Cyber Security and Social Media - America's Achilles Heel - Threatens People, Corporations and Institutions

Is it Time for Divine Intervention?

For over nearly 20 years I have been writing about the Internet and cyber security, in particular the sorry state of cyber-security on the Internet. During that time internet theft, hacking and multi-billion dollar business losses have become the cost of doing business in our modern world.

The dot.com bust of 2000, just seventeen years ago, demonstrated how the booming Internet was way over-valued by the greed mongers on Wall Street and in less than two years Internet companies lost an astonishing 78% of their valuation sending many an investor in hot Internet stocks to the poor house.  The stock market downturn of 2002 caused the loss of $5 trillion in the market value of companies from March 2000 to October 2002.

It was the first real sign of the immaturity of the Internet corporate culture. Since then the progress in improved business plans and lessons learned from the bust, has resulted in an expanded use of the Internet, but the evolution of cyber security has been dismal. While processing power and software sophistication has been leaping generations ahead in recent years, computer security through legacy systems, those that have been around for years, remain stuck in early generation technology trying to meet a need far beyond the capabilities of the past, or even the present.

Now, nearly two decades after the past Internet debacle, the Internet, with it's lack of government regulation and no borders, has become the premiere and preferred method of crime in the 21st century extending from no holds barred pornography to forced child prostitution, from stealing music and movies to raiding bank and credit card accounts, from stealing proprietary corporate information to hacking into top secret government files.

So complete is the saturation of crime into the Internet that it reigns supreme in terms of bank, credit card and cell phone theft, pornography and child slavery, prostitution and illegal gambling, theft of music and movies to pedophiles stalking our children. Yet there have been no real innovations in computer security for nearly a decade. Then again, the legacy security providers are making billions of dollars selling virtually obsolete cyber protection so why would they change?

In the world of cyber security, if you rely on older systems to meet new technological advances you become victims of the cyber criminals who have stayed one step ahead of existing security systems.

Are you or your children safe on the Internet? Of course not. Can you be safe with the right cyber security? Of course not if it is a legacy system because it is like trying to play a digital download on an old cassette recorder. Legacy systems were the first  couple of generations in security and they are now technically obsolete. But there are new generation security systems that are designed to meet your needs of the future, not just the past.

Using fascinating new technologies to enhance the stealth or invisible appearance of your records and personal information, using algorithms never before in existence and incredible cloning techniques that may only be found in the most technologically advanced intelligence and defense security systems, there may be hope for internet users, especially the unsuspecting youth who have become obsessed with the Internet.  But it may take years before the intelligence agencies share those advancements with you.

We have been made aware of impending announcements of historical new achievements in Internet or cyber security that will finally make the protection of computer users the first consideration instead of the last consideration in the evolvement of computer technology. You should watch for these announcements and check them out as it may finally give you the piece of mind that big brother and the cyber thieves may no longer control the Internet as our dependence on the Internet continues to grow at warp speed. There are new ways of protecting your rights and records on the immediate horizon.

Social Media

The same cannot be said for social media.  The purveyors of evil have embraced social media as the preferred method of corrupting people and stealing souls and in spite of warnings of the dangers of social media by this author and many others over the years, the industry and government response to such warnings has largely fallen on deaf ears.

Shenanigans, scams, fake news, and predatory practices have thrived in the social sector just as the commercial sectors have begun to address the multitude of cyber problems.  In terms of social media greed has been the rule, fraud has been the vehicle, and foolishness on the part of users has been the result.

It is no accident social media sites allowed millions of fake accounts to be established by the Russians, the Democrats, and Republicans in order to profits from the massive campaign spending for president in 2016.  As The Washington Post reported last April;

"The final price tag for the 2016 election is in: $6.5 billion for the presidential and congressional elections combined, according to campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.org.

The presidential contest — primaries and all — accounts for $2.4 billion of that total. The other $4 billion or so went to congressional races. The tally includes spending by campaigns, party committees and outside sources. It's actually down, slightly, in inflation-adjusted terms from 2012 and 2008."

