While this may come across as a ploy to sell books, the real issue is that nothing has been done and no one has reacted to a threat that remains just on the edge of our collective consciousness--Cyber-terrorism!
IT "Insecurity" is a problem that currently costs industry $$ billions/year, and if a scenario like the one described in my novel The Silence were to unfold, the cost would be a hundred-fold that level--or more. Everything used in the book was known technologies combined and applied to evil purposes!
What triggered this email was an accumulation of articles/editorials in the Wall Street Journal that I re-read over the holidays. One headline reads "Tighter Cyber Protection Is Urged By Computer-Security Industry" (see article below) and it seems as if time has stood still on this frightening prospect.
Another is an editorial entitled "Our Hair Is on Fire" authored by Warren Rudman, Gary Hart, Leslie Gelb and Stephen Flynn--all of the US Commission on National Security in the 21st Century warning of the risk of another 9/11 magnitude event.
About 1-1/2 years ago, I wrote a novel The Silence, which was well received by those who read it, and commented on it. It is still as appropriate as it was then....perhaps more so... as convergence of Wi-Fi, Smart Cell Phones and Computers are used more and more with insecure software and networks.
The text that follows tells about the novel and its premise...and while it seems like more "promotion" it is a WARNING. How secure are your systems? If they use Microsoft's products the answer (according to experts, not me) is "NOT VERY."
What can you do? A lot.
If you care about this, read on.
Advertisement
Winter is here. How about buying and/or giving a book... to read on wintry nights. There is nothing like a "thriller" to warm up the coldest night.
With that blatant plug for my 2003 novel THE SILENCE , I'll even put a couple of links where you can order it!
(Don't waste time looking for it in bookstores--it's not there any more.)
Amazon: http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0%2D595%2D74459%2D1
Barnes & Noble: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595744591/ref=lpr_g_1/103-9198610-3515867?v=glance&s=books
iUniverse:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?userid=0QCA0NRYNB&isbn=0595744591
HERE ARE A FEW REVIEWER'S COMMENTS:
“The Silence has the intrigue of John Grisham, the spice of Mickey Spillane and the technical aspects of Tom Clancy.”—Tom Quinn, Former CEO, Design Systems, Inc
"A fascinating book that gives the reader a glimpse into warfare of the future. The outcome of future wars will be determined far in advance of the actual conflict. This is but a preview of things to come.”—Paul Broadbent, Former Sr. CIA Defense Intelligence Program Manager
“A major cyberterrorism event will occur in 2003, … one that will disrupt the economy and bring the Internet to its knees.”—John Gantz, Chief Research Officer of IDC
"This chilling new novel links the world's increasing dependency on the Internet to vulnerabilities that can be exploited for evil. This launches John Mariotti as a new master of the genre."—Calvin Myer, Co-founder WorldWide Ltd.
“We always prepare to fight the last war but never the next war… this should be the wake-up call to America. Mariotti is blowing the bugle for all of us."—John Ellingson, CEO, Edentification
"Mariotti has created a fast moving thriller full of vivid characters who hook the reader's emotions and find a place in their heart. The good guys are good; the bad guys are awful; and the women are terrific. It's hard to believe this is Mariotti's first novel"—John Grom, CEO, Executive Search.
NOTE: This is the text to one Wall Street Journal article in which the IT security industry is pleading for the government to take seriously the threat of cyber-terrorism as equally or more destructive than physical terrorism.
Tighter Cyber Protection Is Urged By Computer-Security Industry
By DAVID BANK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 7, 2004; Page A3
Computer-security executives are pressing the Bush administration to address threats to the nation's information-technology systems -- which they say were neglected during the president's first term.
Seizing on the shake-up in top leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, the executives plan today to issue a dozen recommendations, including creating a backup communications network in the event of a major Internet outage and improving security for electronic controls used in electricity transmission, subways and other critical systems.
Beyond the threat of catastrophic failures and terrorist attacks, the executives said government leadership is needed to stem a continuing economic drain caused by the sharp rise in Internet-related financial fraud, such as identity theft and "phishing" attacks, in which impostors use bogus e-mail and Web pages to steal personal financial information.
