FUD-Con V: DC

On  8 Jul 96 at 14:10, winn@Infowar.Com wrote:
[..]
>  Historically, civil defense has meant to protect citizenry against hostile
> military actions. Today, with the specter of Information Warfare representing
> new challenges to late-industrial and information age nation-states, the rules
[..]
Are these really "new" challenges?

>  	- The Power grid is the basis of most of modern society. With it gone,
> not much else happens.  If you think this is just a matter of building more
> generators, think again--what happens if the factories that *make* the
> generators are taken down, too? 

You haven't lived in a hurricane prone area and lost your 
electricity for most of a month, have you?  Many of the generators
are already in place.  The power grid is not centralised, so it's difficult
to take down everything for a long period of time (long enough to be 
truly detrimental to a lot of people) quickly enough (that would require
some non-informational real-life bombing and warfare).

>  	- The Communications infrastructure: land, sea, air and satellite. 95% 
> military communications go over the public networks, and 100% of all financial
> and industrial communications. Is it worth protecting?

Is it so easy to take a whole network down?  What about various radio 
operations (HAMs, Marineband, FM, etc.)?  And don't forget 
automobiles and roads as last-resort communications.

>  	- The Global Financial structure depends upon the first two
> infrastructures, and is perhaps the most vulnerable to theft and denial of
> service attack.  99+% of all "wealth" is digital--what happens if it vaporizes?

I'm skeptical of that figure (many institutions maintain several 
printouts and have contingencies to do things by hand... for no 
other reason than computers go down without human interference).

>  	- Transportation systems rely upon the other three. The air traffic
[..]

Not really. Automobiles and buses rely on very little.  In major 
disasters there are ways to keep limited air and train traffic 
running.

>  Without all of these infrastructures properly and reliably functioning, the
> private sector and the national security community cannot function. No heat, no
[..]

You sound as if you have not been in a place hit by natural disasters 
such as earthquakes, hurricanes, major floods, etc.  These cause much 
more damange to infrastructures as well as human life than any 
organized action could, save for an all-out physical war.  Life still 
manages to go on.

> air conditioning, no food distribution, no light, no radio or TV, no Internet.
> Are we prepared?  Do we have a a crisis response for the day money as we  know
> it vanishes?

Isn't that what FEMA is for?  Do you want FEMA involved with the 
'net?  Or would you rather get the DoD, NSA, FBI also involved with 
"Emergency Management"?!?

>  Electronic Civil Defense will soon become a critical component of any nation's
> well being while the needs of both the private sector and government converge.
> The convergence of military and civilian interests that Mr. Schwartau predicted

Yes... it's called key escrow.

> two years ago is happening before our eyes. Defensive and commercial postures
> have so intertwined as to make them indistinguishable.

That still implies empowering the state rather than allowing entities 
(individuals and corporations) to protect themselves.

I'm skeptical of much of the InfoWar hype.

Yes, there are important security issues (data integrity and 
preservation).  But these also cross over with non-info disaster
preparations.

I also question whether large corporations and banks have compatible 
interests with individuals.  It seems entirely possible that measures 
could be taken to protect the former at the expense of the latter.
It's also dangerous to give LEA's another bogeyman to use. Very 
dangerous.

Rob
 
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On Tue, 9 Jul 1996, Deranged Mutant wrote:

<snip>
> You sound as if you have not been in a place hit by natural disasters 
> such as earthquakes, hurricanes, major floods, etc.  These cause much 
> more damange to infrastructures as well as human life than any 
> organized action could, save for an all-out physical war.  Life still 
> manages to go on.
> 
> > air conditioning, no food distribution, no light, no radio or TV, no Internet.
> > Are we prepared?  Do we have a a crisis response for the day money as we  know
> > it vanishes?
> 
> Isn't that what FEMA is for?  Do you want FEMA involved with the 
> 'net?  Or would you rather get the DoD, NSA, FBI also involved with 
> "Emergency Management"?!?
> 

I'm running one of the panels at this conference, and it's exactly these
issues that I, too, was wondering about.  I've got the head of INFOSEC for
FEMA and a National Planning Associate for the American Redcross on the
panel with me. These are the guys who DO the stuff you're talking about -
making sure that we can survive a hurricane, etc., with the minimal
damage.  In working with them on the INFOWAR issues, I don't think that
anyone's going to be really pleased with what they have to say.  Expecting
FEMA to be covering national INFOSEC disasters would be logical, but I
don't know if anyone mentioned it to _them_. 

And, if you think the DoD *ISN'T* involved in emergency management, you're
wrong.  I was very surprised, when working with the American Redcross
National HQ on this conference, how much classified information the
Redcross handles, and how tightly integrated they are with DoD 'liason'
offices.  And if Dole wins (God forbid), just wait and see what happens.

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