The risk isn’t just about military contractors and national security. These programs can upload whatever they find on your computer and share them with everyone. They can upload your banking information, your medical history, everything you’ve got in My Documents, your passwords, your credit card numbers, and even that embarrassing love letter to the hottie working Thursday nights at the local Taco Bell.
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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.
By David Gewirtz | February 18, 2009 | National Security
How exactly do two super-secret stealthy submarines, hiding out in 77.6 million cubic miles of Atlantic Ocean, somehow manage to occupy the exact same space at the exact same time, and have a nuclear-powered fender-bender?
By David Gewirtz | December 1, 2008 | National Security
We all know the devastating damage IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) have caused our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Washington Post estimates that 60% of U.S. deaths in Iraq are the result of IEDs. While diabolically effective, IEDs are still stupid devices, in that virtually none of them have on-board intelligence. Unfortunately, it’s only a matter of time before our enemies decide to incorporate intelligence into their improvised destruction and intelligence-gathering apparatus. This analysis (Web version to be published) described the risk in terrifying detail.
As you probably know, Russia has attacked Georgia (Tblisi, not Atlanta) with tanks and troops. However, before the physical attack, there was a cyberattack against many of Georgia’s online resources. First indications seemed to imply the cyberattack originated as a Russian offensive, while later analysis by some sources dispute that, claiming that “script kiddies” are behind the assault.
David wrote this article for the current issue of Counterterrorism. Given the timing of the Georgia attack, we felt it’d also be of interest to our Computing Unplugged and OutlookPower readers and are reprinting it here with permission.
By David Gewirtz | July 21, 2008 | National Security, Online Safety & Scams, Presidential Technology
Another senior government official has had his BlackBerry stolen by another foreign intelligence agency. But this time, it’s not an American official. According to the U.K.’s The Sunday Times, a senior aide to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had his BlackBerry stolen by Chinese intelligence agents while on a trip to China back in January.
This latest report is particularly juicy because the senior Downing Street aide got caught in what’s probably the world’s oldest intelligence ploy, the “honeytrap,” an intelligence scam where an attractive female spy is used to lure a government official into some form of compromising position.
Returning to the story of our bonking Brit and his BlackBerry bandit. Just how much trouble did this aide’s problematic peccadillo get him into? Of more concern, how much damage did our international man of mystery’s “special branch” do to Britain’s security – and, by extension, the security of her allies?
By David Gewirtz | July 14, 2008 | National Security, Online Safety & Scams, Presidential Technology
This latest Special Report spotlights a surprising lack of government record-keeping oversight, along with critical cyber-security gaps, both revealed in last week’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of the National Archives and Records Administration and four key government agencies: Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission, and HUD.
The GAO audit was provided to the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Unfortunately, while the GAO described certain record-keeping and computer management practices at these various agencies, they may not have fully understood how the practices they documented would lead to troubling security flaws at the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Trade Commission, and they certainly didn’t point them out explicitly for the Committee to investigate. This report provides those details.
By David Gewirtz | April 28, 2008 | National Security, Online Safety & Scams, Presidential Technology
Our ongoing story about the security of White House email took a strange turn on Friday, proving some of the national security concerns David has been discussing to be true in a particularly tangible and unfortunate way.
What makes this topic so troubling, of course, is the serious national security breach that may have occurred. But there’s more to the story, including issues of the relationship between the United States and Mexico, and even how racial stereotyping may have contributed to spinning this story in a way that may be obscuring the true magnitude of the possible damage to our national security.
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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.