That did not include the tens of millions of dollars paid to social media sites for political ads by the tens of thousands fake political organizations.

As the truth continues to dribble out the social media outlets have ramped up their campaign to oppose any effort of the government to regulate the  Internet, and the progressive and liberal special interest groups have come to their defense.

Government regulation is not a threat to freedom of speech because few social media users share their thoughts on politics.  The vast majority of controversial and outright lies come from the fake news generators hiding under the guise of being advocates for the Democrat or Republican parties.

Wake up Washington, the election is now over, it has been for over a year.  Yet millions of unsuspecting Americans continue to share false lies from the various special interest sites as if it were their own idea.  People that blindly copy and paste information from false sites and who deny contradictory comments or challenges to the information are every bit as responsible for the threat to our democracy as the evil forces behind such sites.

Are we really so stupid as to not see the potential threat to our religions, institutions, and way of life such hate mongering has brought to the fore?  We perpetuate the threat to our government and way of life by continuing to deny the truth.  We become instruments of evil by empowering hate and we become executioners to our desired way of life by allowing ourselves to be used both those dark forces.

Is the time now for Divine intervention?

If there is to be no meaningful regulation of the Internet industry, then man has shown we are incapable of protecting ourselves and our children from harm and destruction.  There will be Divine intervention if we fail to act as the cloud of darkness descending upon the Earth is attempting to undermine the Love of God and the example of Jesus for finding salvation.

Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Holy Week leading up to the crucifixion and death of Jesus that demonstrated the most powerful miracles, magic, and love of the Creator in the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, is rapidly approaching.

Divine intervention in human affairs could very well begin during this sacred and long forgotten series of steps Jesus took to demonstrate the height of good and the depth of evil inherent in humanity.                    

Obama's Maximus Mea Culpa - NSA Aftermath

Far from the maddening lights and cameras to which he is accustomed, President Obama has been forced to offer the Maximus Mea Culpa to friends, allies and major investors alike as he is the first world leader caught with his fingers in the cookie jar of cyber scandal.

 

Leave it to the National Security Agency, NSA, the most mysterious of all our intelligence agencies in America, to give a top security clearance to a private NSA contractor who within a matter of months after getting the job was blabbering all the NSA secrets to an English newspaper.

 

 

Unfortunately these were not little secrets but really big stuff like the fact NSA bugged top secret computers of our friends and foes alike.  In fact they were hacked by the US 10-15 years ago and we have been listening in ever since.

 

From Germany and Britain to Russia and China, they were all hacked long ago and we have known all along what they were up to in terms of military, monetary or any other kind of policy.

 

 

Look what happened the past decade and a half.  There was Clinton's good time government with it's focus on strategic initiatives like global warming, alternate energy, legalizing fraudulent housing  mortgage programs, and increasing the duties of White House Interns.

 

Bush brought us the 911 terrorist attack, war in Iraq and Afghanistan and pretty much a collapsed economy, while Obama brought us, well, more of the same.  How many of our decisions were made based on information we "legally stole" from everyone else?

 

 

Better yet, if NSA was tapping phones and emails all these years surely they were aware of the 911 attack in advance.  Were they aware and did they sit on the information?  Let's hope not.

 

Regardless, they did bug all those nations and leaders through phones and the Internet so President Obama is now left with a lot of explaining to do and with a need to demonstrate a sincere Mea Culpa to those friends and allies.

 

Ironically, while it is Germany who demanded the first private meeting with the president people from Britain to the European Union are in the queue wanting similar assurances we have not compromised their national security.

 

Then there is China, our Sugar Daddy yet willing to join with Russia at any time to block Obama initiatives in the United Nations.  Many times Obama has accused the Chinese of "cheating" by hacking American computers.

 

The last time the White House made a big deal of showing how the hack attack had come from a very specific building in China.  I guess we know now how the White House knew about the Chinese hacking connection since the US has been hacking everyone for a very long time.  However, the truth that we were secretly hacking China the last 15 years while protesting Chinese attacks on us is quite disingenuous.

