Stop. Think. Connect. Cyber attacks permanetly damage your computer, and virtual predators can steal your personal information and use elements of your identity to commit fraud. The U.S. Department of Commerce will launch an office focused on promoting online trusted identity technologies, although much of the effort will be driven by private vendors, officials with President Barack Obama’s administration said.

Trusted ID technology is important because it can help improve consumer confidence in the Internet, said Gary Locke, secretary of the Commerce Department, during a speech at Stanford University in California. “The reality is that the Internet still faces something of a trust issue,” Locke said. “It will not reach its full potential until users and consumers feel more secure than they do today when they go online.”

Honestly, the BEST decision that I have made regarding computer security for myself, is doing complete away with Windows when I saw what a train-wreck that Vista was to become back in 2006. In doing so, I do not have suffer from the bane of Windows exploits and malware out on the web.

Locke and Howard Schmidt, cybersecurity coordinator at the White House, announced a national program office in the Commerce Department for the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). The upcoming NSTIC, released in draft form in June, will seek to create an “ecosystem” where Internet users can trust each others’ identities, but the U.S. government will not have a monopoly on issuing online credentials, Locke said.

Download (PDF, 1016.85KB)

“Let’s be clear: We’re not talking about a national ID card,” he said. “We’re not talking about a government-controlled system.”

The White House will need technology vendors to design, build and offer trusted ID technologies, Locke added. A trusted ID system will give online users options, Schmidt added. There should be a range of trusted ID providers and a range of credentials available, he said. People should be able to use pseudonyms to make comments online, and trusted IDs should be optional, he added.

“I don’t have to get a credential if I don’t want one,” he said. “If I want to get a credential, I don’t have to use it all the time. I can be selective where I use it and when I use it.”

A trusted ID system will not solve all cybersecurity problems, but it will be one tool to improve online security, Schmidt said. “Many of you who have been in security for years know that security is not a destination, it’s a journey,” he said. “As a consequence, this is one piece that we need to put together.”

Representatives of security vendor McAfee and tech trade group TechAmerica praised the White House for focusing on trusted IDs and for reaching out to tech vendors.

“The government has clearly recognized that the tech industry must drive implementation of the national strategy,” said Phil Bond, president and CEO of TechAmerica. Bond called on the Commerce Department to create a private-sector advisory committee for its new trusted ID office.

It’s important that private companies drive the trusted ID effort, added privacy advocate James Dempsey , vice president for public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “The government cannot create that identity infrastructure,” he said. “If it tried to, it wouldn’t be trusted.”

With only six major corporations owning the media, The move to regulate the Internet under a new government-controlled system has once again reared it’s ugly head. The government’s cybersecurity ecosystem revolves around issuing Internet users with ID “tokens” without which they will not be able to visit websites, in combination with Senator Joe Lieberman’s ‘kill switch’ bill, will serve to eviscerate the free Internet as we know it, not to mention cramming SOPA/PIPA down our throats.

Under the guise of “cybersecurity,” the government is moving to discredit and shut down the existing Internet infrastructure in the pursuit of a new, centralized, regulated world wide web.

It is important to stress that “cybersecurity” has nothing to do with protecting the infrastructure of the United States and everything to do with taking over the Internet. Cybersecurity is about attacking non-compliant Internet users, not defending against hackers. Non-compliance equates as using the Internet as a political tool to dissent against the policies of the U.S. government.

We are constantly told that the Internet needs to be subject to government control because cyberterrorists could hack in and bring down the national power grid. However, the vast majority of the U.S. power infrastructure is not connected to the Internet. It will only be connected to the Internet if the government accelerates the implementation of “smart grid” technology, so in this sense, the government itself is leaving the power grid more vulnerable to hackers by its own programs.

Threats against computer networks in the United States are grossly exaggerated. The story regarding the attack on the Illinois water pumping station is a good example, there are people still writing about it as if it were true. Here are two reputable site, that explain the story.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/245277/critical_systems_at_risk_despite_water_utility_false_alarm.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/water-pump-failure-in-illinois-wasnt-cyberattack-after-all/2011/11/25/gIQACgTewN_story.html

After a series of shutdowns, the government will simply demand that every corporation or individual who wants to operate a website first obtain a license and an individual Internet ID. Such licenses will be revoked for anyone who engages in “hate speech,” which is now so broad a term that it encompasses offending anyone on the Internet and of course these items will be voluntary in the beginning.

The result will be a sterile and regulated Internet which more closely resembles cable TV than the true open source, outpost of free speech that we have come to know and love.

Computer Tips

• Stay up-to-date. Use a firewall as well as cyber security software, such as antivirus and antispyware, that will scan for computer security threats and uninstall them. Ensure all of your protection measures, as well as your operating system and software, are up to date. Also, change your passwords every 90 days for better information security. You could also try out Linux, as Windows will never be secure.
• Shop with care. Before submitting credit card information online, look at the URL to ensure you’re on a HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) site. Be wary if a site requires information that isn’t necessary for a transaction. Information security is more important than anything you could buy.
• Laptop security. With the proper software installed, stolen laptops can be tracked to a physical location if they are connected to the Internet. Other software gives you remote access for computer security with the ability to erase your files or send them to a secure data center for recovery via the Web. I highly recommend a free solution called ‘Prey‘ that you can use on both your laptop and mobile devices.

Here is a security quiz for you to take, see how many you can get right.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2012 at 16:29 by dsmith and is filed under Attack, Best Practices, Cybersecurity, Exploit, FUD, Laptop, Malware, McAfee, Passwords, PIPA, SOPA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.