Big tech proud as punch about cameos in Joe Biden's security theatre
- Reference: 1629964752
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/08/26/big_tech_biden_cybersecurity_meeting/
- Source link:
The premise of the event was Biden's belief that America can't go on being hurt by ransomware, state-backed disinformation naughtiness, and other forms of infosec-driven attacks, but can only sort it out with the help of private enterprise because the government can't address security alone.
"The reality is, most of our critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector," Biden [1]said as the event convened. "So I've invited you all here today because you have the power, the capacity, and the responsibility, I believe, to raise the bar on cyber security."
[2]
The event saw more than 30 bigwigs from big tech, academia, finance, insurance, and the education sector talk about how to improve security. At one point attendees broke into three working groups – one on critical infrastructure resilience, another on building enduring cyber security, and a third on the cyber security workforce.
[3]
[4]
Just what went on inside the room was not revealed, but after the event a [5]statement listed pledges by attendees.
Among them was a post from IBM CEO Arvind Krishna [6]on LinkedIn titled "The Time To Prioritize Cybersecurity Is Now". His plan is to release a product called "IBM Safeguarded Copy" that he said is "a new data storage solution that can shorten the time it takes for organizations to recover from days to hours."
[7]
A spot of web searching [8]revealed it's actually a new capability of Big Blue's existing IBM Copy Services Manager products. Only it will work on DS8000 storage systems, and involves the not-very-new technique of "many frequent copies of a production environment (for example, hourly copies maintained for a number of days)".
So basically defending American industry from ransomware with frequent snapshots. Which American industry can already do today with tech from other storage vendors, or cloud services.
Amazon Web Services. contribution is a little more substantial. The company [9]pledged to share the anti-social-engineering courseware it uses on its own people with the world, and to hand out free multi-factor authentication tokens with an unspecified group of qualified" account holders.
[10]
Apple also promised to step up on authentication, with "a new program to drive continuous security improvements throughout the technology supply chain" that will see it "drive the mass adoption of multi-factor authentication, security training, vulnerability remediation, event logging, and incident response" among its suppliers.
[11]Biden warns 'real shooting war' will be sparked by severe cyber attack
[12]US Surgeon General doubles down on Facebook-bashing amid vaccination information blame game
[13]Biden order calls for net neutrality, antitrust action, ISP competition – and right to repair your own damn phone
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted the following vague commitment – and The Register cannot find anything to suggest the figures mentioned have increased by a cent over past commitments:
Thank you [14]@POTUS for convening a critical conversation on cybersecurity. Microsoft will invest $20 billion to advance our security solutions over the next 5 years, $150 million to help US government agencies upgrade protections, and expand our cybersecurity training partnerships. — Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) [15]August 25, 2021
Google [16]pledged to "invest $10 billion over the next five years to strengthen cyber security, including expanding zero-trust programs, helping secure the software supply chain, and enhancing open-source security". The digital advertising giant also promised to "train 100,000 Americans in fields like IT Support and Data Analytics, learning in-demand skills including data privacy and security". No details on how those people will be recruited were offered, nor was the level of education discussed.
Code.org also promised to train more people, insurer Resilience set the security bar higher for would-be buyers of its cyber policies, and Girls Who Code announced it will "establish a micro credentialing program for historically excluded groups in technology".
Dates for this stuff to happen were scarce, but the President came out of the event with evidence that private enterprise is helping. That at least was a better look than at the start of the event, when one of the reporters who was there to witness Biden's [17]opening remarks asked a question about one of the USA's other big recent drives to ensure national security – the failed war in Afghanistan – and the Commander-In-Chief declined to answer. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/25/remarks-by-president-biden-on-collectively-improving-the-nations-cybersecurity/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YSdmZTiGhmPLFCf@37Tr@gAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YSdmZTiGhmPLFCf@37Tr@gAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YSdmZTiGhmPLFCf@37Tr@gAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/08/25/fact-sheet-biden-administration-and-private-sector-leaders-announce-ambitious-initiatives-to-bolster-the-nations-cybersecurity/
[6] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/time-prioritize-cybersecurity-now-arvind-krishna/?trk=public_profile_article_view&linkId=129046177
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YSdmZTiGhmPLFCf@37Tr@gAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/csm/6.2.3?topic=types-safeguarded-copy
[9] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210825005808/en/Amazon-Announces-Two-New-Cybersecurity-Initiatives-Aimed-To-Protect-Organizations-and-Individuals
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YSdmZTiGhmPLFCf@37Tr@gAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/biden_cyber_attack_real_war_prediction/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/19/us_vs_facebook_vaccine_misinformation/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/09/biden_executive_order/
[14] https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[15] https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1430646543376289793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[16] https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/why-were-committing-10-billion-to-advance-cybersecurity/
[17] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/25/remarks-by-president-biden-on-collectively-improving-the-nations-cybersecurity/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg84yy/data-brokers-netflow-data-team-cymru
"There's something of an open secret in the cybersecurity world: internet service providers quietly give away detailed information about which computer is communicating with another to private businesses, which then sells access to that data to a range of third parties. The users almost certainly don't [know]" their data is being provided to Team Cymru, who then sells access to it, the source familiar with the data said. Team Cymru's customers can probe a dataset, and "effectively run queries against virtually any IP to pull the netflows to and from that IP over a given point in time,"
It's a data-protection curtain, on the one side is you, on the other is any creepy man in a hi-vis jacket who can freely access all your private data without the slightest need to justify anything to anyone. The data protection is the curtain, you must never see behind the curtain to see what they've been up to or how bad it is now.
Be careful what you say and who you say it to. So here for example, a short couple of queries gets you my IP, another query will get you every site I visits and several of those sites have a PRISM surveillance backdoor in them, while others have a US based CDN that can issue fake certs and intercept logins. What protections are in place to stop a hi-viz warrior, high on fighting imagined cyber-wars, for attacking me? None.
""Trace malicious activity through a dozen or more proxies and VPNs to identify the origin of a cyber threat,"
And no surprises that their VPN services are backdoored too! Gee, who WOulD hAvE GUesSeD!
If you were to rank the biggest threats to the freedom of the west, top of your list should be the men behind the curtain spying on you. See that new Aussie hacking bill? They may launder their hacking through Australia, but don't be fooled into thinking it will be confined to attacking only Australian criminals on behalf of Australian surveillance guys for legitimate reasons.
See the "Fullman" case in New Zealand? One of 88 New Zealanders spied on under fake counter terrorism claims. His actual crime was to upset someone who liked the Fiji dictator Bainimarama, and didn't like Fullman criticizing that dictator.
All of their stuff is backdoored, remove all the backdoored 5-eyes kit, eliminate all the backdoored 5-eyes services, and protect your citizens from their crimes. Clean your networks of their 5-eyes shit*. They are the biggest threat to the core freedoms of the west (and east). An ongoing attack vector.
* And yes, I did just throw it right back at ya, and I'm right, its the unpleasant truth here. Western citizens are not under attack by China or Russia or North Korea, they're under attack from you lot.
Multiverse
If we are living in infinite parallel universes, then everything we hear or read is true. It's just appears to have a mixed up destination universe.
state-backed disinformation naughtiness
Is that his own, or foreign?