Obama Stimulus Pours Millions Into Cyber Security

nandemoari writes "As his administration continues to work on a stimulus plan that can save America's economy, Obama's latest course of action will see millions of dollars being allocated to heighten cyber security. The move will assist government officials in preventing future attacks on the United States. The President recently addressed his 2010 budget, outlining funding plans that will grant the Department of Homeland Security $355 million to secure the nation's most essential computer systems. The money will be spent on both government and private groups, with much of the funding going to the National Cyber Security Division and the Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative programs."

Comments

Re:Good.

[Ogive17]

If it creates a bunch of jobs, then it's good. if it's just throwing money at the problem, then it's bad. The spending bill should be separate from the stimulus bill, and that's what the Republicans have been griping about. There's a lot of money going to programs that need the money, but should not be on the stimulus plan.

Re:Here's an idea...

[sunking2]

Oh, now I see! What we really need and just about everyone would support is the Jenny Craig stimulus! We could lump it under "beach beautifcation" or something.

Re:Frist

[Zero__Kelvin]

The fact that this has been modded to +5 is prima facia evidence that Slashdot has gone way down hill. Simply googling National Cyber Security Division will show that they are behind US-CERT. While they are not to be confused with CERT, but they do have the same stated objectives. Computer Emergency Response Teams are the bedrock of Computer Security. They don't monitor Internet traffic, they identify security issues and offer solutions. Taking the recent Obama Helicopter P2P fiasco as an example, they would point out that running P2P without verifying the Sharing settings are not exposing your whole system is a Bad Thing(tm).

Intrusion Detection Systems

[oakleeman]

I don't see why anybody with a network connection isn't running some sort of intrusion detection/prevention system whether it be hosted based or network based....this should especially include the government's systems as well. Snort is now included in quite a few of the specialized security distros. In fact I know of at least two distros that are specifically designed for IDS/IPS only and can be up and monitoring traffic in less than 30 minutes.

EasyIDS: http://sourceforge.net/projects/easyids/
Strataguard from Stillsecure: http://www.stillsecure.com/strataguard/

*Disclaimer: Yes I am a developer for EasyIDS but it doesn't change the fact that people should still have an IDS/IPS in place.

Re:I know, right?

[MinistryOfTruthiness]

I was at first really upset by all the brain-dead people out there considering themselves so enlightened by voting for this guy because he was "the intelligent choice." It's amazing how easily manipulated by corporate interests these people were.

Think about it: Who, in his first month, has quadrupled the national deficit and keeps pushing for more -- most of which is being funneled to rich Liberals on Wall Street. (I work there, and believe me, most of New York -- Wall Street included -- are liberal Democrats and socialists. Don't believe me? Just try to hold a conversation with these people and espouse fiscal conservative ideals. Traders might be more libertarian, but most of the rest are socialist.) In fact, Wall Street was one of the biggest donors to Obama's inauguration.

I swear, liberals are some of the worst critical thinkers on the planet. Just gobble it up.

Look, everyone is saying "He's only been there a month - can't turn it around that fast - etc, etc." but the fact is that he's not only not slowing the spiral, he's making it worse by spending like a drunken sailor, selling ill-conceived Congressional spending bills, nominating corrupt cabinet officials and the "genius" Geithner who can't seem to come up with a plan that makes any sense at all.