John Thompson, chief executive of Symantec Corp., one of the largest providers of security software, said the technology industry is frustrated that more progress hasn't been made in nearly three years since Mr. Bush adopted a national strategy for cyber security and two years after the creation of the Homeland Security Department. President Bush last week tapped former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik to succeed Tom Ridge as secretary of the department.
"The government was going to be a role model in how the private sector was to go about securing itself," Mr. Thompson said. "That has certainly not been the case. We believed it would be an agenda item visible at the highest levels of government. That has certainly not been the case."
Among the other recommendations endorsed by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a technology trade group, are greater use of the federal government's vast buying power to promote more secure systems and clarification of the information-security requirements for corporations as they seek to meet deadlines for compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Michelle Petrovich, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said progress is already being made on many of the proposed initiatives. "We are taking aggressive measures to address cyber security," she said. But the department does not support the proposal to name a new assistant secretary specifically for cyber security. "We continue to believe the integration of physical and cyber is the best method for protecting our nation's critical infrastructure," she said.
As an association of high-tech firms, the Cyber Security Industry Alliance has an obvious interest in prodding the government to spend more money on security software and hardware. But these vendors, and software companies generally, also are under pressure from their customers, who want software with fewer bugs and security holes.
CYBER INSECURITY
Among the actions industry executives want the Bush Administration to take:
• Establish an assistant secretary position in the Department of Homeland Security, to oversee the nation's computer and communications infrastructure.
• Urge the U.S. Senate to ratify Europe's convention on cybercrime, a treaty that defines computer crimes and common approaches to prosecuting them.
• Promote private-sector information security, including encouraging company directors to be aware of their security-related responsibilities under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
• Lead by example with federal procurement practices, requiring contractors and suppliers to secure their information systems.
• Share information about attacks on government computer networks, gathered using classified means, with the private sector.
• Boost federal funding for Information Sharing and Analysis Centers, which were established to share information about computer threats and vulnerabilities among companies.
Source: Cyber Security Industry Alliance
At the top of the group's agenda is the elevation of Homeland Security's top cyber-security post to the status of assistant secretary. The current post, several levels down in the massive organization, has been filled by an acting director since the resignation of Amit Yoran, a former Symantec executive, in September.
The role of cyber-security "czar" was initially located in the White House and held by Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism chief. The current position reports to an assistant secretary responsible for the security of the nation's physical infrastructure as well as computer and communications systems. Early versions of the 9/11 legislation included a provision to create the new position, but the language had been removed.
Bill Connor, chief executive of Entrust Inc., another provider of security technology, went further. "Today, there is no one in the government overseeing cyber security," he said. "Nothing happens without rank in the military or the government."
Mr. Yoran doesn't endorse the suggestion of the new position. But he said in an interview that initiatives to strengthen the security of the Internet, and to prevent cyber attacks on the electric, financial and transportation networks, had languished as the department organized itself and devoted resources to other priorities.
With new leadership of the department, he said, "There is an opportunity to say, 'Are we adequately addressing cyber security?' "
Besides demanding more-effective software solutions to cyber-security threats, customers -- including big banks and financial-services firms -- want the security vendors to accept more responsibility for product flaws.
"We certainly carry the liability, and we feel the software industry has to step up to the plate to share responsibility to deliver more secure software," said Catherine Allen, chief executive of BITS, a consortium of large financial institutions in Washington, D.C.
For example, she said, simply applying patches to close software vulnerabilities costs the financial-services industry more than $1 billion a year.
Write to David Bank at david.bank@wsj.com
AND HERE IS AN EARLIER RELEASE ON THE BOOK
WEAPONS OF MASS DISRUPTION:
The Threat Of Cyber-Terrorism
. . .is this another unheeded warning, like the ones before 9/11?...
