I’m not interested in “words” but deeds, and I haven’t seen anything that persuades me that life is about to get better.

The original (and more complete) version of the first link above is at the EFF DEPLINKS blog:
EFF: Enter Stage Right: The “Cyber Czar”

Enter Stage Right: The “Cyber Czar”

OT (kinda): I was reading this also over there… A very sad state of affairs.
A Law-Free Zone for All the King’s Men

And this shows that a new broom doesn’t always sweep clean!
Checks, Balances Sidelined

Oh well… back to the real world of writing code and lot’s of config files for me! And I got a lousy head-cold too! 🙁

People forget things like Microsoft couldn’t give Vista away, and people complained to the point that Dell et al. had to continue to ship XP or face the loss of computer sales. No doubt the lack of Vista sales will be blamed on piracy, rather than a crummy product that no one wanted.

I’m sick of all of the childish claims about income and taxes lost to piracy. People aren’t responsible for the losses, lousy products are responsible. If corporations started providing something simple, like service, when they sell you a product, instead of the standard negation of all of the buyer’s rights with their packaged “agreements”, they might find people caring. I’m sick of paying money to people who treat me like a criminal and take no responsibility for their own actions.

This right of center government that was elected certainly doesn’t make me very happy with the political system in the US.

Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online
Obama Taps 5th RIAA Lawyer to Justice Dept.

I can see a time, in the not too distant future, when Amiricans will dream of the freedom people in China enjoy!

Oh, but of course, Obama is one of the “Good Guy’s”^tm. Silly me… I had a flashback to the past decade. Well, that’s OK then. Right? LOL

I can’t wait to see the mass exodus of companies overseas (at least in the cyber sense) once it dawns on them that the military, and by extension, the US Gov will control the gateways and the domestic part of the Internet. It worked well in China. 😉 LOL I see one of two things happening: Either the US telco’s will be part of this system, and we know how well commercial and military interests work so well together, or the US Gov will have to take over the telco’s. 🙂 Either will, I’m sure, work just wonderfully. LMAO

Never. Happen!

We’ll see how serious they are based on who gets selected. After the CTO pick, I don’t have a lot of confidence that they understand what is needed. People hate getting their passwords changed, hell, they hate change of any kind, but that is exactly why these attacks succeed. People don’t upgrade, they don’t change their passwords, they don’t use firewalls, they don’t do anything that impedes the flow of their lives.

For your education, the power grid of the US is not, in any way, shape, or form controlled over the ‘Net. Power companies have their own systems that are separate and distinct from the Internet, and most of their controls require the presence of people to actually operate them, except in the case of overloads which are controlled with circuit breakers, just like your house. Someone has to go to the location and reset them manually. The garbage about the Chinese invaded the grid, is just that – garbage. What are they going to do, overbill you?

Windows, is, was, and always will be garbage. It is overpriced and under performs. Securing Windows requires constant attention that people have no intention of giving. You obviously have no experience with Mac OS or current versions of Unix/Linux or you wouldn’t be spouting such nonsense.

The government currently has no standards for its systems, which results in major openings for crackers and script kiddies. They don’t have the minimum of controls on equipment or removable media which results in major security breaches which affect all Americans. As someone who had to institute a block on my credit accounts because of a government screw-up, don’t tell me that it doesn’t affect me.

I don’t want announcements or new job titles, I want them to secure their systems. He is talking about DoD systems, I got screwed because of a VA problem. The entire government needs to clean up its act on the Internet and all of its IT infrastructure, not just part of it. They should also be demanding the same security from government contractors, so we stop leaking data about new equipment to the world.

My system is secure. No, not this box that is connected to the ‘Net, my main system, which isn’t.

Ahem… to continue…

From what I’ve read about this new position, the aim seems to be *NOT* fixing the actual problems, but building a cyber fence around the USA (like that fence along the Mexico border? That’s going well.) I love the part where they would possibly even have the power to *shut down the Internet*! LOL Oh yes… nothing like cutting your own nose off to spite your face! Digital suicide anyone? LOL

This is not the answer and is a total waste of money and resources better spent elsewhere. It’s not like the USA doesn’t have a million other places that need the money. Perhaps some software updates for all the Gov agencies might be a place to start? That wouldn’t solve the problem either, but would mitigate it somewhat at least.

BTW. The plan is Military, not domestic. So, what they are really saying is that it’s a weapon.
The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, administration officials said Thursday, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare – or even shut down the internet.

Yeah… that’ll work! LOL