[131351] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: DHS and NSA getting married?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Bellovin)
Fri Oct 22 11:08:52 2010
From: Steven Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikXOt1btsz4JehjHP+oRCHbybttwO+mGq_=6Zke@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:08:43 -0400
To: Christopher Morrow <morrowc.lists@gmail.com>
Cc: NANOG <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Oct 22, 2010, at 11:04 37AM, Christopher Morrow wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 1:46 AM, George Bonser <gbonser@seven.com> =
wrote:
>> An agreement signed this month with the Department of Homeland =
Security
>> and an earlier initiative to protect companies in the defense =
industrial
>> base make it likely that the military will be a key part of any =
response
>> to a cyber attack.
>=20
> are any of the civilian agencies really prepared/capable of dealing
> with 'cyber attack'? it seems fairly natural that a 'cyber attack' (on
> the gov't, or it's pieces/parts) is equivalent to an 'attack' on same.
> We don't arm the NIST folks with Ar-15's and send them over the hill,
> we do that with marines.
>=20
Is it a cyberattack, a clumsy criminal, or a bored teenager? =46rom =
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=3D12651&page=3D142 :
In the words of a former Justice Department official involved =
with critical infrastructure protection, =93I have seen too many =
situations where government officials claimed a high degree of =
confidence as to the source, intent, and scope of an attack, and it =
turned out they were wrong on every aspect of it. That is, they were =
often wrong, but never in doubt.=94
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
