Secret data-sharing network to be developed to deal with crises
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OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government is laying plans for a secret electronic network to ensure confidential information-sharing following a terrorist strike or natural disaster.
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Some years ago, I got a job doing network support for the District Attorneyâs office in a large city that shall remain nameless. When I arrived, the network was a mess! Malware was rampant, Internet and WAN connections were saturated, and users were constantly complaining about slow computers and network performance. Even so, my attempts to enforce a mindful security policy were met with fierce resistance. The attitude among the legal staff was, âThis is my computer and my network; youâre just a computer janitor.â
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(InfoWorld) - Several technology companies will build a system to let the U.S. government share data securely among its various agencies, a goal it has struggled to achieve since the September 2001 terrorist attacks. The aim of the Secure Information Sharing Infrastructure (SISA) project is to create a system that allows data to be shared between the agencies, but in a way that ensures only the people who are authorized to access data are able to do so. Cisco Systems, Microsoft, and EMC will provide commercial, off-the-shelf products, with smaller vendors contributing specific technologies. Cisco will focus on secure networks and data protection, Microsoft on identity management and OSes, and EMC on storage. Also participating are Liquid Machines on content protection, Swan Island Networks on information-sharing architectures and Titus Labs on information labeling and classification. The business alliance between the companies will be managed by Addx. The companies didn't provide a timetable or cost for the system, and government representatives weren't available early Tuesday. A report released in 2004 by the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the terrorist attacks, found that U.S. intelligence agencies had cumbersome information-sharing practices that hampered their ability to counter terrorism. The vendors' Web site gave scenarios of how the SISA system might be used. In one, a law enforcement agency raids an apartment and finds documents and financial ledgers in a foreign language. The material could be posted on an information-sharing site to be viewed by an investigator in another country. The companies also gave a general view of how a person would be authenticated and access information from the network. A SISA administrator at a command center will access a user's profile in Microsoft's Active Directory, then establish a VPN (virtual private network) to let the user access the files they are permitted to view. Cisco Security Agent governs the user's access to specific resources, such as write capabilities or a USB device, and the contents of e-mails and documents are protected with Liquid Machines and Microsoft's Rights Management Services (RMS). Â
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... but I am as confident as I am   that the Sun will rise tomorrow that it will be safe from terrorists.   After all, we have the children to think about.    It seems that David Clark, who led the development of  the Internet way back in the '70's - did you know there  even was a '70's? -  wants to     create a whole new Internet that will fix many of the problems the   current Internet is plagued with.  The New Internet's engineers will be  much more careful this time around to make sure it works better than  the first one did.    I'm afraid, though, that the engineers are not the only ones  who will be deciding how our New Internet will work.      If one is able to find any   privacy or anonymity in this New Internet,   it will be because of some undiscovered     security hole, which will be   quickly repaired, rather than any kind of conscious design decision.    Probably one reason they are accepting proposals before rolling it out   is to avoid the sort of accidental security holes that enable pr0n,   peer-to-peer filesharing and   left-wing political activism.
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This scenario is all too familiar to office workers who collaborate electronically on projects: E-mails get passed around with differing versions of documents-in-progress attached. Instant messages whizz by. Web sites are cited, then lost. It's often a jumbled mess, with no central online location for shared data. There must be a better way.
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Throughout the European Union, governments are grappling with how to guard against terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, Indian IT services companies have beefed up efforts to protect data.
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News analysis: From probably helpful to definitely secretive, there's a whole lot of information being gathered and sifted. A pair of reports shed light on the government's data-mining programs.
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Two researchers demonstrate how unprotected, public VoIP phones could expose the internal network of a company or organization.
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Simple, cheap encryption method uses natural thermal noise to foil eavesdroppers.
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An innovative malware honeypot project backed by a leading consortium of IT security experts is preparing to re-launch its global sensor network after Jan. 1 in an effort to dupe more cyber-criminals into handing over information about their latest attack methods.
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The risk of permanent data loss is a growing problem for organizations as the degree of interdependency between systems increases. The risk to revenue and reputation from an extended outage is real. Learn how these consequences can be avoided with a three-node disaster recovery topology.
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No alarm. No idea Leaked information from databases is becoming an increasingly serious concern, yet when it comes to plugging the wholes many organisations are running so many databases they hardly know where to start.â¦
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It's a hacker's nightmare but a dream for bankers and spies: A computer network so secure that even the simplest attempts to eavesdrop will interrupt the flow of data and alert administrators to the snooping.
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In March 1990, when few people had even heard of the Internet, U.S. Secret Service agents raided the Texas offices of a small board-game maker, seizing computer equipment and reading customers&#039; e-mail stored on one machine. A group of online pioneers already worried about how the nation&#039;s laws were being applied to new technologies became even more fearful and decided to intervene.
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Representatives of the CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) project, which launched in December 2005, reported to Black Hat DC attendees that progress continues on the project. The DHS-sponsored effort is currently sifting through "mountains" of vuln data, and they're in touch with the affected companies.
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Networks of low-res cameras and sensors could monitor urban environments for diverse data -- traffic flow, pollutants, structural integrity -- online. By the Associated Press.
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Soon millions of the data-collection devices will be scattered around the world, but there are still many obstacles to the networks.