Contributor

It’s National Cyber Security Awareness Month

Opinion
Oct 3, 20082 mins

National Cyber Security Awareness month.  From the cyber security Czar, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Greg Garcia speaking at a kick off event  about Government networks and systems:

You might have missed that October is

“They are more secure, and they are going to get more secure,” he said Thursday at the launch event in Washington. “There is always more to do.”

That’s the great thing about being in a security role. There is always more to do.  Mind you, in the two years Mr. Garcia has been in his role the US has seen the penetration of the Pentagon by the Chinese Red Army, numerous leaks and spy incidents, and failing grades from OMB for not following through on mandated cyber security efforts.   

Combating complacency and ignorance is the goal of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, a joint program of the DHS National Cyber Security Division and the National Cyber Security Alliance, an organization of public, private and academic sector experts. Together they sponsor online and other activities geared at raising awareness among consumers and home users, as well as businesses.

combatting complacency and get to work on enforcing security within the Federal Government.

Mr. Garcia would make better use of his time and US taxpayer’s dollars if he focused the government’s activities on locking down defense and research networks.  More websites and blather from “experts” just hardens the consumer’s ears.  The phishers, identity thieves, and Nigerian 419 scam artists have done more to educate consumers and home users as well as businesses to the dangers of the online world.  

The Assistant Homeland Security Secretary has lots of work to do. I suggest he stop

Richard Stiennon is chief research analyst at IT-Harvest, the firm he founded in 2005 to cover the 1,600 vendors that make up the IT security industry. He is the author of Surviving Cyberwar (Government Institutes, 2010) and There Will Be Cyberwar: How the Move to Network-Centric Warfighting Set the Stage for Cyberwar. He is a member of the advisory board at the Information Governance Initiative and principal of TrueBit Cyber Partners. He also serves on the R2-TAC, the technical advisory committee for the Responsible Recycling standard for e-waste.

Stiennon was chief marketing officer for Fortinet Inc. and vice president of threat research at Webroot Software. Prior to that, he was vice president of research at Gartner Inc. He has a B.S. in aerospace engineering and an M.A. in war in the modern world from King’s College, London.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of Richard Stiennon and do not necessarily represent those of IDG Communications Inc. or its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.

More from this author