Fewer connections could limit cyber attacks, agency official says
A Justice Department cyber-security official on Wednesday touted the government's strategy of reducing its number of Internet connections to 50 by June in order to reduce cyber vulnerabilities.
The government's "Trusted Internet Connections" initiative, which was announced last month, will help protect information by shrinking the attack surface area -- or the number of access gateways that must be monitored, Mischel Kwon, the department's chief information technology security specialist, told a group of federal government IT professionals.
"This is an absolutely great, great program," Kwon said.
She said the effort cuts to the core of today's cyber-security problem: The basic threats are the same as they were in 2001, but the maneuvers are easier and more widespread. Kwon told the Association for Federal Information Resources Management that the threats are still hackers, "hacktivists," industrial spies, organized crime groups, terrorists and national governments.
But now, the fraudsters can easily create Internet viruses by reading how-to lessons on the Internet itself, said Kwon, who runs Justice's cyber-defense operation.
The most popular attack right now, she said, is "in by e-mail, out by Web." The culprits send a message embedded with a link, and then dupe the victim into clicking on the link to go to a separate Web page where they enter sensitive information or download malevolent software.
Once the exercise is complete, the intruder can enter the victims' networks, and "we're all in business," Kwon said.
She warned the audience not to assume that all such "phishing" e-mail messages have a misspelling "because it will fool everyone."
COMMENTS
- Yes, and whoever thought up the idea that probably can't be truly implemented, got a nice big fat award, new job, new office, and knows dittly squat about what works and what doesn't. I don't get the warm fuzzy that the right people were sitting at the table. They never are. When the plan doesn't work, the implementation team is incompetent. It's never that the bozo that dreamed it up didn't have a clue what he was talking about, just that it sounded like a great idea. FedUP2 Posted December 19, 2007 1:02 PM
- Let's see, I'll pull my two Battalions back to a defensive perimeter. Maybe then I can defend against the enemies ten Divisions! Yeah, that'll work! HARRY G. HUDAK Posted December 19, 2007 7:43 AM
- Yes, but now there are fewer points to attack from a physical standpoint. I bet those 50 will be concentrated through no more than 5 physical sites. Ron Posted December 13, 2007 10:51 AM
