Read the Infowar Blog

Here is the link. Infowar Blog Lots of late-breaking news, etc.

 Assume everyone who can read has learned of the attack on GoDaddy yesterday.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Yes, Sir! Senator!

The Senate has blocked an important cybersecurity bill that would have required business and industry to beef up their security standards, especially in vulnerable infrastructures like dams, transportation and power grids.  If information warfare ever breaks out, and most experts think this is just a matter of time, it will affect all businesses, and then we will have to listen to them howl about the money they are losing.  Yet, the U.S, Chamber of Commerce screamed that the legislation would be “too burdensome” for corporations. 

From my years in IT, I learned that business never wants to spend money that won’t immediately bring in more money, and that the short term always trumps the long term.   Most CEO’s understand zilch about their vulnerability in the area of cybersecurity  and how real the threat of information warfare is.  They think the IT department, well, they should serve sales and marketing and sure, keep our data safe.  

Ask yourself how many companies have had credit card and other information stolen.  Hasn’t that been rather costly?  Wouldn’t it have been better to beef up security rather than alienate customers and suffer all the bad publicity?  Can’t they see beyond their noses?

I guess not.  For a detailed look at the Senate’s short-sightedness, here is the  link from the New York Times:

 Cybersecurity Bill Blocked

CyberSecurity: people just don't get it!

Gaaa!  After reading about the Olympic grand slam opening last night, I caught sight of a NY Times article about taking the teeth out of a CyberSecurity bill because it would be too hard (read expensive), for businesses to comply with.  Business would be the first to scream and rant if a cyber war broke out and they were brought down by infrastructure problems or a ripped-to-shreds economy.

I worked in IT for 20+ years, and believe me, business is always dragging its security heels.  I had to scream loud and long before the customer service people stopped leaving orders by the fax and copy machines, orders with the customers' credit card numbers and expiration dates.  I had to beg for a shredder for confidential information.  I had to preach and tear my hair before everyone understood that by law you could not put the credit card CVVC number on an electronic file.  I cannot tell you  how many forms used to ask for that number.  Duh!  Business is in business to do business and as the old saying goes, the devil take the hindmost.  Credit card processors are hide bound and dragged their feet for as long as possible before the fines outweighed the cost of cleaning up their act.

Business will never implement security measures because it's always more important to please the marketing department who comes up with some meatball idea that needs implementation yesterday!  Executives are mostly focused on sales, not the security infrastructure.  Someone has to mind the CyberSecurity store and right now it's looking like that someone is no one.

When the cyber war breaks out, don't blame me and don't blame your president.  Blame those who didn't want to spend a few bucks to beef up their systems:  electric grids, transportation, nuclear power plants, all those pieces of our infrastructure that may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks.  Brother can you spare a dime?  

Cyberattacks Increase in U.S.

Targeting our infrastructure, cyberattacks against the U. S. have risen 17-fold in the past few years (2009-2011).  Read all about it here:  Cyberattacks on Rise in U.S.


Cyberattacks are the theme, framing the plot in The Shadow Warriors, first pubbed in 2001.  Was I ahead of the curve or not?  Falling on deaf ears, of course.  Maybe I should have sent the NSA and the White House copies of the book?  Will it become a best seller if the attacks are not thwarted on some occasion?  I would not wish that on anyone, the attacks, that is, not becoming a best seller.  


I did scads of research, and considered myself almost an expert at one time.  A few years ago I threw out all my  carefully collected documents because everything was so out of date.  


BTW, I had no idea that WE created Stuxnet.  Is that a fact?  I read it recently, maybe in Wired Magazine, my go-to place for cyber lore.  We haven't acknowledged it, if true.  What would the Skunkworks think?  Writing my techno-thriller was such fun.  Along with World of Mirrors which had a different kind of technology at its heart.   It  would be fun to be a mouse in the wainstcotting (assuming there might be wainscotting) at the Aspen Institute. 

Danger Room Blog

I thought that my readers who are also technology geeks might  enjoy knowing about Wired Magazine's blog, Danger Room.  It pays to keep informed about practically everything these days.   

Here is the link.Danger Room.  Is has sort of dystopian ring, doesn't it?

 BTW,  if you're up for international intrigue and technological history, my novel, World of Mirrors is out.   It can be ordered from the publisher's web site in print or as an ebook.  Still waiting for Bowker to  register the ISBN.  Not everything happens quickly in e-publishing.  Here is the link to the novel, and you can find out whether it's your cuppa tea.  Link to World of Mirrors publisher

The story is set on an island off the Baltic coast in the former DDR, and the year is 1990, the “time of the turn.” The Berlin wall has crumbled, but Germany is not yet reunified.   Against the seductive decadence of an old resort with its classic sailboats, nude beaches and crumbling casinos, Zara Gray, a consultant to high tech firms, and T.K. Drummond, a man who finds people and fixes situations, must track down an American software thief before he can fence a stolen copy of his company’s bleeding-edge new software.

Zara narrates the story as she fights the fear that their mission is jinxed from the beginning.  Bad decisions and chilling discoveries threaten to sabotage the project.  The situation further unravels during a sailing weekend, and turns deadly at a Midsummer Festival.  Trapped in a matrix of betrayal, Zara and T.K. must rely on two unlikely people to help them escape the island and in a final, desperate gambit to save the software, Zara must perform her own dangerous treachery.    

Kinda like a caper with an international cast of miscreants.  :)