 

 

We need China as an ally to help us in Asia and the Middle East.  That is beyond the fact they are the largest owner of our national debt in the world.  And there is a great deal in import and export trade between the US and China significantly helping both nations.

 

We also need Russia as an ally in the same places.  Yet we accuse them both of all kinds of mischievous behavior.

 

 

Let us hope our national security policy is not guided by paranoid patriotism but by logic, ethics and a respect for individual rights and freedom.  I doubt the record as the NSA mess unfolds will be good news.

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Cyber Security - Kids in the Internet Age - an Opportunity or Tragedy? Computer Security Risks

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What a decision for parents, deciding how to let your teens and tweens use the Internet. I mean look at the pressures to give them free rein of the cyber world.

Modern technology, especially the Internet, has opened a world of opportunity and wonder with incredible learning and skill development opportunities for our Youth.

At the same time, the Internet is unregulated by any government, beyond the control of any nation, cannot be censored for moral or crime prevention purposes. Children are often victimized by the most vicious and sophisticated criminals, hackers and predators in our history.

Our Youth, our Teens and Tweens, face very real but invisible Internet dangers including Predators, Pornography, Crime, Identity Theft, Child Porn, Scams, Sexting and Invasion of Privacy. In fact more and more Youth every day become victims of the "creepo" deviants seeking to entrap and victimize them.

There are thousands of predator sites that use spam, viruses and malware to gain secret access to unsuspecting youth and they are masters at appealing to the lonely, outcast, curious, thrill seeking and just plain lack of common sense attitudes that may prevail when kids take to the cyber highways.

Most kids have no idea they have even become the victims of these cyber predators until they are too far along to face the embarrassment of admitting to their parents they no longer control their own destiny. If they have the inner strength and courage to ask for help it is there, but hundreds of thousands don't and they could get caught up in a world of darkness that may threaten their very lives.

It is estimated over 300,000 youth in America have gotten caught up in child prostitution because of the need for money for drugs or status symbols, or perhaps because of the need for personal attention. Never underestimate the ability of the professional predators to identify the weakness in kids and exploit it to their advantage.

Identity theft through bank, credit card or cell phone records that can be hacked can also cause severe financial distress and may even impact on our kids ability to get into college. And the unlimited and uncensored pornography rampant on the Internet is a big draw for those just coming of age and merely curious.

In addition to the silent and invisible threat on the Internet there is a second, almost as menacing a danger which will test the maturity of your young user, the social sites and their overpowering appeal to any kid who wants to be part of the Now generation. With texting and cell phone apps, applications to the older generation, kids can be wired into the Net 24-7.

We can ill afford to rely on the protection of current computer security systems to protect our youth and long ago the cyber thieves learned how to compromise the old security and parental controls of the current legacy security systems.

Every day there are headlines in cyber security telling of the hacking of files and security breaches in the most expensive, heavily protected systems in the world from banks and credit cards to the National Security sites of our top secret defense and intelligence agencies. If the top secret sites with the best possible security can't keep out the cyber thieves, what chance do our children have to be protected?

Internet use does open up untold wealth in the form of knowledge and learning to our youth. But there is risk involved - we must protected them from the harm on the Internet as well.

There are new generation security systems coming to the market that are designed to meet the needs of the future and the time is long overdue for security systems designed to protect us and our kids today and far into the future.

Using fascinating new technologies to enhance the stealth or invisible appearance of your records and personal information, using algorithms never before in existence and incredible cloning techniques that may only be found in the most technologically advanced intelligence and defense security systems, there is hope for Internet users, especially the unsuspecting youth who have become obsessed with the Internet.

We hope to be able to tell you about these exciting new technological breakthroughs any day now, as soon as the system is available to protect our youth. There are too many hypothetical solutions to our problems and not enough real ones. Too many are discussed in future terms when the problem is immediate.

Our children need effective help now. They need to be protected from the bad guys and their evil ways today. When we report on a breakthrough in Internet Security, we won't be reporting on some theoretical technique far into the future, we will report on something you can use now because hundreds of thousands of our youth will never get to experience their future if we don't act fast.

