A recent op-ed (scratch that, it isn’t “ed” it’s just an attack cartoon) portrays President Biden as a Barney Fife caricature dunce over the title “Biden Fife Cyber-security.” This is obviously an effort to divert attention from three actual realities.
The first is
that the May 6th Colonial Pipeline hacker attack happened in the
arena of Trump era lax/unenforced cyber security protocols, especially those requiring coordinated inter agency efforts and data sharing. Over a span of four years in office, Trump
failed to hold adversaries including Russia accountable for hacking U.S.
targets, removed experienced cyber-defenders from their posts for petty reasons
and undermined much of the good work being done on cybersecurity within federal
agencies, according to 71 percent of respondents to a Washington Post poll of
data security experts (in and outside the Trump administration). The poll
queried a panel of more than 100 cybersecurity experts who participate in an
ongoing informal survey.
In 2016, Trump,
in the flurry of undoing Obama Executive Orders, overrode an Obama directive,
written in 2012 which was a framework for a protocol for responding to cyber
warfare. It met with mixed response because it constrained the various agencies
involved to coordinate with one another prior reacting to threats. What concept,
huh? Inter-agency cooperation
In point of fact,
the survey was conducted prior to the revelation of the most significant data
security breach of the Trump administration — a hack linked to the Russian
Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, that infected at least five federal agencies
— the Commerce, Treasury, Homeland Security and State departments as well as
the NIH as well as foreign governments and companies across the globe.
The second is
that most of the “ransom” paid by the operators of the Colonial Pipeline (The
headline in yesterday’s CNN news read "U.S. recovers $2.3 million in bitcoin paid in the Colonial
Pipeline ransom") was recovered by experts who were able to “hack” the bitcoin “wallet” of one of the hackers
and retrieve the credits. (Note, this is an obvious shortcoming of crypto
currencies, which exist only as electronic impulses).
The third event
ignored by the cartoonist (a well know and constant critic of anything nor Far
Right) is the fact that assuming Biden would simply take the oath and would (or
could, facing Congressional stalling) immediately fix all the myriad Trump Administration
shortcomings is disingenuous at best.
In fact, like any good leader, Biden gathered
input from those who actually know things, rather than shoot from the hip
claiming that he “knows more than anyone about… you name it," and then,
using that expert input, formulated a coherent policy, Executive Order, and on
May 12, six days after the Colonial Pipeline ransomware hack, issued the Order,
entitled Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. Make
sure you get this point: Trump, having been made aware of Russian hackers and
their efforts over four years, (see John Bolton’s insider book!) did essentially
nothing to thwart those efforts or encourage or even allow development of a strategy
for coping with such threats.
By contrast, the Biden Order, far too long to include here but
available here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/05/12/executive-order-on-improving-the-nations-cybersecurity/
is very specific in both scope and
timelines for action.
The general tone of the directive is embodied in this summary
paragraph of the introductory portion. “It is the policy of my
Administration that the prevention, detection, assessment, and remediation of
cyber incidents is a top priority and essential to national and economic
security. The Federal Government must
lead by example. All Federal Information
Systems should meet or exceed the standards and requirements for cybersecurity
set forth in and issued pursuant to this order.”
In the interest
of brevity, I will simply list several key areas of concern headings:
Sec. 2. Removing
Barriers to Sharing Threat Information. (Remember FBI and CIA pissing contests
over 9/11 concerns?)
Sec. 3. Modernizing
Federal Government Cybersecurity. (This includes directives and timelines for
moving to a “Zero Trust Architecture” for federal data systems.)
Sections 4 is administrative and software supply chain oriented.
Sec. 5. Establishing
a Cyber Safety Review Board. (self-explanatory, yep, there were provisions for one,
but Trump failed to push the actual formation or agenda of it.
Sec. 6. Standardizing
the Federal Government’s Playbook for Responding to Cybersecurity
Vulnerabilities and Incidents. (Yes, there was no Federal departmental standard
“What the fuck do we do now?" plan even after Trump era Russian hacks were discovered)
The remainder is pretty much “Make it happen” and reemphasizes
timelines and responsibilities.
This represents
more and more specific action in the realm of cyber security after less than 4
months than the entire Trump 4 years. Does this sound much like Barney Fife to
you? Me Neither.
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