A couple of years ago I was invited to a presentation by a 4-star Air Force General who was the commander of Air Combat Command. After his talk during the Q&A he was asked what his biggest fear was and he said a cyberwarfare attack against the US.
As we all know, we live and die by computers. They're both a blessing and a curse. If some douchebag terrorist hits a few evil keystrokes how screwed would YOU be? We might soon find out. In recent days Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and several other major banks have experienced some sort of cyber attack, credit being taken by an arab group.
So what are we collectively doing about it? Apparently nothing. That's because The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 failed by a 52-46 vote to pass the US Senate earlier this year. This was a bill sponsored by Sorta-Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Susan Collins of Maine, and supported by Brick Obama. It would have set up a voluntary program of security measures to bolster protections for critical infrastructure networks like water supply systems and electrical grids and banks from attacks by rogue hackers and foreign nation states.
You know who killed the bill? Lobbyists for the US Chamber of Commerce. On que Republicans fell in line and voted "no". They said the bill would have "imposed debilitating pressures on businesses to establish cybersecurity measures."
How is this a partisan issue? Won't measures to protect our infrastructure and banks help businesses, the Republican's core constituency? Once again short term profits trumped longer term common sense.
When some a--hole sitting in a cave somewhere in Hell-istan gets his feelings hurt because someone painted an eye patch or blacked-out a front tooth on 'ol Muhammad's Polaroid and fries our power grid and freezes up our bank accounts, let's all march on the headquarters of the US Chamber of Commerce and ask 'em, "So, how'd that work out for ya?"
S
It is pitiful how little we do to stop hacking from stealing identity scam e-mail to hacking into our most sensitive security systems. If previous bills put undue hardship on business, write new more easily implimented legislation and do it NOW!!
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing something on Bloomberg or CNBC or something how hacking is almost like a sport in Russia these days. Instead of playing chess they hack into computer systems. It's scary to think some Russian douche in a crappy little apartment could take what little money I have or use my ID to make a credit account for himself in just a few minutes.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that businesses should want to protect themselves from these kind of threats but most are only interested in this quarter's numbers.
Scott:
ReplyDeleteThere is no Republican party anymore. The party you and I remember, the party of Reagan, is gone. It's now the Tea Party versus the Democrats. And the Tea Party has no interest in cooperating with anyone; their goal is to get rid of the Federal government. Only by voting in a filibuster proof Senate can anything get done.