From: hippyman <hippyman@alltel.net>
Subject: Cyberattacks spur new warning system
Cyberattacks spur new warning system
by Heather Harreld
MARCH 23, 1998
The Defense Department has created a new alert system to rate the level of
threats to its information systems that mirrors the well-known Defense
Conditions (DEFCONs) ratings that mark the overall military status in
response to traditional foreign threats.
The new Information Conditions, or "INFOCONs," are raised and lowered based
upon cyberthreats to DOD or to the U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom) at
Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Stratcom is responsible for deterring
any military attack on the United States and for deploying troops or
launching nuclear weapons should deterrence fail, a Stratcom spokesman
said. As INFOCONs are raised, officials take additional measures to protect
information systems.
While DEFCONs have been popularized in movies such as "WarGames" and "The
Hunt for Red October," this is the first time electronic threats have been
included in the assessment of the nation's overall safety from enemy
attacks. The INFOCONs are a response to a recent Defense Science Board
report that concluded that reliance on computer systems to operate key
infrastructures has "created a tunnel of vulnerability previously
unrealized in the history of conflict" and could have a "catastrophic
effect on the ability of [DOD] to fulfill its mission."
Stratcom uses five levels to indicate the threat to information technology
systems: Normal indicates the lowest IT Defense posture, then the INFOCONs
rise to levels labeled Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta, the highest
posture. As the threat to systems increases, officials employ more
stringent policies and procedures, including, for example, disconnecting
from the Internet and monitoring all systems in real time.
"We monitor all known electronic threats to our automated information
systems [AISs]," the spokesman said. "With the electronic threat growing
every day, the cornerstone of our 'defense-in-depth' IS security program is
educating our front-line cyberwarriors. We rely on a myriad of protection
methods to protect our systems, including threat notifications by
intelligence agencies, information provided by other military computer
emergency response teams and monitoring the activities on our firewall. As
INFOCON levels increase, we institute physical and electronic protection
methodologies to our AISs based upon the threat."
Officials at Stratcom have developed detailed guidelines on raising and
lowering INFOCONs based on the threat. Structured, systematic attacks to
penetrate systems will result in a higher INFOCON level than when
individual, isolated attempts are made, according to Stratcom.
Stratcom officials plan to work with the Justice Department's recently
announced initiative to develop a National Information Protection Center so
that a systematic notification procedure can be followed when INFOCONs
increase. Stratcom officials hope
that by the time the center becomes operational, which is scheduled for
next month, the federal government will adopt national-level INFOCONs for
all federal organizations.
Barry Collin, senior research fellow at the Stanford, Calif.-based
Institute for Security and Intelligence, said that while the INFOCON
program was conceived at Stratcom, many other DOD components are excited
about the program and are moving to identify their own responses to INFOCON
levels.
"Traditional intrusion detection and response has not been a unified
process of communications," Collin said. "Until now there has been very
little action when a threat has occurred. Traditionally, there was no
cross-organizational communications platform. It's moving toward that
uniformed cyberthreat posture that the DOD needs."
Collin, who emphasized that Stratcom's most sensitive systems tied to
nuclear missile launch are never exposed to the outside world, said this
move is in response to the growing number of systematic attacks on DOD
computer systems. This is also the first institutionalized program that
holds DOD systems administrators accountable for system intrusions by
requiring them to put into place procedures to respond to changing
INFOCONs, he said.
"These are the guys with the finger on the button; their systems are of
particular concern," Collin said. "If you lock everything up on [the Secret
Internet Protocol Router Network, DOD's classified network], nothing will
get done. What they're looking for is a way to react intelligently to
threats. By doing this, then everyone knows 'lock down' and what 'lock
down' means to their individual organizations."
Winn Schwartau, an information warfare author and consultant, recently
suggested a similar approach in a report he wrote that was requested by
DOD. Schwartau suggested an approach that calls for large organ-izations
and enterprises in the commercial sector, including infrastructure
operators, to develop with the federal government a means to measure
cyberthreats and then develop a response policy to those threats.
Schwartau said he applauds Stratcom's movement toward INFOCONs, but he said
that the private sector also needs to be involved in rating the overall
health of the nation's information operations because the military is
frequently dependent upon private-sector infrastructures.
"The Pentagon, in defiant response to their own internal debates, is now
floating the term information operations to explain what they do, but it
still is far from [being as] inclusive as many of us would like," according
to Schwartau's report, which is scheduled to be published by DOD in June.
"The contention is that the Pentagon is in the physical war business....
That contention, too, is a matter of healthy debate when we ask, 'Who
protects the private sector from international assaults that do not involve
bombs, airplanes and submarines?' "
-o-
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Received on Thu Mar 26 17:32:51 1998