Let's Not Wait to Close The Barn Door Until After The Horse Gets Out

A recent report that North Korean hackers targeted US electric grid through spearphishing emails to electric power companies is yet another signal that foreign powers are increasingly viewing the cybersphere as one of the top frontiers in warfare... and our response continues to be largely reactive as we wait until they perfect their methods before taking serious accounting of our vulnerabilities.

Indeed, there may not be much evidence that any of that batch of attacks were successful, but what happens when inevitably one day one of them succeeds? Chances are, sooner or later, a careless employee will click on the link and let the hackers right in. Alternatively, having figured out that this particular line of attack is not worth pursuing, the hackers may already be finding other backdoors to entry. The typical reaction of expressing concern about the future and not much else, exhibited after this report came in, underscores that the problem of inaction in the face of persistent threat is at least as big of a problem as the actual persistent threats. Perhaps the hackers were simply not sophisticated enough to gain entry this time around. Perhaps one day, having figured out what doesn't work, they'll do better. And perhaps spearphishing emails were merely a distraction from a different line of attacks they will be pursuing in the near future.

Regardless, this is yet another reminder about the vulnerabilities of our electric grid, and the generally poor record on cybersecurity. For the record, I don't expect North Korean hackers to go and blow up a physical station. What I do expect them to do, is perhaps either share the information about US infrastructure vulnerabilities with Russia or Iran, who, no doubt, are considering all lines of attack, or perhaps even hack into their services and simply steal that information.  Having dependency on your enemies' known capability is no way to account for your defense.  Keeping a flexible mindset about potential for attacks, especially after numerous hints have been practically given to you on a silver platter about what appears to be of interest to a number of adversaries, constantly updating, innovating, and improving your infrastructure and cyber defense, and keeping not only your staffers, but your enemies on their toes with unpredictable responses is the way to avoid trouble that is sure to follow these first few unsuccessful attempts.

The Obama Administration loses war plans and keys to the front door to North Korean hackers

In the latest in the series of embarrassing cybersecurity incidents involving the Obama administration, which had included giving Pentagon source code to Russia for examination, having NSA data stolen by Russian hackers,  and much more, apparently US-South Korea war contingency plans were grabbed by North Korean hackers last year, just as Obama was condemning candidate Trump for collusion with Russia and screaming bloody murder about Russian hackers hacking voting machines.

Is there anything the Obama Administration didn't manage to lose or have stolen by one deadly adversary or another?

Has anyone checked whether the nuclear codes are still there?

Obama-Era Cybersecurity Protocols Deserve Scrutiny

Under the Obama administration:

* Russians ratcheted up fake news and other types of information warfare

* Attempted to hack voting machines

* Snowden fiasco took place

* Russians stole NSA data using Kaspersky (despite which fact, US government government proceeded to continue using Kaspersky software until very recently)

* Russians got the source code for Pentagon cybersecurity software

* There were many major hacks

* Hillary's security problems

* DNC server security breach and repeated attempted attacks on various Republican presidential candidates and entites

* The Congressional Pakistani IT staffer scandal is set in place with thousands of unauthorized access units to emails and servers, not to mentioned stolen equipment, various frauds, etc etc.

So we get a Russia probe exploring Donald Trump's connections to Russia, but no probe on poor security protocols promoted by the Obama administration, and in place to this day. Why is that? Inquiring minds want to know.

Is Nothing Sacred? Russian hackers get the NSA

Everyone's all upset about the missing DNC server which may or may not have been hacked by the Russians, and possibly the rest of the world; meanwhile, Russian hackers made their way into NSA and got juicy info on US cyber Defense. And that's not counting the epic fail last year, when Hewlett Packard basically gave the Russian cybersecurity firm the source code for Pentagon, if not more.

This proves 2 things: 1. Nothing is unhackable 2. Throwing money at a problem may actually contribute to the problem.

Before allocating any more funding for security to the supposedly secure intelligence agencies, Congress should ask some hard questions about lessons learned from the Edward Snowden fiasco, and the measures they are taking to keep the enemy out. I will not be surprised if, at the end of the instant investigation, it will turn out that it wasn't the superior skills of the Russian hackers, but a combination of indiscretion and various security oversights that did NSA in.

How the Obama Administration Invited Foxes to Guard Chicken Houses While Crying Wolf

In the midst of the Russian hacking scandal in 2016, the HP (Hewlett Packard)  allowed Russian security firm to scrutinize cyberdefense system, which was used as a cybersecurity nerve center for much of the US military. That action may have alerted the Russians to the vulnerabilities in that system. Russians reviewed the source code - and the US intelligence and the Obama administration were aware of that and allowed this move to take place.

They then made lots of noise about DNC and Russian hackers and voting machines. When the real Russian cyberscandal lay elsewhere. The Obama administration was notorious throughout the tech world for its poor implementation of security safeguards across all agencies, and across the homeland security world, for allow Russian "diplomats" to covert near US infrastructure in various states they clearly shouldn't have been.

Now we learn that US just let the Russians examine source code for central Pentagon cybersecurity hub, with nary a word about it to the public. That's not only letting fox guard the chicken house, but inviting the fox to be there, opening all doors, and then crying wolf while pointing somewhere at a distance. Metaphorical heads should roll.