As a nation, almost every aspect of our existence is dependent on reliable and secure technology. Having accurate data is important, but without the critical back-bone that is the internet and the power that makes our technology work, we are dead in the water. Worse yet, we continue to spend billions of dollars in Iraq, money that could be spent protecting our communications systems, water, food and fuel supplies, nuclear facilities, and other fundamental parts of our economy. While we fight the war in Iraq and pay attention to other physical front lines, we must pay attention to other countries spending their time and untold dollars searching for weakness in our core digital infrastructure.

 

  With the vast majority of our nation’s infrastructure in the hands of private individuals and multi-national conglomerates, the reality of insecurity is growing with every passing day.  The increasing complexity and interdependence of our national infrastructure, combined with the government’s inability to keep up with salaries and benefits required to recruit and retain the best talent, is a formula for disaster. We are quickly losing the old guard talent and suffering from increasing brain drain in our government agencies.  Much of the equipment and software that is being used to support our most critical systems are increasingly produced and supported by foreign countries. Their underlying technology is hidden to those who are using these systems. For our government information technology professionals to claim that they fully understand how the software functions and what might be hiding within the code is disingenuous at best. It is true that there are some incredibly intelligent and very talented professionals supporting our government systems, but as technology becomes deeply layered, the ability for any one person to fully understand the systems that they support is limited. The days of those Binary speaking geeks who knew every detail of how and why a system works are long gone.  We are becoming reliant on teams of people with a myriad of specialties to communicate with each other and come to some common conclusion. This means that the potential for the exploitation of weakness or even the outright betrayal by an individual is greater than in days past.

 

  Our corporations both large and small are storing massive amounts of private and commercial data in foreign countries. They are relying on foreign computer services firms that have limited or no allegiance to the US. Yes, they are in currently friendly nations but, as history shows, an ally can become an enemy in short order. We have seen in recent years that many who live in those nations we call our friends or allies are harboring hatred and distain for our international policies. It does not matter why so many hate America. What matters is that there are millions of people in the world who would celebrate harm being done to the US and our interests.

 

  Don’t be fooled into believing that there is some super secret information highway that is fully controlled by crack government teams of experts and super geeks. The secured pathway of information that is safe and guaranteed to be there in the event of disaster or sustained physical attack does not exist. The truth is that our government knows less about the world of technology than the majority of those in the private sector. They rely on the commitments and promises from professional organizations and private companies who are apt to not fully disclose their weakness or exaggerate their capabilities to make a buck.

 

 Yes, there is a high level of security protecting their “critical systems”.  The problem is that there is a constant battle of risk versus benefit. Only those systems that are deemed critical by people who have their own self interest at heart are getting the funding and attention that is needed. If there is no invested advocate or one that is unable to articulate how important it is to protect a particular system, then there may be no protection at all.  In fact, we have been shown that those critical systems are vulnerable to attack and not getting the attention they need. 

 

  As I said, much of our infrastructure relies on the ability of the private sector to transport data, create software, integrate and secure systems, and provide power to the grid. If the apparent loss of millions of emails by the president’s private sector support team is any indication of the way our government protects our publicly owned data systems, I for one am very concerned.  A digital D-day attack that involves our core systems could have devastating impacts on our basic life support systems. Our food distribution, power management, medical facilities, transportation, water management, critical communications, and other necessities could be interrupted for extended periods of time and the impact on our economy could be immense. If one thinks about how completely reliant on technology our society has become, it doesn’t take long to see that there are few types of physical attacks that could have as devastating an impact.

 

  So, I ask one thing from you today. Please take a minute and consider how your lives and that of your family and community would be impacted if we were to suffer the loss of these important capabilities. Then consider ways that you can be part of the solution.