http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/282269-white-house-poised-to-release-cybersecurity-executive-order-on-wednesday
Sources: White House to issue cybersecurity order Wednesday
- 02/11/13 05:00 PM ET
The White House is poised to release an executive order aimed at thwarting cyberattacks against critical infrastructure on Wednesday, two people familiar with the matter told The Hill.
The highly anticipated directive from President Obama is expected to be released at a briefing Wednesday morning at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where senior administration officials will provide an update about cybersecurity policy.
The executive order would establish a voluntary program in which companies operating critical infrastructure would elect to meet cybersecurity best practices and standards crafted, in part, by the government.
Observers are expecting the president to briefly mention the need for the country to improve its defenses against cyberattacks during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
White House press secretary Jay Carney declined Monday to say whether the president would discuss cybersecurity during his Tuesday address to Congress, saying the president believes that it’s
“a very important issue.”
“It represents a huge challenge for our country. He has called on Congress to take action. Unfortunately, Congress has thus far refused legislatively,” Carney said at a press briefing with reporters. “But I don’t have any previews to provide.”
During last year’s address, the president made a brief mention about the cybersecurity legislative blueprint that his administration put forward in May 2011.
The White House began crafting the executive order after Congress failed to pass cybersecurity legislation last year. Officials said the threat facing the United States was too great for the administration to ignore and that it needed to take action as Congress grappled with passing a bill.
During his second term, the president is expected to exert his executive power on issues such as climate change, and it appears that cybersecurity is also on that list.
Yet administration officials have also stressed that the executive order is not a substitute for cybersecurity legislation, which is needed to protect the country’s water plants, electric grid and other critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.
They note that an executive order cannot, unlike congressional legislation, grant new powers or authorities to federal agencies or departments.
“We need comprehensive cybersecurity legislation,” Andy Ozment, a senior director for cybersecurity at the White House, said at a conference in Washington last week. “We cannot do everything under our existing authorities.”
White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel, Commerce Department Deputy Secretary Rebecca Blank, Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Jane Lute and National Security Director Gen. Keith Alexander will be among the officials participating in Wednesday’s briefing, according to details obtained by The Hill.
A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on the timing of the executive order.
It has been revised several times over the past few months and would also encourage agencies to share intelligence about cyber threats with companies that operate critical infrastructure.
Over the past few months, the White House has engaged in outreach efforts to industry groups, think tanks, companies and advocacy groups to solicit feedback on what should and should not be included in the order.
A leaked copy of the draft order this fall revealed that the White House had incorporated some changes into the order that were an attempt to smooth over concerns that the high-tech industry had raised.
The White House began work on the executive order after the Senate failed to pass a sweeping cybersecurity bill by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The bill included a measure aimed at improving information-sharing about cyber threats between government and industry.
However, it also had a more controversial provision that would encourage companies that operate critical infrastructure to adopt cybersecurity best practices and standards into their computer networks.
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http://occupycorporatism.com/cyber-warfare-us-chinese-gov-use-hackers-to-attack-digital-infrastructure/
Cyber Warfare: US & Chinese Gov Use Hackers To Attack Digital Infrastructure
According to intelligence expert David Wise, China and the US have been engaged in a cyber-espionage war behind closed doors. The Chinese government, Wise explains, will send spies to targeted locations to syphon data by the way of hackers and surveillance; whereas the US government “would target . . . with satellites and produce reams of data.”
Cyber warfare goes beyond surveillance of emails and cell phone calls and extends to the possible control over hardware such as missiles, aircraft, and radar systems. Wise states: “One reason is that only about 2 percent of the integrated circuits purchased every year by the military are manufactured in the United States. And even most American chip makers have moved offshore, where labor is cheaper. A computer chip made with a hidden, malicious flaw could sabotage a weapons system. And the compromised hardware is almost impossible to detect.”
Wise maintains that there is a possibility that a chip could be embedded with a kill-switch that would allow a foreign government to control the deployment of a weapon remotely. He states that the Israeli government already has this capability and has used it against Syrian air defenses in 2007.
James Woosley, acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), told Wise: “Taking down the grid for months comes as close to a nuclear attack with many weapons on the United States as anything could. You’d have mass starvation and death from thirst and all the rest.”
Last month the Council on Foreign Relations claimed that hackers traced to China attacked their system last week. The “drive-by” hacking utilized a pirated computer. To compound the problem, the analysts said that the hackers removed their malware and traces of their presence from CFR computer systems.
