Blog Archives
Cybersecurity is Critical to Our National Security
Guest Post by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)
This week the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission issued their annual report to Congress. The report, which details all aspects of the relationship between the United States and China, contained disturbing but not unsuspected revelations that the Chinese government is behind the numerous computer hacking incidents involving many U.S. government and military sites.
Specifically, the report highlights an incident from April 2010, when for 18 minutes nearly 15 percent of the world’s Internet traffic was redirected through computer servers in China. Emails and Internet traffic to and from such vital government sites as the U.S. Senate, the Department of Commerce, NASA, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Departments of the Army, Navy, and the Air Force as well as commercial sites such as Dell, Yahoo, Microsoft and IBM were hijacked and manipulated by China Telecom, a state-controlled Internet carrier.
This report follows recent testimony by the General Accounting Office (GAO) that the U.S. information technology infrastructure is vulnerable to attack. It has been estimated that the Pentagon’s computer system gets 360 million unauthorized scans or attacks a day. Cybersecurity is without a doubt a homeland security threat and our government must take the appropriate steps to protect our vulnerable systems. This week Defense Secretary Gates announced that the Department of Defense and National Security Agency will be working together more closely to address the growing cybersecurity threats faced by the federal government.
In addition, folks must realize just how important it is for individual Americans to take cybersecurity seriously, not just as a matter of personal safety, but as a matter of our country’s security as well. Those who take it upon themselves to implement relatively simple security measures are not only protecting themselves and their families, but are in effect contributing to our national efforts to secure critical infrastructures like telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, water, health care, transportation, and emergency and financial services. Weaknesses in your personal computer systems can affect the entire country. In fact, 90 percent of the nation’s critical information infrastructure is operated by the private sector.
While technology has brought tremendous improvement to our quality of life, these advances have also brought significant vulnerability. These recent attacks on government networks have served to increase awareness that cybersecurity is not just about protecting computers, but also has implications for our national security and economic well-being. Just as the federal government heavily relies upon computers to carry out their business, so do our local hospitals, firefighters and police, just to name a few. Computers are vital to the safety of the American people and as Co-Chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus and Chairman of the House Republican High Tech Working Group, I will continue working with the Administration and the leadership in Congress to see that our nation’s information networks are protected from future cyber attacks.
Good Riddance!
Thankfully, someone is memorializing the scourge of internet browsers. Hasta la vista, IE6! Have fun burning in hell for eternity. Those who are web developers will come to embrace this post and have a laugh at this.
Here is the proper obituary:
Internet Explorer 6 died a horrid death after a web developer went through and tripped up the code. After causing many gray hairs and screaming attacks, IE6, as he/she/it/that was called, gained great popularity. IE6 was born at a lab in the underground bunker at the Microsoft headquarters. Throughout his long, troublesome life, IE6 eventually created a spawn, IE7, who is still living and causing similar issues as his dear old dad.
IE6 is survived by his son and IE8, his new wife.
Since IE6 made every web developers life hell, he requested everyone party by wearing blue and gray.
Cybersecurity is Critical to Our National Security
Guest Post by Congressman Bob Goodlatte
The news reports are startling – multiple congressional offices announcing that their computer systems have been compromised by hackers, including Virginia Congressman Frank Wolf and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Pentagon reporting that their computer system is “scanned or attacked by outsiders more than 300 million times a day”, and the General Accounting Office (GAO) testifying that the U.S. information technology infrastructure is vulnerable to attack.
The GAO has further stated in a recent report that, “cyber attacks continue to pose a potentially devastating threat to the systems and operations of the federal government and the ever-increasing dependence of federal agencies on computerized systems to carry out essential, everyday operations can make them vulnerable to an array of cyber-based risks. Thus it is increasingly important for the federal government to have effective information security controls in place to safeguard its systems and the information they contain.”
In direct response to this GAO report and extensive hearings by the House Science and Technology Committee, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation which aims to enhance cybersecurity. Specifically, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act seeks to improve computer security in the public and private sectors through coordination of federal cybersecurity research and development activities, strengthening of the cybersecurity workforce, and coordination of U.S. representation in international cybersecurity technical standards development.
Cyber security is without a doubt a homeland security threat and the government is taking steps to protect our vulnerable systems, but folks must realize just how important it is for individual Americans to take their cybersecurity seriously, not just as a matter of personal safety, but as a matter of our country’s security as well. Those who take it upon themselves to implement relatively simple security measures are not only protecting themselves and their families, but are in effect contributing to our national efforts to secure critical infrastructures like telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, water, health care, transportation, and emergency and financial services.
While technology has brought tremendous improvement to our quality of life, these advances have also brought significant vulnerability. These recent attacks on government networks have served to increase awareness that cybersecurity is not just about protecting computers, but also has implications for our national security and economic well-being. Just as the federal government heavily relies upon computers to carry out their business, so do our local hospitals, firefighters and police, just to name a few. Computers are vital to the safety of the American people and as Co-Chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus and Chairman of the House Republican High Tech Working Group I will continue working with the Administration and the leadership in Congress to see that our nation’s information networks are protected from future cyber attacks.
To contact me about this or any other matter, please visit my website at www.goodlatte.house.gov.
