Freedberg writing “Military Debates Who Should Pull The Trigger For A Cyber Attack” Quotes General Cartwright (Ret) as saying “We’ve been thinking 90% defense, 10% offense. That’s bass-ackwards for us.” Later in the article Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of…
University: If it is broke what does that mean?
The public university systems are under a significant stress from various directions. The complaints about tuition, educational strategies, structure of the university, and curriculum controls are directed from various constituencies. The university system has over a thousand years of history,…
Hardware, software, wetware, and tasking security
In the early 2000s I was working at a company called NCR for a customer called Sun Microsystems. We were implementing a product called Sun Remote Services as customer premise monitoring equipment of the Sun hardware. A job like that…
Jailbreaking the degree: Voids warranty and may cause data loss
David Blake writing in TechCrunch discusses higher education and the failure to meet commoditized demands by breaking the degree structure into modules. Similar to many writers before his concern is about the trivial courses that mean nothing to the outlet…
Woes me information (cyber) security is hard
Lots of discussion in the mainstream press about every fortune 500 being hacked, the <insert name> government has hacked us into smithereens. The world is ending. We need to do <insert favorite vendor solution> to save the world. Bull pucky.…
Cyber security (cyber war) hype cycle writ large
In the late 1800s a new form of warfare was starting to rise into the collective understanding of the world militaries. Command and control warfare through automated means began with the telegraph. This allowed for a network centric conflict to…
The lost art of making do
Let’s face it, we all like things that are new and shiny. When given a choice most of us pick new over old. The ongoing economic recession has made it more challenging for all of us to get the new…
CERIAS Posters: Two posters on some of my works in progress
This week I’m attending the CERIAS symposium at Purdue University in West Lafayette Indiana. I’ve had some really great conversations with several leaders in the industry, and found some great contacts within government that may or may not lead anywhere.…
Strategic blindness: When aliens attack
United States doctrine and force structure is built around the domains of air, sea, land, space and now cyber. Domains as defined create cylinders of capability that can be merged and fought within. The domain construct is as much a…
Embedded systems security
A few videos have hit Youtube recently. One references the content in the other. I really like to see the topic being discussed. Watch them in the order presented for the best impact. Dr. Fisher wherever you are, you are…
Just four rules
I’m no genius. I’m not the best at anything I do and as my recent foot races point out I can be the worst at a few things. Still I find some solace in simplicity of reasoning and my lifestyle.…
Privacy is a national security issue
This is not a call for some halcyon day of some spring of previous years. Nor, is this an abysmal call for the lower technology world so many profess to want unless it means giving up their BlackBerry. This is…
Electro magnetic spectrum or cyber in ascendency
There is a thread of discussion that rises about whether cyber or the electro magnetic spectrum define cyberspace. Other countries have defined their doctrine differently according to their cultural or business perceptions. This discussion is really more about rice-bowl politics…
Into the breach, and fire for effect
I’ve been a federal government employe for almost exactly 11 months. In that period of time I have been through shutdown scares, notified about the possible cessation of my program three times by senior leaders, and all of this while…
For fear and profit I give you cyber war
I make a lot of money talking about cyber security and cyber warfare so I most assuredly have a dog in the hunt over whether cyber warfare is a real or a made up threat. I try and be honest…