Islands in the Clickstream. Doing What's Necessary. November 6, 2001

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Islands in the Clickstream: 
Doing What's Necessary

Network warfare requires that we identify nodes in a net and the links
between them, then systematically degrade, transform or destroy both
nodes and links.  Cyberwar in all of its manifestations is a metaphor
for the network wars in which we are currently engaged. The Internet
once again shows the dye in the arteries of the mind of society.

Because networks are based on trust, network warfare must undermine
trust. The intended end of terrorism is to destroy the trust that
holds a civil society together. The war against terrorism is executed
with the same end in mind.

But the best defense is to build and distribute trusted links and
nodes, a network that is redundant, resilient, and infinitely elastic.
 
When the infrastructure of society is the weapon as well as the
target, then all of us are on the front lines. Some are unwilling
soldiers, some don't know they are soldiers, some can't believe they
are soldiers - but just as we have learned online that we are each
responsible for securing our nodes and links, we are growing aware of
our roles in the new battlespace.

We are all on the front lines. We are each responsible for doing what
is necessary.

I noted previously that the command to "Be alert!" is not
self-executing. We must be trained to be alert, to recognize what
constitutes suspicious activity, and to know how to respond
appropriately. Much of what we need to learn is already available, and
those ready opportunities must be linked with new opportunities for
education and training on the web and in our communities.

Many of us feel a greater urgency to contribute to an effort worthy of
our deepest values and commitments. The National Security Agency saw
recruiting calls surge from 2,700 a month to more than 16,000.
Applications to the CIA increased by 700% after September 11. Army
recruiters too report an increase in people wanting to enlist.

Most of us won't be able to join an intelligence organization or
branch of the military, but it isn't necessary to do so in order to
gather and focus our energies in positive ways. We have a mandate from
reality itself to create a network to gather the creative energies of
just plain people like ourselves and use them effectively.

A military leader recently said that for the first time in American
history, the military is not able to defend the infrastructure of the
nation. Critical infrastructure components - power, water and sewage,
telecommunications, transportation, financial services - must defend
themselves from physical and cyber-assault.

Creating a "partnership between public and private sectors" is no
longer easy because that simplistic division between sectors no longer
fits our current reality. The nodes of our multiple networks intersect
with one another in multi-dimensional ways. Governments can support
but not provide all of the structures that we need.

I propose that we create a Homeland Defense Organization, a
grass-roots effort on behalf of educating and training average
citizens who find themselves on the front lines of a new kind of
battle.

The Homeland Defense Organization is conceived as a loosely organized
network of classes, training opportunities, and awareness-enhancing
experiences which when taken together constitute a pro-active response
to the mandate to "Be alert!"

Since September 11, many feel a desire to "do something." The Homeland
Defense Organization channels that desire in productive ways by
instructing, training, and supporting all of us in taking an enhanced
role in defending ourselves in a protracted war with terrorism.

The HDO will address specific needs as they evolve, but will include:

+ noticing what's out of the ordinary, creating a global "neighborhood
  watch;"

+ responding appropriately to perceived threats;

+ understanding enhanced security as a necessary safeguard;

+ emergency planning on individual, family and community levels;

+ specific responses to urban warfare - what to do when roads are
  blocked, explosions take place, chemical biological or nuclear
  attacks are threatened or executed, communications/electronic
  networks are disrupted;

+ education in the new geopolitical realities of network warfare and
  globalization;

+ physical fitness and training, including martial arts and weight training;
 
+ self-defense;
 
+ spiritual fitness and training, including the use of "spiritual
  tools" such as meditation, awareness enhancement, and prayer
  (non-denominational, this aspect would nevertheless include existing
  organizations in a non-partisan way).

I am inviting you to work with myself and others to build the Homeland
Defense Organization, to link existing opportunities for education and
training online and in the physical world with new opportunities.

HDO is a non-partisan, non-profit, independent grass-roots effort to
create a positive informed response to the threat of terrorism. It is
not intended to be administered or funded by any government but needs
the support and expertise of all sectors of society. I invite your
ideas and suggestions at this stage of development.

If you want to be kept informed via the HDO newsletter, reply with
"subscribe HDO" as subject or text.  A web site will be online soon.
 
The challenge to our humanity is absolute. The antidotes to anxiety
and fear and the paralysis they cause are community, a free flow of
information and energy, and accountability to our highest goals and a
vision worthy of our best selves.

We need to think creatively, differently.  Two friends involved with
the intelligence community, for example, suggested enlisting "cadres
of young people who could be teachers." In particular, "African
American males have had to live in situations in which they often are
and feel threatened. They survive by recognizing and countering real
threats. It would be a great win-win if we called upon these young men
to be teachers for our society."

We need one another's support in order to stay in our discomfort zones
as we map the contours of a changed landscape. Alone we will fall back
but together ... we can do this.


**********************************************************************     
Islands in the Clickstream is an intermittent column written by
Richard Thieme exploring social and cultural dimensions 
of computer technology and the ultimate concerns of our lives.
Comments are welcome.

Richard Thieme is a professional speaker, consultant, and writer
focused on the impact of computer technology on individuals and
organizations - the human dimensions of technology and work - and 
"life on the edge."

Feel free to pass along columns for personal use, retaining this
signature file. If interested in publishing columns online or in print 
or employing Richard as a professional speaker, retreat leader 
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Islands in the Clickstream (c) Richard Thieme, 2001. All rights reserved.

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http://www.richardthieme.com

ThiemeWorks  P. O. Box 170737  Milwaukee WI 53217-8061  414.351.2321



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