LAS VEGAS -- Uncle Sam wants you -- to help protect America from cyberattacks. That was the message delivered by Jeffrey Hunker, one of the Fed's top information protection officials, at a speech Wednesday at the Black Hat Briefings computer security conference.
As the National Security Council's director for information protection, Hunker is developing the nation's strategy against cyberterrorists, hackers, electronic spies, and other threats to its information infrastructure. That encompasses everything from transportation to banking to health care and government.
Defending that vast and increasingly vulnerable infrastructure will require unprecedented cooperation between government and the private sector, Hunker said to some 600 information technology professionals gathered in the counterfeit Italian opulence of the Venetian casino-hotel.
"A number of nations that are hostile to the [United States] and several well-financed terrorist groups, and quite arguably a number of organized crime groups, are systematically developing capabilities to attack US information systems. That's something both new and frightening."
The government boosted Hunker's budget 40 per cent next year to US$1.5 billion. Projects will include technical research and development, and a new college scholarship program for information technology students who promise to work for the government after graduation.
More controversially, Hunker is also charged with bringing together law enforcement, government intelligence agencies, and the private sector to share information and expertise on security issues.
"For the first time, it's not just an issue of protecting US bases against Soviet missiles," said Hunker. "It's about protecting US companies."
In years past, private companies would deal with security breaches on their own, without bringing in the government or law enforcement, Hunker said.
"That was perfectly fine when you're dealing with disgruntled insiders or individual hackers," he said. "It's totally inappropriate when we're dealing with a world where what you're experiencing might be one facet of a much larger intelligence or terrorist or national security threat."
Despite Hunker's assurances that civil liberties will not be sacrificed in the pursuit of cyber safety, the notion of the government sharing security information with private companies set off alarms with many listeners.
"It's nice that he paid lip service to the idea of civil liberties, but I don't buy it," said Christina Bird, a privacy expert with Secure Network Group.
"He talked a lot about threats from abroad, but not about here in the US, because they want to underplay how much they want to monitor us," she said. "I'm hoping this program will be as ineffective as most of what the government does."
Derek Tongue, an information systems security officer with the US Army, sees even darker forces at work.
"I think the prophecies in Revelations are taking place now, and the Internet is a tool," Tongue said. "With e-commerce, the FBI, the CIA will be able to find where you are, what you're buying, what hotel you're staying in. Everyone will have the mark of the beast. What [Hunker] is talking about is part of that."
