The Trials and Tribulations of America's Chief Internet Defender (dailydot.com)

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The Trials and Tribulations of America's Chief Internet Defender (dailydot.com)

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 23, 2015 @04:11AM from the can-we-call-her-captain-internet dept.

erier2003 writes: Amid a torrent of cyberattacks and seemingly endless data breaches, the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team, the government's premier cybersecurity monitoring unit, has never been busier. In an interview with the Daily Dot, US-CERT Director Ann Barron-DiCamillo described its structure, its incident-response activities, and its partnerships with frequently targeted industries like the financial sector. She also discussed the evolution of cyber threats over the past decade, as determined hackers have shifted focus from brute-force network penetrations to savvier, more indirect attacks.

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US-CERT is part of DHS by unencode200x · 2015-12-23 04:18 · Score: 1

From TFA. US-CERT is a part of the US Department of Homeland Security. They helped Sony in 2014 during their infamous attack/breach.

My favorite quote from TFS "We’re not the Geek Squad."

--

Chance favors the prepared mind.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
1. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 04:27 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  CERT has existed long before DHS and has been doing an excellent job of informing the US industry of threats to systems
  CERT and SANS should be the primary go-to place for anybody sticking their toes into the cold water of computer systems security
2. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by WD · 2015-12-23 04:46 · Score: 2
  
  This article is about US-CERT, not CERT.
3. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by whh3 · 2015-12-23 05:08 · Score: 1
  
  Also note: she specifically said that they were NOT the lead response team for the Sony attack/breach.
  
  --
  remove nospam. to email!
4. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 05:10 · Score: 0
  
  They're also the people responsible for securing things like the OPM, and we all know how that turned out.
  So who cares what the US-CERT has to say? They've already proven themselves to be absolutely worthless.
5. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 05:39 · Score: 0
  
  From TFA. US-CERT is a part of the US Department of Homeland Security.
  No, it works with DHS, but it isn't a part of it. From the "About Us" page on www.cert.org:
  "The CERT Division works closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to meet mutually set goals in areas such as data collection and mining, statistics and trend analysis, computer and network security, incident management, insider threat, software assurance, and more."
6. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 05:50 · Score: 0
  
  There doesn't seem to be a lot of difference except for a little bureaucracy. The "About Us" page us-cert.gov has link to report software vulnerability that goes to CERT (http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/html/report-a-vulnerability/). Seems to me that CERT and US-CERT are tightly coupled. Besides, CERT is federally funded and is part of Carnegie Mellon U., the same out fit that funded researchers to break TOR and give its results to the FBI.
7. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 05:56 · Score: 0
  
  That's CERT. This article is about US-CERT and if you go to their website there's a nice banner at the very top that reads "Official website of the Department of Homeland Security," the DHS seal is next to the US-CERT title, and at the very bottom there's text that says "US-CERT is part of the Department of Homeland Security."
  Not the same thing at all.
8. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 05:59 · Score: 0
  
  Don't know what page you read, the one I see says:
  
  About Us
  US-CERT is part of DHS' National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC).
  The Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) leads efforts to improve the Nation's cybersecurity posture...
9. Re: US-CERT is part of DHS by WD · 2015-12-23 06:08 · Score: 2
  
  US-CERT does not have a vulnerability analysis capability. That's why they contract that work out to Carnegie Mellon University. I work for CERT, so I'm pretty sure that I would know.
10. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 08:33 · Score: 0
  
  Actually, the US-CERT is only responsible for monitoring the perimeter for .gov elements like OPM, sharing threat indicators, issuing advisories, assisting in incident response, etc -- not "securing" them. Each independent department or agency operates it own SOC, so it's the OPM's SOC, and ultimately its CIO, that is responsible for the day-to-day securing of OPM systems.
11. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 08:43 · Score: 0
  
