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.                    

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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