Slashdot Mirror


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."

7 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. In other news, "The People's Cube"... by tcopeland · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...announces the Hope'N'Change Operating System. "Only 30% chance of crashing!"

  2. The mission, the people... by GPLDAN · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Obama's campaign was approached in the fall of 2008 by the NSA, to let him and Axelrod know that either the Chinese or the Russians hacked his campaign systems.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5105027.ece

    So, he knows what he's up against. If you run any sort of port knocker or ssh logging at a target IP range, you know that near round the clock brute forcing is going on by Chinese networks. They now are distributing the problem into botnets to prevent being blackholed, but they continue at it.

    Obama has Janet Napolitano to run this group. They will work with US-CERT, but their mandate should be defense, not offense. They could start by approaching the US Tier-1 providers and saying, in essence, we want to use tools from companies like Arbor Networks and others that track botnets to isolate better signatures and reject them at the national perimeter, sort of an IDP at the edge of major networks.

    The NSA probably has access to all domestic US websites encryption keys, at least the ones that come from Verisign. So, inspect all encrypted traffic headed back to Chinese networks, on any port. If you can't decrypt it, consider it hostile. Shunt it.

    I may get modded down as flamebait, probably by Chinese slashdot readers - but the fact is, we are at war with the Chinese.

    1. Re:The mission, the people... by scubamage · · Score: 5, Interesting

      War in the conventional sense is the incorrect term. New cold war is more like it - and sadly this time we are completely out-gunned. The US has spent so much time dumbing down its educational system, ignoring math and sciences in lieu of budget increases to school sports, and completely ignoring the fact that college loans are the second leading cause of bankruptcy in the US (and you can't escape them through bankruptcy!). An educated populace is the only thing we could use to win a technical cold war. And we ain't got it.

  3. Re:Frist by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's almost as if they're widening the definition of child porn so they'll have more people to bust.

    Call me cynical but I don't think they care about having "more people" to bust. The Man isn't out to get us. The Man is out to generate splashy headlines and get elected to higher office. Nothing generates splasher headlines than "Think of the Children!"

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  4. Re:Good. by Straif · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The government is a very inefficient way to create jobs and most jobs it creates are temporary at best. At worst they can create an artifical job market that when the projects are completed, leads to higher unemployment as people are now trained for jobs that no longer exist.

    Buying your way out of a recession, as many, if not most, ecomomist have come forward and said, at best leads to a temporary bump but will more than likely lead to an extended downturn in the economy. Spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave is no way to stimulate the economy; it's just a way to ensure a huge debt load.

    That's not to say the government shouldn't play a huge role in the recovery, but they should be background players, creating oppourtunities for small businesses to grow (lower taxes on small/independant business, job grants, etc...).

    And as for Keynesian economic theory. It was Keynes himself who suggested that Hoover's tax increases (much the same as Obama's proposed corporate and income tax increase) actually signifigantly lengthened the depression.

    --
    Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
  5. Re:Frist by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Call me cynical but I don't think they care about having "more people" to bust.

    I disagree with that point.

    They're obviously not catching a lot of terrorists so they need other numbers to justify their budget. They get their numbers by picking the low-hanging fruit after broadening the definition of "low-hanging" fruit, especially if it goes "across state lines", which almost all internet traffic does.

    "The Man is out to generate splashy headlines and get elected to higher office. Nothing generates splasher headlines than "Think of the Children!"

    True, and it's convenient for both law enforcement seeking bigger budgets and politicians seeking advancement. It's not convenient for your 16 year old son or daughter who has to register as a sex offender for life because they stored nekkid pics of themselves on their cell phone or computer.

  6. Re:Frist by Hojima · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Did any of you even read the summary? Does anyone here even know the jurisdiction of the department of homeland security? Just to clarify something for any of you presumptuous douche bags, this has to do with the Slashdot articles that you have read (assuming you've even looked at the title) that involve China and highly sensitive US data gone missing. This is to protect that data and any intrusion that could happen in the future. Quite frankly, it's embarrassing that anyone managed to get a hold of that data, and it better not happen on this president's watch.