Topic: National Security
Public Private Partnerships - InfraGard InfraGard is a private/public partnership between corporations and the Federal Government.by Bishop on Air dot com
(libertarian)
Sunday, February 10, 2008
February 09, 2008 Greg Bishop
The public/private partnership organization of corporations working with the FBI known as IfraGard is gaining more attention. This organization works directly with the FBI to give and receive information concerning terrorism and other homeland security issues including an influenza outbreak.
The focus appears to be directed at preventing fraud, but there is also an element of concern for terrorism and the possibility of an infrastructure collapse with the slogan "A collaboration for infrastructure protection" alongside a graphic depicting "Elevated - significant risk of terrorist attacks".
"InfraGard is an information sharing and analysis effort serving the interests and combining the knowledge base of a wide range of members. At its most basic level, InfraGard is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the private sector."
On December 11, 2007, Greg Garcia, the Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communication, gave a speech at the New York Metro InfreGard Alliance Security Summit.
"Let's be realistic. Private industry owns and operates more than 85 percent of the United States' critical infrastructures. That means the Federal Government cannot address cyber threats alone. Obviously, if a cyber attack occurs, the larger percentage of potential immediate victims will also be in the private sector. This includes the financial services industry. So not only does it make sense to collaborate with each other, it is an absolute necessity.
"A prime example of this occurred just last month when the US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) served as the key data gathering and distribution center for a potential cyber threat to both government and private sector systems maintaining critical infrastructures."
Mr. Gracia's speech is quite detailed as to the many different programs and operations there are focused on information sharing, gathering, and testing working as part of InfraGard.
"EINSTEIN, as it is known, is that early warning system. It monitors participating agencies' network gateways for traffic patterns that indicate the presence of computer worms or other unwanted traffic. By collecting this information, EINSTEIN gives our analysts a big-picture view of potentially malicious activity on federal networks."
Garcia mentions a statewide drill scheduled to take place in Vermont, January of 2008. "The Vermont InfraGard is a key planner in the state of Vermont's first ever cyber exercise, which my office is helping to design and implement." However, Vermont's InfraGard website has no mention of the drill nor does a search in news archives nor a search of the state of Vermont's website.
Mr. Garcia continues
"At the national level, we are actively planning for the March 2008 national cyber exercise, Cyber Storm II, which follows the highly successful cyber storm I held in February 2006. This exercise examines our response and coordination mechanisms against a simulated cyber event affecting international, federal, state, and local governments, and the private sector."
You can read more about Cyber Storm II online. (PDF)
Cyber crime is not the only focus of Greg Garcia's speech in New York. There was also a mention of a possible flu pandemic.
"A working group led by my one of my components — the National Communications System — and including experts from the Federal Reserve Board, the Department of the Treasury, the Financial and Banking Information Infrastructure Committee, and the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council, meets monthly to plan for the potential communications consequences of a pandemic influenza."
"The FBI should not be creating a privileged class of Americans who get special treatment," says Jay Stanley, public education director of the ACLU’s technology and liberty program. "There’s no ‘business class’ in law enforcement. If there’s information the FBI can share with 22,000 corporate bigwigs, why don’t they just share it with the public? That’s who their real ‘special relationship’ is supposed to be with. Secrecy is not a party favor to be given out to friends. . . . This bears a disturbing resemblance to the FBI’s handing out ‘goodies’ to corporations in return for folding them into its domestic surveillance machinery."
Infragard is associated with the Department of Homeland Security and the NIST.
Greg Garcia's December 11th speech includes information about the National Institute of Standards and Technology's National Vulnerability Database working in part with InfraGard.
"Recently, your colleagues in the payment card industry recognized the value of the database to their cyber risk management efforts. Last June, the industry's data security standards required that all credit card processing vendors use the National Vulnerability Database to evaluate the security of their payment systems."
"NVD is a product of the NIST Computer Security Division and is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division. It supports the U.S. government multi-agency (OSD, DHS, NSA, DISA, and NIST) Information Security Automation Program. It is the U.S. government content repository for the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP)."
InfraGard does operate in all fifty states including Illinois. There is both a Chicago and Springfield office for the public/private partnership of corporations and the Federal Government.
View more information about InfraGard online at www.infragard.net. Also, check out the info for the Springfield InfraGard Organization online at www.infragard-illinois.net.
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