Stay tuned because there is a tsunami of change about to be available that is the result of some of the greatest minds with the most extensive and diverse experience in intelligence and security who have been working as part of an international team for many years to finally give us the security we deserve today to meet the demands of the future.

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Cyber Security - Stuxnet virus could target many industries

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By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – A malicious computer attack that appears to target Iran's nuclear plants can be modified to wreak havoc on industrial control systems around the world, and represents the most dire cyberthreat known to industry, government officials and experts said Wednesday.

They warned that industries are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the so-called Stuxnet worm as they merge networks and computer systems to increase efficiency. The growing danger, said lawmakers, makes it imperative that Congress move on legislation that would expand government controls and set requirements to make systems safer.

The complex code is not only able to infiltrate and take over systems that control manufacturing and other critical operations, but it has even more sophisticated abilities to silently steal sensitive intellectual property data, experts said.

Dean Turner, director of the Global Intelligence Network at Symantec Corp., told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the "real-world implications of Stuxnet are beyond any threat we have seen in the past."

Analysts and government officials told the senators they remain unable to determine who launched the attack. But the design and performance of the code, and that the bulk of the attacks were in Iran, have fueled speculation that it targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.

Turner said there were 44,000 unique Stuxnet computer infections worldwide through last week, and 1,600 in the United States. Sixty percent of the infections were in Iran, including several employees' laptops at the Bushehr nuclear plant.

Iran has said it believes Stuxnet is part of a Western plot to sabotage its nuclear program, but experts see few signs of major damage at Iranian facilities.

A senior government official warned Wednesday that attackers can use information made public about the Stuxnet worm to develop variations targeting other industries, affecting the production of everything from chemicals to baby formula.

"This code can automatically enter a system, steal the formula for the product you are manufacturing, alter the ingredients being mixed in your product and indicate to the operator and your antivirus software that everything is functioning as expected," said Sean McGurk, acting director of Homeland Security's national cybersecurity operations center.

Stuxnet specifically targets businesses that use Windows operating software and a control system designed by Siemens AG. That combination, said McGurk, is used in many critical sectors, from automobile assembly to mixing products such as chemicals.

Turner added that the code's highly sophisticated structure and techniques also could mean that it is a one-in-a-decade occurrence. The virus is so complex and costly to develop "that a select few attackers would be capable of producing a similar threat," he said.

Experts said governments and industries can do much more to protect critical systems.

Michael Assante, who heads the newly created, not-for-profit National Board of Information Security Examiners, told lawmakers that control systems need to be walled off from other networks to make it harder for hackers to access them. And he encouraged senators to beef up government authorities and consider placing performance requirements and other standards on the industry to curtail unsafe practices and make systems more secure.

"We can no longer ignore known system weaknesses and simply accept current system limitations," he said. "We must admit that our current security strategies are too disjointed and are often, in unintended ways, working against our efforts to address" cybersecurity challenges.

The panel chairman, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said legislation on the matter will be a top priority after lawmakers return in January.
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Cyber Security - U.S. Warns Of 'Huge' Cyber Threats

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Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are monitoring Stuxnet worm and China, among other critical infrastructure risks.

By Elizabeth Montalbano , InformationWeek

Officials from the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) this week warned that the prospect of a cyber attack remains imminent even as their agencies continue to monitor threats to U.S. critical infrastructure.

More Government Insights

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates said the future threat of a cyber attack is "huge," while there is a "considerable current threat."

"That's just the reality we all face," he said according to a transcript of his comments.

He said the DoD thinks it has adequately secured the .mil domain but is working to protect U.S. partners in the defense industrial industry so they are shielded.

National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center

Gates added that the DoD's recent agreement with the National Security Agency to work together more closely on cybersecurity also should help the federal government protect its websites from intrusion.

His comments came only a day before a report by a congressional commission unveiled that China Telecom diverted traffic for 18 minutes in April from U.S. government sites -- including those from the .mil and .gov domains -- away from normal traffic routing and through servers in China.

While the annual report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said it could not determine what China was doing with the traffic, a report by Northrop Grumman prepared for the same commission last year said that China is likely using the Internet to spy on the U.S. government in preparation for a future cyber attack.

