Warns of Possible Cyber-Pearl Harbor

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

Forwarded from: Richard Forno <rforno (at) infowarrior.org>

First off: this is the same Leon Panetta who told a Congressional 
committee last week that his official estimate that Mubarak would step 
down on DayX was based on "media reports."  
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/10/AR2011021007642.html).  
If that's how they're dealing with real-world concerns, I'm not sure we 
want to know who's providing their "cyber" intellgence, do we?

Secondly, as William's comment rightly notes, pretty much all the "gloom 
and doom" stuff cited in the article/hearing (and others like it) is 
nothing that we in the industry, academia, or research communities 
haven't been talking/writing/teaching/briefing about for at least 15 
years.  And yet these people in Washington are still acting as though 
this is "new" problem we're facing and scrambling (er, "flailing") 
around trying to deal with stuff they've been warned about for ages but 
never paid much attention to --- and now, I daresay it's too late to 
really, truly, fundamentally fix them.

They just don't get it.  And for all their fear-mongering and 
hyperboble, a "Digital Whatever" scenario won't make them get it, 
either.  The fact that the clowns in Washington officially still use the 
term "Pearl Harbor" in the context of a cyber event is evidence of that.  
They just don't get it.

Which begs the question:  if after all this time, the national policy 
makers have demonstrated they don't really understand or care about 
*really* fixing cybersecurity, why should those of us in the operational 
world care, either?  (Profitable careers/products/services aside, that 
is.)

-- rick



On Feb 14, 2011, at 04:24 , InfoSec News wrote:

> http://abcnews.go.com/News/cia-director-leon-panetta-warns-cyber-pearl-harbor/story?id=12888905
>
> [CIA Director John Deutch warned yesterday that hackers could launch 
> "electronic Pearl Harbor" cyber attacks on vital U.S. information 
> systems. June 26th 1996 - http://nydn.us/hzEXtm   - WK]
>
>
> By Jason Ryan
> ABC News
> Feb. 11, 2011 
>
> Top U.S. intelligence officials have raised concerns about the growing 
> vulnerability the United States faces from cyberwarfare threats and 
> malicious computer activity that CIA Director Leon Panetta said 
> "represents the battleground for the future." 
>
> The potential for the next Pearl Harbor could very well be a 
> cyber-attack," he testified on Capitol Hill Thursday before the House 
> Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
>
> Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also appeared, telling 
> the committee, "This threat is increasing in scope and scale, and its 
> impact is difficult to overstate."
>
> There are roughly 60,000 new malicious computer programs identified each 
> day, Clapper said, citing industry estimates. 
>
> [...]
>
>
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___________________________________________________________      
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Natural Disaster Avoidance, Always-On Power Delivery 
Network, Cisco Switches, SAS 70 Type II Datacenter. 
Find peace of mind, Defend your Critical Infrastructure.
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