US building top cyber defense team: Napolitano

NATO chief says enemy might be 'everywhere' in cyberspace
Helsinki (AFP) March 4, 2010 - NATO must be ready to address the security threats posed by potential enemies in cyberspace, the secretary general of the western military alliance, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said Thursday. "Several actors on the international scene are quite interested in what is going on in NATO, and they also use cyberspace to achieve their goals," Rasmussen told reporters at a crisis management seminar in Helsinki. While the territorial defence of its 28 member states and their populations remained NATO's core function, it was not enough to "line up soldiers and tanks and military equipment along the borders," Rasmussen said.

We "really have to address the threat at its roots, and it might be in cyber space," he said, adding that an "enemy might appear everywhere in cyberspace". NATO is currently updating its Strategic Concept to reflect changes in the emphasis of global security challenges -- including terrorism, energy supplies and climate change -- since the last revision in 1999. As part of this process, it is seeking input from non-member partners, including Finland and Sweden, whose foreign ministers hosted the seminar in Helsinki on a comprehensive approach to crisis management. Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said all future conflicts would have a critically important cyber-dimension, which also related to the security of key global infrastructure, including energy, shipping and aviation. "We must do far more to counter all this (potential threats) to secure the most critical of the flows of the process of globalisation," Bildt said, adding it was "high time to put the issues high on the international agenda."

by Staff Writers
San Francisco (AFP) March 3, 2010
The United States is building an elite cyber defense team to guard the nation's public and private computer systems, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday.

"We need the best brains we can bring to bear on meeting the challenge," Napolitano told computer security specialists at a premier RSA Conference here.

"We are building one of the best teams anywhere, but our success depends in no small part on our ability to collaborate with the private sector."

She challenged those at the conference to join forces with the department and help teach people the importance of protecting themselves from online crooks and spies.

Napolitano launched a National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign contest to find innovative ways to convince the public how vital it is to safeguard computers from online attacks.

"All Americans have an important role to play in securing our computer systems and cyber networks," Napolitano said.

Proposals for promoting cybersecurity awareness can be submitted online at dhs.gov/cyberchallenge any time before April 30. The department will back winning ideas, according to Napolitano.

She said the department is ahead of schedule deploying an Einstein computer intrusion detection system on federal networks, which should be in place at 21 government agencies by the end of this year.

"Even as we are working to deploy Einstein we take very seriously the protection of privacy and civil liberties," Napolitano said of the system that analyzes Internet traffic as it flows into or out of federal computer systems.

She added the department has made "significant progress" in hardening cyber defenses of privately-owned portions of the US critical infrastructure.

"We need to do more and we need to do it faster," Napolitano said. "Cyber threats are also threats to our homeland security."

She called on computer security specialists to help the department "leapfrog" forward with technology for speedy automated defenses that can operate across all types of systems.

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US cyber defense strategy details hit the Internet
San Francisco (AFP) March 3, 2010
The White House has pulled back the curtain on portions of a secret US cyber defense strategy crafted during the administration of former president George W. Bush. White House Internet security coordinator Howard Schmidt described bits of the strategy at the RSA cybersecurity conference here, saying the revelation was part of a promise of transparency by President Barack Obama. Parts of ... read more

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