No one can look at the horror of Haiti and not feel both a deep sense of sadness and a desire to help. It seems almost mean and selfish to suggest that we need to do something other than provide our full support to this devastated nation, but that’s exactly what I’m about to do.
LEARNING CENTER
National Security
In this section, we spotlight some of our expert articles that bridge the gap between traditional national security and a form of extended national security that includes our national health, cybersecurity, and the changing nature of threats facing our society.
What’s particularly disturbing in a post-9/11 America supposedly more aware of national security issues is just how much confidential American data is finding its way into the hands of foreign nationals.
If you’re not much of a computer user, you might not be familiar with the term USB. It stands, in geek-speak, for Universal Serial Bus — and it’s the “universal” part of its name that can cause no end of security headaches. Most people just don’t understand how the USB port on most computers can open a back door into any secure facility.
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Every topic needs its own day or month, and I guess cybersecurity is no exception. This October is the sixth annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. And while it may seem silly for cybersecurity awareness to need its own month, there’s nothing silly about keeping your computer secure.
Many of us think of social networks — if we think of them at all — as those “computer things” our kids use to plan parties and gossip amongst their friends. But, used correctly (and with careful consideration of any legal restrictions), social networks can come close to giving us a look inside the very souls of potential crooks and terrorists.
Want to know how many people in the U.S. don’t have health insurance? The population of our 44 largest cities – combined. Can you see, now, how health care becomes a critical national security issue? We’re talking the population of the top 45 cities in the United States, all who can’t get health care. Imagine (worst case scenario) that all those cities shut down. America, as a civilization, would come to a screaming halt.
Last week, The National Archives — a repository of important government documents, including the U.S. Constitution — announced it had lost a computer hard drive. Congressional aides briefed on the matter say it contains “more than 100,000″ Social Security numbers and Secret Service and White House operating procedures. David Gewirtz tells us why we should be concerned.
Zombies. I hate zombies. I particularly hate it when wave after wave of zombies come at you, eating brains and dripping flesh. And yet they came – zombies…everyday computers, brains hijacked by outsiders and linked together to form an army on the attack – they came in droves.
It used to be spying was hands-on. To turn someone into an Aldrich Ames, you had to tempt them with money or revenge or ideology, promise them sex or catch them at it. Today’s spies are less like a real-life James Bond and more like Lewis Skolnick from “Revenge of the Nerds”.
Like two schoolhouse enemies forced to work together on a class project, the fortunes of China and the United States are inextricably linked. But that doesn’t mean both nations have to see eye-to-eye on everything – or that they even play well with one another.
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DAVID GEWIRTZ is a CNN contributor and editor-in-chief of the ZATZ magazines. He is a recipient of the Sigma Xi Research Award in Engineering and was a candidate for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Letters. David serves as USSPI's executive director.
