Comments on: Following Sandy, DHS seeks security ‘Cyber Reserve’

By: Christian Gehman

Christian Gehman — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:27:58 +0000

I say, let the Chinese pay for US to go to the moon. And Mars!

By: Christian Gehman

Christian Gehman — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:27:03 +0000

Are you forgetting the electrical outage that darkened the entire East Coast — when was it? back in the Sixties? These days most of the power grid’s infrastructure is controlled by computers that communicate with each other. The different pieces are interdependent; when one fails, its neighbors may shut down to “fail safe”. You can find better descriptions on the Internet.

By: Christian Gehman

Christian Gehman — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:21:57 +0000

I think we can assume that the DHS believes other nations may have a capability to wreak cyber-havoc on the US because the DHS itself knows that other parts of our military-industrial complex already have the capability to wreak havoc upon the cyber infrastructure of other nations — in the event of war or other necessity.

By: Mr.X

Mr.X — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 12:42:17 +0000

Which allies!?

By: Mr.X

Mr.X — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 12:41:42 +0000

@Bri: Funny. Been there done what?

By: Bri

Bri — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 01:33:18 +0000

Going to the moon is extremely expensive.. We have to bring everything we need with us. The technology to manufacture it on the moon is still many years away. We already have the experience to get to the moon . China does not. They don’t have any financial need to go to the moon. . It’s mainly made of basalt. We have no need of it here on earth. At great expense here on earth, we could separate it out into it’s base elements, but the earth has already done this through billions of years of tectonic action, so we mine those ores. It’s far cheaper to do that on earth. There is no consumer need for us to go to the moon. We have consumer need for near space. We have private industry creating the space vehicles that can capitalize near earth space. China does not. Don’t worry about them wasting their time going to the moon. It costs a fortune with little return. If a race ensued. We could join in and beat them easily. There are already treaties in place as to who owns the moon. The U.S., Russia, and The European Union are the big players in space. China and India have a long way to go. The moons big virtue is as a platform for further space exploration. That will be predominantly robotic. Humans don’t do too well in space. Even in the space station, doing lots of excersise. We can’t last too long in space.. All our space needs right now are near earth, with some scientific exploration. Eventually we will mine the asteroids, but that is too expensive and difficult right now. Let them play in their sand box. If we had to, we could crush them. Been there, done that.

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 23:05:34 +0000

Heh, good point Erik….the scenarios drawn up here are kind of far-fetched. Rather then trying to create reasoning to build up America’s cyber-capabilities which will probably be abused and too over-reaching, how about dismantling the reasons so we wouldn’t have to pass something like that?

Like seperating the power-grid from the Net so it won’t be a potential target, or not allowing lethal chemicals to be boarded onto trains in the first place….this will all make us safer in the long-run and their won’t be a ‘need’ to create over-reaching abusive cyber-defenses “for our own good” which will do little by further invade the average person’s privacy and liberty in a similar vein as has been done before.

By: Ralph Dratman

Ralph Dratman — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 22:36:00 +0000

Go on, Marcos… who is interested?

By: Marcos Marin

Marcos Marin — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:42:32 +0000

Exactly. Assuming of course there is no interest in such a scenario… ohwait…

By: ErikSMeyer

ErikSMeyer — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:38:58 +0000

“Never waste a good crisis”
What a surprise; the “superstorm” immediately glommed onto by bureaucrats looking to expand their budgets/powers, even though it was, in itself, completely irrrelevant to the nonsense they are fearmongering about.

“[Attackers could] derail passenger trains, or even more dangerous, derail passenger trains loaded with lethal chemicals. ”
Why are you loading passenger trains with lethal chemicals? I would start by not doing that…

As for China, well, we’re giving them all of this technology, and we’re financing their global rise. If you people are so concerned about that, stop doing those things.

By: Boristabby

Boristabby — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:35:34 +0000

Bri nails it, per usual.
Ahn jha leek ah, what say you?
We need your insightful take on this.
(No sarcasm meant)

By: Ralph Dratman

Ralph Dratman — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:07:46 +0000

Can anyone here explain just how a cyber attacker could take down the power grid? It does not seem reasonable to me. And if the danger is so great, why not just disconnect the electrical transmission lines and generating stations from the internet?

By: Locke

Locke — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 20:50:53 +0000

A good idea on the surface, but I remain leery because Janet Napolitano has a history of trying to sneak party platform politics by in various DHS and Customs efforts. Such as the attempt to reclassify common leatherman type tools and other tools and pocket knives as “switchblades” under the guise of “border security”. Two completely unrelated issues of course.

Again, this sounds like a good idea, just make sure your representatives do not mindlessly pass something that ends up taking away your freedoms and rights without a thorough review.

By: Art White

Art White — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 03:04:29 +0000

Please enough with the military propaganda. Enough with the wars. China is talking about going the the moon. Where is the USA space program?

By: Bri

Bri — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 22:46:34 +0000

We need to plan for every type of disaster. We are so I’ll prepared for any of them. If China attached us on the cyber front, we would respond militarily. They can’t just invade. It’s very hard to turn that devastation into a real conquest. As always we need to build up our fortifications against attack, and our offensive capabilities. Some of those capabilities are with our allies, and the threat of retaliation. All our infrastructure needs to be fortified against any risk, from tidal waves, to earth quakes, to hurricanes, to solar flares, to asteroids. We need to plan ahead. We need to put circuit breakers in place, to limit the devastation. We need back up systems. We need to decentralize all the grids. We need redundant AI systems cross checking to stop any catastrophe from spiraling out of control. More importantly in terms of defense of the Internet from China, we need forensic systems to see who is attacking us and hold them accountable. International laws should be designed that have real teeth. The UN has got to stop being a paper tiger. The principals are similiar to the Geneva convention. If china violates, the consequences should be severe. Their cyber bullying should not be tolerated. We need to unify our allies on this point.