-
How industrial, commercial organizations can benefit by cuts in military spending
By Darnell Washington, CISSP - Tuesday February 26, 2013In my nature of not being a gloom and doom person and always looking for an optimistic side of any problem, I have been closely evaluating the current preparations for significant layoffs, especially within the defense and government sectors which could be as high as 20 percent, according to recent published reports. This magnitude of cuts in government spending doesn’t mean that innovation, productivity, and research and development should be lost, but rather refocused into commercial and industrial efforts. Most large defense organizations that develop significant military and warfare capabilities should redouble their efforts toward health, energy, cybersecurity, and infrastructure management efforts that can be applied towards... -
Think before you click
By Darnell Washington, CISSP - Tuesday November 20, 2012The recent resignation by Gen. David Petraeus due to an alleged email scandal brings to light one of my most common sense cyber security rules - think before you click. This should be a flashing neon light so that whenever there is content that may be offensive to others it should say, "are you sure?" I bet the woman who sent the incriminating emails would have changed her mind. I agree there are fine lines between law enforcement, privacy rights (or lack thereof), and the ability to collect that information, which needs to be better defined. Agencies that are responsible for weeding out social and cyber criminals such as stalkers, online predators, and financial scammers need to have better defined guidelines and rules prior to... -
Do you want to play a cybersecurity game?
By Darnell Washington, CISSP - Thursday November 8, 2012I’m sure that many of you remember the movie "Wargames," the popular Cold War science fiction film in which a young hacker unwittingly accesses WOPR, a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. In the movie, the hacker (Matthew Broderick) gets a military mainframe computer to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The simulation causes a national nuclear missile scare and nearly starts World War III. Well true to form, many of the things I see in the movies are just a clear indication of things yet to become reality, such as phasers, teleporters, warp speed, photon bombs, and most recently, magnetic pulse bombs . This missile has the capacity... -
A fresh perspective on IT security
By Darnell Washington, CISSP - Friday November 2, 2012It’s a pleasure to join Cygnus and SecurityInfoWatch.com. I am honored to participate in providing commentary to the public on views and opinions that bring to light what I would refer to as the "practical side" of cybersecurity. Through many of my years as a IT security evangelist, I recognize the need to cut through all the rhetoric and come to a common ground on ways that we can collectively identify and defeat risk and vulnerabilities tied to cyber attacks, exploits, and miscreants who now consider "hacking" as a profession. In my blog, I intend to share experiences and challenges from perspectives that can be translated into everyday use based on new and relevant topics. The focus of my blog won’t be re-tweets or...
