FBI Warns of Sweeping Global Threat To US Cybersecurity

GovIT Geek writes "The FBI's newly appointed chief of cyber security warned today that 'a couple dozen' countries are eager to hack US government, corporate, and military networks. While he refused to provide country-specific details, FBI Cyber Division Chief Shawn Henry told reporters at a roundtable that cooperation with foreign law enforcement is one of the Bureau's highest priorities and added the United States has had incredible success fostering overseas partnerships."

Re:Dark days of paranoia and spying.

[HungryHobo]

FOSS software isn't immune, there have been some terrible security flaws which have gone unnoticed for a long time. Of course proprietry software has even more flaws but profits pay for a team of guys in nice suits to give powerpoint presentations on how good it is and take the head of purchasing out to dinner.

I would be very surprised if there weren't a few NSA plants in the dev teams of some of the more popular linux distros. How hard would it really be for a tallented coder to slip in a few subtle flaws to be exploited later if he's on the dev team and in every other way does the job very well.

Re:Dark days of paranoia and spying.

[zappepcs]

I hope you are modded up handily.... what you say is the truth, and the only reason that such information makes the news. If govt. agencies were doing their job as prescribed, it would not be news. This is simply creating a new evil-doer to distract the minds of Americans while the government continues it's wholesale grab of liberties and Constitutional pinata frenzy.

Mr Orwell would be happy to note that in 4 more years, most Americans will be on a terrorist watch list, augmented heartily by those signing up for unemployment benefits. How much farther down this rabbit hole must we go before government whistle blowers become folk heroes? Will our grandchildren hear stories of Babe the blue ox, superman, and joe whistleblower? I hope so.

Re:well, he would say that - wouldn't he?

[JCSoRocks]

I'm going to go cry in a corner because of how absolutely right you are and how horribly depressing that is. The last line in particular pretty much sums up the last 7 years.

Countries?

[gmuslera]

First worry about individuals and groups of individuals, that are already doing some damage. Worms, spam, virus, botnets, exploiting vulnerabilities, social engineering, phishing... you dont need to have a country's government behind those threats.

And part of the solution is not "attacking", but defending having things right in your side. Detect infected and vulnerable sites and pcs and warn/educate owners/vendors about that, as they are the perfect source for i.e. a big DDos or other kind of attacks. That US is the biggest source of spam and probably botnet activity of the world is a good warning sign.

Re:I'm nervous that he would mention corporate net

[Sloppy]

Your example of IBM's being able to protect themselves without risk to others is also critically flawed. Last year IBM did $1.43 billion in consulting work for the US government. (1.4% of total 2007 revenue) You don't suppose that in that some of the work is classified? I know some of it is and further, given continued access, I could see the new stuff as the contracts are awarded to Big Blue.

Fair enough on that. I'm ok with government demanding authority (or certain standards) over private computer security as a term in government contracts. As long as someone can Just Say No (i.e. don't take the lucrative government business) then surrendering this power isn't hurting anyone.

Infrastructure that is already high-regulated, most of which has some sort of monopoly given by government? Hmm.. ok there too, for the same reason.

Re:Dark days of paranoia and spying.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing a new wave of sockpuppets. Its been long suggested he has some sockpuppets with good karma (where he doesn't act like an idiot) that he uses to mod himself up. Personally I think that is most likely the scenario, and the stance that twitter doesn't believe a damn word he writes.

Even twitters most notorious foes think Twitter believes what he writes. I for one think he has even fooled them

Re:Dark days of paranoia and spying.

[Fluffeh]

Superman is on a list. So are all the other people who wear their undies on the outside. He is likely to be one of those sex offender types. Seriously. And Joe Whistleblower? He blew his last whistle trying to protest in a safe zone away from everyone else where the media couldn't have access to him.

I really worry about the direction of America. For such a powerful country in the world, your government is really really managing to dick things up.