Slashdot Mirror
Pentagon Cyber-Command In the Works
An anonymous reader sends word of a new cybersecurity project to defend US networks from attacks and strengthen the government's "offensive capabilities in cyberwarfare." Right now, the most likely candidate to lead the project is the Director of the NSA, Keith Alexander, who was quick to assert that the NSA itself wouldn't try to run the whole show (something they've been criticized for in the past). Quoting the Wall Street Journal:
"Cyber defense is the Department of Homeland Security's responsibility, so the command would be charged with assisting that department's defense efforts. The relationship would be similar to the way Northern Command supports Homeland Security with rescue capabilities in natural disasters. The NSA, where much of the government's cybersecurity expertise is housed, established a similar relationship with Homeland Security through a cybersecurity initiative that the Bush administration began in its final year."
Politicians thrive on buzzwords. Thus, those who work for politicians thrive on buzzwords. The assumption is that people in general do not know more about a subject than the buzzwords themselves... unfortunately the assumption is usually right.
DISCLAIMER: I am very rarely serious. If the above comment seems asinine makes no sense, it is most likely a bad joke.
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"Network Operations" is actually used a lot at the actual operational level. It's just the Administrative policy making level (run mostly by people a decade or more 'over the hill')that gets wrapped up in buzzwords. ... NetOpsSecCom maybe?
Also: 'Cybercommand' will probably get more attention than 'Network Operations and Security Command'
Because the Air Force decided to add "cyberspace" into their mission statement to justify asking more money from Congress.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123013440
Being in the military, its very frustrating knowing a plethora of ways to make your job more secure but lacking the ability to change anything. Most of the branches, instead of pushing the envelope of computing like in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, have removed themselves from the business and contract it out (its not sexy enough and doesn't envolve tangable assets). Reminds me of the notorious deal in the 70s when IBM contracted Microsoft to build its disk operating system...
Yes, please take another huge gob of my money to fund yet another huge government bureaucracy in order to fund the closing of the barn door now that the horse has run out.
I'm just glad they're finally taking this sort of shit seriously.
Very humorously ironic post.
The whole cyber command thing bugs me because its so expensive but does so little. I'm sure they'll have a huge command of generals and various other officers giving each other endless powerpoints about "synergisticly proactively defending the cyber battlefield". Trust me, no patches are going to get applied. Mostly a bunch of resume stuffing for the post-military career. Probably a lot of puzzling over how it could be that the more managers they put on the job, the slower the work gets done. Probably a lot of really pompous posing going on too, I'm leet, so leet, its classified and I can't tell you how leet I am, but trust me I'm just the most leet ever. And a lot of "I'm working so hard that you wouldn't believe it, but its all classified so I can't actually tell you what I'm working on" as he returns to his minesweeper game. I guarantee they'll have a vaguely NORAD like NOC 24x7 with dim lights and big screen TVs, with very expensive software to monitor ... their departmental intranet, and maybe they'll have isc.sans.org on refresh every 30 seconds to see whats going on, maybe, but that would probably be too clueful.
All they need to do, is get more admins, more equipment, and tell them to keep up with the times, read slashdot, whatever. The last thing they need is infinitely more commanders and procedures to gum up the works even worse.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Our government is slow and inefficient. In takes it 14-15 years to move from buzzword initiation to actual planning.
That is not a bug, BTW. It's a design feature. The constitution was written by a bunch of rebels who fought with the previous government and won. They were not inclined to want to fight again.
-- Support a free market in the field of government
Well, in this case, we're talking about the government. But I think most buzzwords come from marketing people. These are people who are *paid* to come up with buzzwords... and if someone else comes up with a good one, they all jump to use it.
Heaven forbid a company is seen to be behind-the-curve because they use outdated verbiage... surely that means they use outdated tech, right?
Anyway, thinking by typing here... I bet there's a measurable business buzzword cycle that makes it seem like there are new buzzwords every six months. Just like urban buzzwords. Differentiation is the key... so once everyone is using the term, it's time to find a new term.
Remember when all the whiteys started sticking out their tongue and saying "Wazzzzzuuuuuupp?!" Once Larry in purchasing starts using terms like "leverage our core competencies" it's time to find a new corporate buzzphrase. Once every Tom, Dick & Harry webdev starts splashing "Web 2.0" on their sites, it's time to find a new marketing buzzword.
The nice thing about government, in re: buzzwords, is that not only are they slow to adopt new terminology, they are even slower to change. So something they get hold of tends to stick around for a long time... hence instead of "cyber" being a buzzword, it becomes accepted usage, simply because the government is a sluggish monolith (though many libertarians might consider it a monstrous Shoggoth instead).
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai