"Cyberwar countermeasures a waste of money"

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rMslade () shaw ca>]

Once again, sensation triumphs against content.  In this case, though, the content 
isn't that great.

New Scientist: "Cyberwar countermeasures a waste of money, says report"

http://bit.ly/hYEIfO+

"Controversially, the OECD advises nations against adopting the Pentagon's idea 
of setting up a military division - as it has under the auspices of the US air force's 
Space Command - to fight cyber-security threats. While vested interests may want 
to see taxpayers' money spent on such ventures, says Sommer, the military can 
only defend its own networks, not the private-sector critical networks we all 
depend on for gas, water, electricity and banking."  

I'm not really sure that last statement really holds true.  But, in any case, you can 
read the whole report for yourself.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/44/46889922.pdf
If you want to.  It's 121 pages.  And not exactly world shaking.  For example, the 
main recommendations are completely predictable (if you've read *any* 
government reports on the issue over the past couple of decades):

- Policies should support needs of all citizens

 - Ratification of the CyberCrime Convention 

- Support end-user education 

- Use procurement power to promote properly tested hardware and software 

- Extend the development of specialist police and forensic computing resources 

- Support Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) community

- Fund research into such areas as: Strengthened Internet protocols,  Risk Analysis, 
Contingency Planning and Disaster Propagation Analysis,  Human Factors in the 
use of computer systems,  Security Economics 

The bulk of the "book" is a conflation of almost random security related topics, 
with some standard advice and some questionable material.  (Speaking of a waste 
of money ...)

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
Q.  Does Usenet help stamp out ignorance?
A.  That depends on whether by `stamp out' you mean `eliminate'
or `reproduce rapidly in great quantity.' - Dr. Roger M. Firestone
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm blog.isc2.org/isc2_blog/slade/index.html
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
http://www.infosecbc.org/links http://twitter.com/rslade
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