DISQUS

CTOvision: The Future of Cyber Security and Cyber Conflict

  • Bob · 11 months ago
    I like the 6 points. I fully agree that we need to move faster. Alas, I'm not optimistic things can be "fixed" very rapidly, UNLESS there is a huge infusion of cash for the efforts. And that cash has to go to all involved in the fight. I've said all along that the government is not partnering enough with industry on these undertakings. There are many companies that would love to help out, but most of those same companies are struggling, and will have little to devote to this on their own. Some organization from the top (Fed CTO?) would be good, but this is really going to take some grass roots efforts by lots of folks.
  • ctovision · 11 months ago
    Thanks Bob, I appreciate that and agree totally. This is going to take leadership and resources. If the government tracked its IT investments in a way that would let us calculate the value of current "legacy" computer systems it might be on the order of $500B or so. Do we want to replace all that right away so it can be more secure? That isn't in the budget. Even just making this old stuff more secure (not replacing it) will be costly. But it needs to be done.
  • Jeffrey · 11 months ago
    Hey Bob, thanks for the pointer to my Kyrgyz cyber attack post. The investigation is ongoing and I hope to have some conclusions posted soon.
  • ctovision · 11 months ago
    Jeffrey, thanks for bringing attention to these important operational cyber matters.
    Cheers,
    Bob
  • AJ Clark · 11 months ago
    Bob, good article. I see the real challenge as developing a Cyber Policy that frames the threat. Newton's III law of motion of every action having an equal and opposite reaction is seen every day online. Do we try to leap ahead to a point where true technological dominance is gained such as that which we have in aerospace and other battle spaces, or do we do a tit-for-tat fight like what we've seen with our more recent counter insurgency operations in low intensity conflicts? Either way, I applaud any government action that recognizes that we may already be losing ground in this conflict and must immediately address it by combining industry and government resources.
    aj
  • ctovision · 11 months ago
    AJ I'm with you on that, and I also think you invoke a good analogy when you mention aerospace. In that particular battlespace the analogy is good because in aerospace the country could dominate for 50 years because of strong partnerships with industry. We won WWII and the Cold War for lots of reasons including brave people but also because industry could out produce more technologically advanced capabilities than our adversaries. I hope the same will be true in cyber. To do so, maybe we need to treat our cyber industry with the same respect and partnership we treated our aerospace industry?
    Cheers,
    Bob