"Our society is increasingly relying on new information technologies and the Internet to conduct business, manage industrial activities, engage in personal communications, and perform scientific research. While these technologies allow for enormous gains in efficiency, productivity, and communications, they also create new vulnerabilities to those who would do us harm. The same interconnectivity that allows us to transmit information around the globe at the click of a mouse or push of a button also creates unprecedented opportunities for criminals, terrorists, and hostile foreign nation-states who might seek to steal money or proprietary data, invade private records, conduct industrial espionage, cause a vital infrastructure to cease operations, or engage in Information Warfare."
--Ron Dick, Director of the National Infrastructure Protection Program
THE TALK THESE DAYS is all about Iraq and the missing "weapons of mass destruction," but there's another, related story that gets far less attention than it deserves: Cyber-terrorism. Terrorists like Osama bin Laden, with the desire to attack the Internet and our communications infrastructure already possess dangerous Weapons of Mass Disruption that threaten us all.
"The same interconnectivity that allows us to transmit information around the globe at the click of a mouse or push of a button also creates unprecedented opportunities for criminals, terrorists, and hostile foreign nation-states," warned Ron Dick, then Director of the federal government's National Infrastructure Protection Program.
If terrorists managed to disrupt or destroy the Internet and electronic communications, worldwide business would screech to halt and the world's economy would go into a tail-spin. Every plane or jet would have a "terrorist" on board if terrorists or foreign agents managed to compromise the vast, computer-driven air-traffic control system. The world's transportation systems and financial markets could be brought to a stand-still. Shipping, billing, manufacturing, communication, would all shut down. Instant messages, cell-phone calls, and email would be lost in the collapse of cyberspace. Corporations and private citizens alike would be affected. Indeed, weapons that attack cyberspace and worldwide communications are "Weapons of Mass Disruption" that could compromise the economic and physical well-being of the entire planet.
NOTE" There are many voices speaking out about the growing threat of cyber-terrorism, but they are like the voices that spoke out about plane hijackings before September 11, doomed to be ignored in the absence of a giant wake-up call to focus the world's attention on the looming danger.
John Mariotti, an accomplished non-fiction author with a background in engineering and telecommunications, has studied the threat posed to the United States and the world by cyberterrorists. In an effort to focus attention on this growing threat, and to rally the government to deal with it more effectively, John Mariotti has written a novel in which he interweaves real-world situations with technological possibilities that trigger a global turmoil of epic proportions. Ripped from tomorrow's headlines, Mariotti's book is a cautionary tale and a wake-up call. The book may be presented in the guise of "fiction," but the chilling warning it sets forth is all too real.
In The Silence, Mariotti weaves a tale of cyber-terrorism, plant closings and planetary upheaval as familiar technologies and evil intentions combine into tools of terror and extortion on a global scale. Real-life, current events are a vital element of the novel, making The Silence read like an investigative exposé.
The devastation of a plant closing is the origin of the story. Lax IT security, greedy capitalists, and arrogant, complacent US organizations aid the power-hungry Chinese revolutionaries. Government authorities are as helpless as the general population against the The Silence.
Says Mariotti, "The government, as usual, is moving very slowly and is vulnerable to an attack like the one described in The Silence. The recent growth of wireless/cell phone and 'always on' broadband connections via cable modems increases the risk. I hope my novel will be an enjoyable read, and will also alert the people of the US who use email and chat groups of the need to protect their systems. It is the vulnerability of Microsoft's PC dominance on millions of personal computers to viruses and worms that cyber-terrorists will capitalize on."
John Mariotti is a former corporate executive. He holds two degrees in Engineering and started his career in global telecommunications and computers. He retains a strong interest in technology. He lives in the greater Columbus, OH area.
As a business author, Mariotti has written eight business books and several hundred columns and articles.
"Protecting cyberspace requires guarding both physical and virtual assets. The Internet is different from every other kind of critical infrastructure we want to protect.... You can keep bad guys off the property if you're protecting a building, but you can't keep people off the Internet. The biggest danger is terrorist hackers coordinating a cyberattack with an attack against a physical target.... Imagine if hackers had taken down the air traffic control system [at the same time as the Sept 11 attack]."
--Clyde Wayne Crews, Cato Institute
For further information and related stories, visit: http://www.thesilence.info