If China isn't enough to worry about, there is also Stuxnet, a complex computer worm, which was discovered in July when it was believed to be targeting Iranian power plants.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs convened Thursday to discuss how to protect U.S. critical infrastructure in light of Stuxnet.

Testifying before the committee, Sean McGuirk, acting director of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center at the DHS, said that federal officials have considerable concern about Stuxnet because of the unique nature of the threat it poses.

Stuxnet, unlike other computer worms, is highly complex, containing more than 4,000 functions, which is comparable to the code in some commercial software, he said, according to a transcript of his testimony.

The worm also is difficult to detect because it "uses a variety of previously seen individual cyber attack techniques, tactics, and procedures, automates them, and hides its presence so that the operator and the system have no reason to suspect that any malicious activity is occurring," McGuirk said.

DHS officials also are concerned that the underlying Stuxnet code could be adapted to target a broad range of control systems -- such as the electricity grid and power plants -- in "any number of critical infrastructure sectors," he added.

To combat Stuxnet, the DHS has been analyzing and reporting on the worm since its detection and has briefed dozens of government and industry organizations, as well as advised the control systems industry about how to detect and mitigate an attack

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Cyber Security - America's Achilles Heel - Threatens People and Corporations

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For over 15 years I have been writing about the Internet and cyber security, in particular the sorry state of cyber security on the Internet. During that time internet theft, hacking and multi-billion dollar business losses have become the cost of doing business in our modern world.

The dot.com bust of 2000, just ten years ago, demonstrated how the booming Internet was way over-valued by the greed mongers on Wall Street and in less than two years Internet companies lost an astonishing 78% of their valuation sending many an investor in hot Internet stocks to the poor house.

It was the first real sign of the immaturity of the Internet corporate culture. After ten years of progress the business plans and expanded use of the Internet have been apparent, but the evolution of cyber security has been dismal. While processing power and software sophistication has been leaping generations ahead in recent years, computer security through legacy systems, those that have been around for years, remain stuck in first generation technology trying to meet a need far beyond the capabilities of the past.

The Internet, with it's lack of government regulation and no borders, has become the premiere and preferred method of crime in the 21st century extending from no holds barred pornography to forced child prostitution, from stealing music and movies to raiding bank and credit card accounts, from stealing proprietary corporate information to hacking into top secret government files.

So complete is the saturation of crime into the Internet that it reigns supreme in terms of bank, credit card and cell phone theft, pornography and child slavery, prostitution and illegal gambling, theft of music and movies to pedophiles stalking our children. Yet there have been no real innovations in computer security for nearly a decade. Then again, the legacy security providers are making billions of dollars selling virtually obsolete cyber protection so why would they change?

As General Motors and anyone involved long term in technology knows, the minute you rest on your laurels and rely on products of the past to meet future needs you become a technology Neanderthal.  Like GM, you then fall from number one in the world into the throes of bankruptcy.  In the world of cyber security, if you rely on older systems to meet new technological advances you become victims of the cyber criminals who have stayed one step ahead of existing security systems.

Are you or your children safe on the Internet? Of course not. Can you be safe with the right cyber security? Of course not if it is a legacy system because it is like trying to play a digital download on an old cassette recorder. Legacy systems were the first generation security and they are now technically obsolete. But there are new generation security systems coming to the market that are designed to meet your needs of the future, not just the past.

Using fascinating new technologies to enhance the stealth or invisible appearance of your records and personal information, using algorithms never before in existence and incredible cloning techniques that may only be found in the most technologically advanced intelligence and defense security systems, there is hope for internet users, especially the unsuspecting youth who have become obsessed with the Internet.

We have been made aware of impending announcements of historical new achievements in Internet or cyber security that will finally make the protection of computer users the first consideration instead of the last consideration in the evolvement of computer technology. You should watch for these announcements and check them out as it may finally give you the piece of mind that big brother and the cyber thieves may no longer control the Internet as our dependence on the Internet continues to grow at warp speed. There are new ways of protecting your rights and records on the immediate horizon.
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Haiti Earthquake Response - America's Best is not Good Enough

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Where are the choppers???