  US-CERT = U.S. Computer Emergency READINESS Team.
  CERT = Computer Emergency RESPONSE Team (at Carnegie Melon).
  And yes, even the article got the acronym wrong, which is pretty ridiculous...
12. Re:US-CERT is part of DHS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 08:47 · Score: 0
  
  US-CERT = U.S. Computer Emergency READINESS Team (part of DHS).
  CERT = Computer Emergency RESPONSE Team (run by Carnegie Melon).
  This article is about US-CERT. Sadly, not even the main article got the acronym correct...
Always funny to hear a paper called "a product" by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2015-12-23 04:22 · Score: 1

>> "We actually put out a product last April specifically around the encouragement of the community to adopt encryption..."

I think she's talking about a paper called "TA15-120A" ("Securing End-to-End Communications") that piles onto the bandwagon of turning off SSL 3.0 or something similar. But its always funny to hear a bureaucrat call paper "a product" as if it could fix anything itself.
1. Re:Always funny to hear a paper called "a product" by sphealey · 2015-12-23 05:05 · Score: 1
  
  Not to mention the ridiculous use of "around". Does your product do something (or describe something, if it is a paper)? If so, say what it is/does; don't give me the unfocused and non-understandable "around".
  sPh
own worst enemy award by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 04:27 · Score: 0

both 'sides' (only 2 allowed) of any issue supplied by wmd.madison.ave.war.gov hired goon textual predators?
Re:Encryption with a back door = NO ENCRYPTION by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 04:54 · Score: 0

>> "We actually put out a product last April specifically around the encouragement of the community to adopt encryption..."
Ahhh, government double-speak. "We encourage you to adopt encryption" but "we must have a back-door so we can protect you!"
They can't have it both ways.
Re:Encryption with a back door = NO ENCRYPTION by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 05:05 · Score: 1

AC:

They can't have it both ways.
Government:
No, we can't, but we can.
Everything is part of DHS because turf protection by raymorris · 2015-12-23 05:21 · Score: 2

Half the government is part of DHS. This is because during discussions of what went wrong systemically after 9/11, noone would agree who should be the lead agency on terrorism. Everybody agreed coordination was needed, and everybody thought they should be the lead.
The FBI , border patrol, everybody wanted to keep their own autonomy and didn't want to be put under another agency or department's leadership. So Andrew Card (the guy who whispered the news of the 9/11 "plane crashes" to Bush in the famous video) gathered a bunch of people in White House basement to figure out the politics. Trying to find a way of organizing things where coordination would be -possible- which wouldn't be doa due to turf wars, they decided anybody and everybody having anything to do with security would be lumped together under a brand-new department.
Source: personal conversation with Andrew Card
How can a group like this exist... by amberdalan · 2015-12-23 06:45 · Score: 1

and allow NSA/CIA/DHS pushes for backdoors?
1. Re:How can a group like this exist... by AHuxley · 2015-12-23 14:48 · Score: 1
  
  Re 'pushes for backdoors?"
  Its the old hope that only the US mil will have the keys and skills.
  Then only trusted 5 eye nations. A few of the NATO third party nations need them too as they are so trusted, helpful and collect such great product.
  Top US federal law enforcement to help with parallel construction. Nations that work well with US federal law enforcement might get the product and be allowed to install the hardware, software under strict export controls locally ...
  Once mil grade trap doors and back doors get shipped as part of a product line, every national brand is tainted.
  So many staff members, teams, other mil forces, governments get to share, see the results of US instant "no encryption" that they all go looking for the same methods.
  Over time the 5 eye nations, third party nations in NATO, random friendly nations all "discover", re create or just buy the same trap door methods... ex staff and former staff then sell to the global market or have rouge teams, brands, NGO's using the same ideas and skill sets.
  The only way out is never to buy, import tainted brands. Fab, design, code domestically no matter the limitations or demands for trusted big brand back doored networking imports to be allowed back in.
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Because acronyms are hard... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-12-23 08:37 · Score: 0

US-CERT = United States Computer Emergency READINESS Team.