Just really couldn’t avoid doing a write-up on this story for LSD. This one goes out to anybody who got one of our glorious shwag pieces illustrating our favorite word here at the digest, CYBERDOUCHERY.
I know what the reaction from my fellow liquidmatrix folk will be on this but I hope the rest of you can at least keeps your heads from exploding.
The all powerful and knowing Wall Street Journal announced today that the Obama administration is putting together a “new military command to coordinate the defense of Pentagon computer networks and improve U.S. offensive capabilities in cyberwarfare.” Before I continue let me state that I am not trying to be a sarcastic punk and don’t think it is a bad idea for the U.S. government to catch up on technology in a security sense. How I feel about the media is a different story.
Anyway, the article goes on to state that this “new military command” is the result of the proverbial straw on the camel from earlier this week when the (again all powerful and knowing) Wall Street Journal published the story amply titled “Computer Spies Breach Figher-Jet Project”. Which, in my opinion, based on the title would warrant some government action. However, watch some awesome back peddling:
The move comes amid growing evidence that sophisticated cyberspies are attacking the U.S. electric grid and key defense programs. A page-one story in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported that hackers breached the Pentagon’s biggest weapons program, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter, and stole data. Lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wrote to the defense secretary Tuesday requesting a briefing on the matter.
Lockheed Martin Corp., the project’s lead contractor, said in a statement Tuesday that it believed the article “was incorrect in its representation of successful cyber attacks” on the F-35 program. “To our knowledge, there has never been any classified information breach,” the statement said. The Journal story didn’t say the stolen information was classified.
Well that is just impressive work that demonstrates media experience beyond my years.
But wait! I smell a new cyber buzzword!
A draft of the White House review steps gingerly around the question of how to improve computer security in the private sector, especially key infrastructure such as telecommunications and the electricity grid. The document stresses the importance of working with the private sector and civil-liberties groups to craft a solution, but doesn’t call for a specific government role, according to a person familiar with the draft.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to announce the creation of a new military “cyber command” after the rollout of the White House review, according to military officials familiar with the plan.
The article goes on to use my new favorite buzzword cyber command some more in detail. Read on if you dare.
(ed. note- This was in my queue for three days before it was published. Apologies to Matt)
Sometimes I almost think it would be a good thing to Google bomb the terms cybersecurity, cyberwar, cyber command, cyberspy, cyber katrina, cyber pearl harbor and the like to link to an article describing how rooms full of security people cringe and giggle at the speaker whenever a cyberbureaucrat or cyberpolitician use the terms.
Let them continue to use cyber lest they feel the heat for using it and start coming up with “cool” replacements, like:
CySec
CyCom
CyWar
CySpy or worse – Cyspionage
CyKat
CyPH
And the uber head asplode term – CyCloud.