It is probably tantamount to a sacrilege to discuss this but it is becoming obvious that America still has a long ways to go to be effective, efficient and timely in responding to natural disasters. I don't say this lightly but in the dark shadow of hundreds, perhaps thousands of victims trapped in the Haiti earthquake who will die before they are rescued.

Because we did such soul searching in ripping Bush and his people to shreds for incompetence after Hurricane Katrina, our failure to respond aggressively in this disaster is even more stunning. However, the facts are facts and rather than tell the world we are in charge and leading the rescue effort and expect the adoration of the world for what we did, we better get our act together before the next disaster.



At daybreak Friday the victims trapped under tons of debris will have spent three nights and 62 hours buried alive, if they are still alive. No doubt many trapped survivors will die. In addition the thousands of injured victims and millions of homeless and terrified residents of Haiti will still be in tents in open fields, most without food, water and medical help.



So far we have demonstrated an ability to open the airport and help supply planes land and unload. Then most of the supplies have sat since planes started arriving more than 36 hours ago. All the while thousands of helpless victims are buried alive and their families try to dig them out from under tons of debris with their hands.

The Obama administration has mobilized for this tragedy at the same pace as they ordered all those new troops to Afghanistan. Obama orders a troop surge and then we discover much of the surge will take 8-12 months. That hardly sounds like an immediate troop surge to attack the bad guys. I'm not questioning that it takes the military so many months to carry out an order. But in a life threatening emergency like the earthquake we have no time for such comprehensive plans, logistical support operations, and all the other things that can be programmed into a war.



In a disaster you get yourself to the site to assess it and then start making decisions on how to save lives. Three days into this disaster and no one is in charge on the ground and no one is coordinating the efforts except a few bureaucrats back in Obama's office. If it weren't for the first responders who flew down to Haiti before any of the Obama gang, three crews and dogs from America and crews from Iceland, France, England, Russia, and China, no one would be searching for survivors yet. The Obama gang is still in Washington planning.

Check out the television reports gang, people are actually dying. We are not staging an invasion of Iran but trying to save lives in Haiti. Field coordinators should have been on the ground the night of the disaster. There are thousands of Americans and humanitarian workers from around the world who were already in Haiti, they have been there for years. Even Doctors Without Borders had over 100 people there. We didn't need press conferences, we didn't even need people the first few hours, we just needed to get supplies to the people already on the ground. They are still waiting.

It was immediately obvious that Haiti was not going to contribute anything to this rescue effort so military should have been taking over police control the next morning. No one has done that yet. It was also obvious roads had to be cleared and heavy equipment was needed immediately, not four or five days later, to find and save the tens of thousands of trapped victims. Three days and the only equipment in Haiti is what the locals grabbed or the Dominicans sent in.



We know Haiti has 2000 pieces of heavy equipment throughout the country. Why didn't we go get it and fly it into the disaster zone with Chinook or Sky Crane helicopters? We know they can carry at least 28,000 pounds, about the size of modest but life saving bulldozers and cranes to lift debris. Surely there have to be a few dozen helicopters sitting around and Haiti is only a few hours away.



Right now, day three, the trapped are dying, the injured are dying, thousands of tons of supplies are piling up at the airport and there are still no roads cleared. Were it not for the deeply religious nature of the Haitians there undoubtedly would have been civil unrest by now. Still we owe them a better chance to survive.

The clean up and recovery may be a cerebral undertaking at Harvard speed but when lives are at stake like the first couple of days of a catastrophic disaster there is no time to meet and plan but only to execute. There are thousands of people from around the world on site and they are making a great sacrifice to be there. It is too bad that Americas first real contingent of soldiers will not arrive until the end of the third day.



We owe a great debt of gratitude to Americans and people around the world for helping out. We also owe it to ourselves to once again dissect our emergency response efforts and try to get it right the next time. No more lives should be lost because of our inability to mobilize instantly and react immediately to the human tragedies like this. America can do much better.



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