Recognizing China as becoming a formidable replacement to the US as the world’s super power, the CFR has outlined specific responses to this crisis of supremacy. Citing Chinese internet policy, their disdain for freedom of speech in social media, and influence in global cyberspace, the CFR appreciates that this rising “foe” must be confronted indirectly with propaganda to distract from the obvious.
This attack marked a new level of attack by international hackers who aim to steal information from government websites and computers. The “drive-by”tactic covertly plants malware, then the website itself is used to attack visitors to the site. Visitors can be infected as hackers will them attempt to hack into other computers as visitors are passing by. The hackers use the main site as a “watering hole” that attacks users to it for the hackers to steal information from their computers.
Analysts recognized that the attack was to gain specific information from servers. As of now, the CFR cannot gage the extent of the damage – admitting that their internal data servers have been compromised by the hacking.
According to an anonymous White House official that spoke to mainstream media, yet acknowledged that they were not authorized to speak about the subject, referred to an attempt to hack into the executive branch’s computer system through an unclassified network. No data were removed, proving that this was not an actual hack. The nameless official said that the experiment was a “spear-phishing”.
The supposition is that China is behind these attacks because of a phishing expedition against Gmail accounts wherein several senior US government officials and military personnel were affected.
The US House Intelligence Committee (USHIC) is warning American corporations in a new report against conducting business with 2 Chinese firms because of national security threats. Both Huawei Technologies and ZTE, two of the world’s largest telecommunications corporations and suppliers of cellular phones and technology are being highlighted by the US government and blamed for cyber-attacks. It is also claimed by the USHIC that they are involved in digital espionage.
The White House, covertly tying the alleged cyber-attack to China is more diabolical than it appears. In July, Obama imposed stricter sanctions against Iran after they accepted gold as currency for petrol to China.
According to the report, “China has the means, opportunity, and motive to use telecommunications companies for malicious purposes. . . . The investigation concludes that the risks associated with Huawei’s and ZTE’s provision of equipment to U.S. critical infrastructure could undermine core U.S. national-security interests.”
It is claimed that former industry insiders provided intelligence to the US concerning Huawei’s violations of US laws such as immigration, bribery and corruption as well as an alleged “pattern and practice” using pirated software in its US satellites.
It was cited in the report that the Chinese corporations were employing intelligence sources as well as private sector companies and other unnamed entities that could and assumedly did steal trade secrets, sensitive information and prehistory data while simultaneously shipped infected hard ware and software to the US with the intent to cause disruptions in national security during war time.
The recent allegations of Chinese cyber-attacks stem from their involvement with Iran to purchase petrol using gold as currency and not the US dollar as the global reserve currency.
The Chinese also began trading and bartering with the African nations for resources while Obama sent in troops under cover of AFRICOM during theKony2012 debacle.
Vice Admiral Robert T. Moeller openly declared AFRICOM’s guiding principle as protecting “the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market.”
Moeller also mentioned China’s presence in the region as a “challenge” to American interests. He was referring to the deals China was making with the African nations in exchange and boarder for their resources. Where the US chose to invade a sovereign nation with the intention of stealing their resources, the Chinese used diplomacy; and as Moeller explained, this was a disruption to their scheme.
The movement in the mainstream media to further demonize China at this time is not arbitrary. Considering the plans and schemes of the Zionist regime through their puppet President Obama to involve not only Iran, but also China in their WW III, the claims of cyber-attacks are designed to force support from the populace for the pending death and destruction instigated by our own government.
and.......
http://occupycorporatism.com/obama-cybersecurity-exec-order-empowers-dhs-and-us-military-against-hacker-attacks/
Obama Cybersecurity Exec Order Empowers DHS and US Military Against Hacker Attacks
Howard Schmidt, former chief cybersecurity advisor to President Obama is sure that “we’re on the brink of disaster every time a new worm comes out or a new DDoS (distributed denial of service) comes out.”
Schmidt spoke at the 2013 Kaspersky Cyber-Security Summit this week where he pointed out that there is a real potential for disruption to be had by the continued use of cyber-attacks by hackers. He is concerned about an attack on power grids, transportation and other federal digital infrastructure; as well as the use of malware between nations. “You can use fire in a conflict if you’re not going to burn. If you’re going to burn, you better not care about what’s going to burn. And in cyberspace you think about how vulnerable we are in the United States and generally in the developed countries that could have a worse effect than what we’re trying to solve to begin with.”
