Page 35 - CDM Cyber Warnings February 2014

these scenarios would not affect the general necessities you “$1.5 trillion dollars’
normally take for granted, think again.
worth of intellectual
But where do we look for sovereign protection� The U.S.
government� Commercial think-tanks in the public/private property will be
sector� From my vantage point, the commercial sector is
going to have to take the lead – UNLESS we endure a �cyber ex filtrated in the next
9/11.� U.S. government IT is extremely complex.
year from U.S.
Bureaucracy dictates this with hundreds of departments
using disparate IT systems, many with legacy software and
hardware. How complex it is can be found in the recent Organizations”

(well, it took 10 years to abandon) attempted upgrade of
the U.S. Air Force�s IT infrastructure. An effort that began
What cyber-theft that is happening behind the scenes
in the early 2000s to replace 240 outdated networks with a
however, is alarming. Aaron Turner, CEO and founder of
single logistics system blew up 10 years and a $1 billion
IntegriCell, the aforementioned mobile risk management
later.
consultancy, estimates that as much as $1.5 trillion dollars�
worth of intellectual property will be exfiltrated in the next
The Affordable Care Act�s portal HealthCare.gov is another
year from U.S. organizations, many government
example of disparate and disconnected systems that failed
contractors. This is a number from a story the general
to come together in a single cohesive system. The amount
public will never hear about. What organization would
spent to launch HealthCare.gov varies, but the most
want that kind of bad press hit the airwaves� This
accurate account I found came out of The Washington
syphoning of IP from corporate America –defense
Post, which put the figure at between $70 and $150 million.
contractors too� – is being exacted by nefarious
Whatever the cost, the point here is more about the
governments such as Russia, China and Iran and their
complexity of trying to pull together multiple
digital mercenaries who would rather steal their way to
databases/integrations across diverse computing
leading edge technologies than develop them with their
environments with a single front end. For the purpose of
own researchers/developers. Would you spend $10 million
this article, the story here is the IT complexity of
on a cyber-theft operation to net $2 billion in technology�
HealthCare.gov. This was an IT complexity problem that
That�s a great return on investment anywhere. How many
never had a chance from the start. Any vendor or collection
organizations are capable of defending themselves from a
thereof would have had a difficult time with this integration
multi-million-dollar-bankrolled cyber-attack� �IP theft is
project because of the complexity of government IT.
going to be very difficult to stop,� Turner says. �Partly
But there is hope…I think. because it is not publicized and partly from corporate IT
security practices incapable of stopping mobile device
But the U.S. government must be doing something right,
intrusion. In most cases, by the time the organization
right� I feel fairly confident that when I wake up in the
morning and turn the lights on, they will work as intended. realizes they�ve had a mobile-originated breach, the IP has
Driving through traffic I feel safe that all stoplights are already left the data center.�Turner posits that the U.S.
government needs to develop a policy with these nefarious
working as intended. And when I pull up to an ATM, I
governments that rewards all parties to come clean.
think it will work as intended and the amount of money I
had in the bank last time I checked online is still the same.
�We are talking about companies losing billions in IP and
nobody wants to publicize that,� adds Turner. �So we can
So pat the Obama administration on the back for keeping
only imagine the totality of IP value lost and we won� t be
these infrastructures free (so far) from cyber-terrorism.

CYBER DEFENSE MAGAZINE - ANNUAL EDITION 35