kronic's musings

Thought few might like this.

http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/obama_at_bat.html

I am sorry but due to spam I have enabled “logged in to comment”. To any one wants to comment you’ll have register, spam was becoming a pain.

With little fanfare, the U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) has officially begun operation this week. The entity is a collection of personnel from the National Security Agency (NSA), Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force and policy makers (read that politicians). The stated purpose is to protect the vital interests of the United States in relation to the Internet. The entity is not just defensive in nature but can also engage in preemptive “strikes” intended to disrupt threats. Because this was an internal reorganization within the Department of Defense, the creation of CYBERCOM did not require congressional approval.

Even though the primary purpose of CYBERCOM is to protect government and military networks, there is incredible pressure to extend that “protection” to civilian and business networks as well. In fact, the second highest official at the Pentagon, William Lynn III – Deputy Secretary of Defense, recently announced that the Department of Defense might start a protective program for civilian networks. Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated the same thing in June 2009.

Policies are being finalized that will allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to request help from CYBERCOM to protect government and civilians networks. Unfortunately there isn’t any clarity on what the criteria would be to initiate a request for help. An official at CYBERCOM stated: “From our perspective the threshold is really easy: it’s when we get a request from DHS,” the official noted. “What’s their threshold? I couldn’t tell you what their threshold is.”

On the surface this may sound benign, but it is actually quite insidious. The NSA is completing work on threat monitoring systems called EINSTEIN 2 and EINSTEIN 3. According to declassified documents, the stated purposes of these two systems are as follows:

DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is deploying, as part of its EINSTEIN 2 activities, signature-based sensors capable of inspecting Internet traffic entering Federal systems for unauthorized accesses and malicious content. The EINSTEIN 2 capability enables analysis of network flow information to identify potential malicious activity while conducting automatic full packet inspection of traffic entering or exiting U.S. Government networks for malicious activity using signature-based intrusion detection technology…. EINSTEIN 2 is capable of alerting US-CERT in real time to the presence of malicious or potentially harmful activity in federal network traffic and provides correlation and visualization of the derived data….

The EINSTEIN 3 system will also support enhanced information sharing by US-CERT with Federal Departments and Agencies by giving DHS the ability to automate alerting of detected network intrusion attempts and, when deemed necessary by DHS, to send alerts that do not contain the content of communications to the National Security Agency (NSA) so that DHS efforts may be supported by NSA exercising its lawfully authorized missions.

Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn stated that private companies who operate critical infrastructure (electrical grid, telecommunication networks, Internet service providers, the banking and financial industry, etc) should install EINSTEIN monitoring agents or else they will face the “wild, wild west of the Internet”. He went on to state that failing to protect these critical infrastrutures ”could lead to physical damage and economic disruption on a massive scale.”

In other words:

Private companies are not capable of protecting their own networks
The government is the only one who is capable of protecting the infrastructure
Disaster will strike unless government intercedes to protect us
Words matter and the usage of them need to be analyzed in order to determine what someone is saying (or not saying) to fully assess a situation:

Lynn stated: ““I think it’s gonna have to be voluntary,” he added. “People could opt into protection – or choose to stay out. Individual users may well choose to stay out. But in terms of protecting the nation’s security, it’s not the individual users [that matter most]. I mean, they have to worry about their individual [data], their credit rating, and all that. But it’s the vulnerability of certain critical infrastructure – power, transportation, finance. This starts to give you an angle at doing that.”

Essentially, Lynn is stating that individual citizens can opt out of EINSTEIN but critical entities will not have a choice.

In summary, we have a new government entity created without congressional approval whose purpose is to monitor (read that spy on) all Internet traffic in the United States, and to take unspecified preemptive strikes when something happens that the agency deems is not acceptable…

Obviously privacy organizations are deeply troubled by CYBERCOM’s ability to monitor the content of all internet communication. No information has been presented to date on the privacy implications of EINSTEIN 3 and limited information has been provided on an early 2008 versions of EINSTEIN 2.

Fortunately, we have many recent examples worldwide that we can examine to see how governments use these protective powers to defend their citizens in cyberspace:

China does an amazing job in shutting down sites (or blocking access to them altogether) that are critical of their communist government
Pakistan recently blocked access to YouTube because of content deemed “offensive” to Islam
Bangladesh also blocked access to YouTube because of images deemed “obnoxious” of the country’s leaders
Thailand blocked sites back in 2008 when protesters were demonstrating against the government
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” – Benjamin Franklin

This Lady Says Obama is Amazing
June 6th, 2010
Written by an 82-year old very wise lady. She gives us a whole new slant on the amazing job Obama is doing:

That is right – I will say it, “THANK GOD FOR THE PRESIDENT.”

1. He destroyed the Clinton Political Machine – Driving a stake thru the heart of Hillary’s Presidential aspirations – something that no Republican was ever able to do. Remember when a Hillary Presidency scared the daylights out of you!

2. He killed off the Kennedy Dynasty – No more Kennedys trolling Washington looking for booze and women wanting rides home. American women and Freedom are safer tonight!

3. He is destroying the Democratic Party before our eyes!

Dennis Moore had never lost a race – quit

Evan Bayh had never lost a race – quit

Byron Dorgan had never lost a race – quit

Harry Reid – soon to be GONE

These are just a handful of the Democrats whose political careers Obama has destroyed! By the end of 2010, dozens more will be gone.

In December of 2008, the Democrats were on the rise. In the last two election cycles, they had picked up 14 senate seats and 52 house seats. The press was touting the death of the Conservative Movement and the Republican Party. In just one year, Obama put a stop to all of this and will probably give the House, if not the Senate, back to the Republicans.

4. He has completely exposed liberals and progressives for what they are. Every Generation seems to need to re-learn the lesson on why they should never actually put liberals in charge. He is bringing home the lesson very well.

Liberals tax, borrow and spend – check

Liberals won’t bring themselves to protect America – check

Liberals want to take over the economy – check

Liberals think they know what is best for everyone – check

Liberals aren’t happy till they are running YOUR life – check

5. He has brought more Americans back to conservatism than anyone since Reagan. In one year, he has rejuvenated the Conservative movement and brought out to the streets millions of Freedom Loving Americans. Name me one other time in your life that you saw your friends and neighbors this interested in taking back America!

6. His amazing leadership has sparked the greatest period of sales of firearms and ammunition this country has seen. Law abiding citizens have rallied and have provided a “stimulus” to the sporting goods field while other industries have failed, faded or moved off-shore.

7. In all honesty, one year ago I was more afraid than I have been in my life. Not of the economy, but of the direction our country was going. I thought Americans had forgotten what this country was all about. My neighbors, friends and strangers proved to me that my lack of confidence of the Greatness and Wisdom of the American people was flat wrong.

8. When the American People wake up, no smooth talking teleprompter reader can fool them!

Barack Obama woke up these Great Americans! Again, I want to say, “Thank You Barack Obama!”

This is exactly the kind of hope and change we desperately needed!
Way to NAIL it, Granny!!