Mainstream media is predicting that Obama will announce the new cybersecurity executive order (EO) that has been waiting in the wings for months just after his next State of the Union address this month.
Speculation about the particulars of the EO include a “voluntary program” corporations can participate in that will assure them protection from hackers. The federal government will act as protector, according to a spokesperson for Senator Tom Carper, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
In November of 2012, Presidential Policy Directive 20 (PPD20) or the new cybersecurity declaration from the executive branch of our US government.
Obama has outlined a protocol that explains procedures that enable the military industrial complex to prevent digital attacks from foreign nations, hackers and any other definable threat to national security by specifying “constitutes an “offensive” and a “defensive” action in the rapidly evolving world of cyber war and cyber terrorism, where an attack can be launched in milliseconds by unknown assailants utilizing a circuitous route.”
It is said that PPD20 directs the military to take over the internet in the event a cyber-attack is acknowledged by the President. Obama has outlined a protocol that explains procedures that enable the military industrial complex to prevent digital attacks from foreign nations, hackers and any other definable threat to national security on the internet. This “secret law” allows the National Security Agency (NSA) and Pentagon to employ armed forces to ensure American cyber-infrastructure and digital communications.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will have more authority over the internet with the introduction of this new EO. Under the guise of cybersecurity DHS will coordinate with financial institutions regarding issues related to protecting American digital infrastructure.
Mary Dunn, Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Deputy General Counsel explained: “The executive order will not address financial institutions specifically, but credit unions will want to watch out because the order will have an impact on the financial institution sector.”
CUNA has been discussing with the US Treasury’s Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC) for Critical Infrastructure Protection and DHS, how to ensure credit unions will be protected under future digital plans to thwart cyber-attack.
Senator Dianne Feinstein has been vocal about her desire for Obama to sign an EO concerning cybersecurity. Feinstein would like to see Obama circumvent the Congress in this matter. In a letter posted on her website, Feinstein layed out her position on the issue.
Feinstein said: “While efforts to reach consensus continue, I fear that the Congress will be unable to pass meaningful cybersecurity legislation this year. Therefore, I believe the time has come for you to use your full authority to protect the U.S. economy and the networks we depend on from future cyber-attack.”
She went on to say that she is in accord with Obama’s recent comments about the need for an “urgent action . . . to defend U.S. government and private sector computer networks from cyber-attack and espionage. These are meaningful, if limited, steps that can be taken now. The threats to our national and economic security are simply too great to wait for legislation.”
Feinstein recommended that Obama “issue cybersecurity standards and provide technical assistance to companies willing to take voluntary steps to improve their security” while at the same time “direct the Intelligence Community and the DHS to provide as much information as possible to the private sector about cyber threats, including classified information.”
Capitol Hill is responding to the actions of the nameless, faceless hacker group Anonymous who have taken it upon themselves to attack the US government and Federal Reserve Bank in their latest rounds of cyber warfare.
They hacked into the Department of Justice (DoJ) and collected digital infrastructure on “fissile material for multiple warheads”. The US Sentencing Commission (USSC) website was also hacked into because Anonymous asserted that “the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the ‘discretion’ of prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain.”
Anonymous explained in their YouTube address that “after much heavy-hearted discussion, the decision was upheld to engage the United States Department of Justice and its associated executive branches in a game of a similar nature, a game in which the only winning move is not to play.”
This marked the beginning of Operation Last Resort.
Perfectly timed, Anonymous has hacked into the FBI and CIA websites. The result is always the call for more controls from the White House.
In September of 2012, Anonymous attacked GoDaddy which resulted in the financial disruption of small internet businesses. According toAnonymousOwn3r: “I’m taking godaddy down [because] well i’d like to test how the cyber security is safe and for more reasons that i can not talk now.”
Joining with WikiLeaks, Anonymous used Flame in order to obtain what came to be known as the “Syrian Files” that were used to embarrass the Syrian government to expose “their interests, actions and thoughts.”
Obama has declared the “cyber threat” as a “serious economic and national security challenge we face as a nation” which means that “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity.”
Considering the landscape of this created problem regarding the hacker attacks and the justification for a move by Obama to sign an EO to implement cybersecurity without the approval of Congress, the temperament may be paving the way for a scheme that has been brewing in the background called US Ignite.
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