John Michael McConnell Quotes
The United States cannot wait for the cyber equivalent of the collapse of the World Trade Center.
John Michael 'Mike' McConnell, U. S. Director of National Intelligence, Director, National Security Agency, Vice Admiral, United States Navy, Vice Chairman, Booz Allen Hamilton, Statement, 2012
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
There is a constant race between the developers of hacking and cyberattack software and the developers of security and protective software.
Many computer experts and security operatives view this kind of advice and strategy as counter-productive as there are some computer security extremists who so harden computer systems and networks that they function poorly and cause really harmful operational problems. The classic case was the FBI agent in Minnesota who before 9-11 had information that Muslims foreigners were taking flying lessons. She wanted to get the information to the national security FBI people, but she was not allowed to send the information by e-mail. Instead she had to use a "secure" system that was much slower and could not be viewed by the people who might have been able to connect the dots and do something about it. The FBI has now a better balance between functionality and security, but it is a good example of how "security fanaticism" can make us less safe.
Actually, Rothkopf's description of the knowledge of national security officials about nuclear bombs is somewhat exaggerated. When there was a schism between the scientists who had developed the atom bomb and the military and national security people. The later thought that they knew the field well enough, but the nuclear testing at Bikini and other efforts were bungled strategically and operationally. However, there was proportionately much more knowledge then than there is now. This was in spite of the fact that almost everything nuclear was top secret and unavailable to many people to develop the knowledge, while almost everything about cyber security was available and in the public domain. So Rothkopf's basic point was correct, though his history was somewhat flawed.
In addition to the hackers who break into websites for monetary gain, or spying for companies or governments, there are many why just love the challenge of hacking into computers and websites that authorities claim is secure. The reality is that there is no way to absolutely sure a computer or its contents as long as it is connected to the Internet. Those computers and sites that have nothing to hide and do not present a challenge to hackers of this type rarely have problems from them; their vulnerability is to the other hacker who can utilize their computer slo hack still others of paralyze their computer to extract a ransom for functionality. The analogy of the hackers to the barbarian hordes sacking Ancient Rome and the Mongolian hordes sacking Europe is one that many appreciated,
Estonia had moved a Russian Soviet era monument to WWII dead Soviet Soldiers from a prime location in the center of their capital to a location outside of town. Russian-speaking Estonians were outraged and fomented violent demonstrations and riots that almost paralyzed the city. At the same time 85,000 Estonian computers were hijacked and used to implement a denial of service attack on some of the major government sites including the main bank, blocking all those webservers from serving normal customers on the Internet. The Prime Minister and other Estonian officials accused the Russians of the cyber-attack and likened it to a blockade which is an act of war under international law. What complicates cyberattacks is that there might have been some Russian nationalists who, with no knowledge of the government could have implemented a denial of service attack where so many accesses to servers are engineered that the servers crash. The perpetrators may have been instigated by the Russian government or not. They could have been any place in the world when they did it.
John Michael McConnell is a former vice admiral in the United States Navy. During his naval career he served as Director of the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996. His civilian career includes serving as the United States Director of National Intelligence from 20 February 2007 to 27 January 2009 during the Bush administration and seven days of the Obama administration. He is currently Vice Chairman at Booz Allen Hamilton.
