Month: January 2009

Threats In the Age of Obama

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TTTAOB-thumb2.jpgThe world does not change in discrete, binary steps.  There is a great deal of continuity from the past to the present and on to the future.  But many of us sense things are different in the world today.   Technology is changing every life and every business, economic megatrends are producing changes, war and conflict and terrorism inject uncertainty, and the entire dynamic of human events is moving faster and faster.

On top of that, a new U.S. administration led by a new President has just assumed executive power in the U.S.  This is clearly a time for us all to take stock.

I was privileged to have been asked by Michael Tanji to contribute to a book he edited on topics relevant to this new dynamic called “Threats In The Age of Obama.”  This compilation consists of a survey of the new national security threat landscape by Tanji and then examinations of a wide swath of threats captured by national security experts.

Topics and Contributors include:

  • The Threat Landscape, Michael Tanji
  • The Tangled Relationship Between Organized Crime,
    Terrorism and Proliferation, Christopher A. Corpora, Ph.D
  • The Terrorism Meme–Looking Beyond the Current Threat,
    Matthew G. Devost
  • Crazy as a Fox, Adrian Martin
  • Infectious Diseases, Foreign Militaries, and US National
    Security, Christopher Albon
  • Pakistan as a Nuclear Risk, Steve Schippert
  • Nuclear Nonproliferation in the 21st Century, Cheryl Rofer and Molly Cernicek
  • Into the Complex Terrain, Tim Stevens
  • Simulated “Black Swans”: National Security, Perception
    Operations, and the Expansion of the Infosphere,
    Adam Elkus
  • An Outbreak of Peace and Democracy, Daniel H. Abbott
  • Ideas and Strategies for a More Secure Future, Michael Tanji
  • Preparing One’s Mind to See, Art Hutchinson
  • The Issues of Non-State Actors and the Nation State, Samuel P. Liles
  • The Future of Missile Defense Policy, Tom Karako
  • Toward a Contemporary Deterrence Strategy, Carolyn Leddy
  • An Information Age Strategy for Government Information Technology, Mathew Burton
  • The Future of Cyberspace Security: The Law of the Rodeo,
    Bob Gourley
  • Security Evolution, Gunnar Peterson
  • Arming for the Second War of Ideas, Matt Armstrong
  • Blurring the Lines Between War and Peace, Shane Deichman
  • Reconfiguring the National Security Architecture, Shlok Vaidya
  • A Grand Strategy for a Networked Civilization, Mark Safranski

Most of these authors are wired web2.0 experts who are well published in new media and reachable by any who seek to interact on these very important topics (see contact info below).   My recommendation: Read the book and scrutinize it.  If you find any aspect you take issue with, seek out the section’s author and engage them in the intellectual interaction required to drive a greater understanding of these many issues. We also plan several events where the contributors will sit on panels and take questions and interact. 

Whatever your method, please find ways to contribute to the dialog. Your contributions can significantly enhance our nation’s ability to succeed in our responses to the many threats of this age.

Please check out the book here: “Threats In The Age of Obama.”

Contributing authors include, in alphabetical order, Dan tdaxp, Christopher Albon, Matt Armstrong, Matthew Burton, Molly Cernicek, Christopher Corpora, Shane Deichman, Adam Elkus, Matt Devost, Bob Gourley, Art Hutchinson, Tom Karako, Carolyn Leddy, Samuel Liles, Adrian Martin, Gunnar Peterson, Cheryl Rofer, Mark Safranski, Steve Schippert, Tim Stevens, and Shlok Vaidya. And of course, editor and contributor, Michael Tanji.

This entry was posted in Barak Obama, Computer Security, CTO, Cyber War, obama, The Future of Technology, Vision and tagged , , , , , , , , .

We Have A Cyber Czar, and He Has Spoken

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putinatdavos.pngA debate has been running for months both among government thought
leaders and the technical literati on whether or not the US should appoint a
“Cyber Czar” who can exert authority over IT security in the federal space or perhaps even
aspects of the nation’s IT defenses.  This is a complex discussion
that has had some of the greatest thinkers in and out of government
involved.   A great snapshot of issues and the opinions of many well
reasoned experts are expressed in the CSIS report “Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency”   and other
thoughts are here: The Future of Cyber Security and here: Threats In the Age of Obama .

Unfortunately for those who would like to still debate and discuss this
issue, there is already a Cyber Czar who can accomplish most all his
objectives in our networks.  His name is Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin.  This former KGB operative now controls Russia with an
iron fist and has shown others again and again he will exert influence
anywhere he needs to in order to accomplish his objectives.  He will
use tanks when required and cyber when desired and combinations when it
suits him.  There are indications his agents are also in our networks
now.  If our objectives are to keep players like him out, we cannot say
we are accomplishing them.  If his objectives are to get in, then we
can say he is accomplishing them.  Till this situation changes, we
need to confront then this new reality:  Vladimir Putin is the Cyber
Czar.

We have our own great technologists and wizards of cyber, of course. 
And we have great hero entrepreneurs of technology who have built the
cyber world we all use today.  One of those greats is Michael Dell,
creator of an idea and corporation that develops, manufactures, sells
and distributes personal computers we all depend on.

But he is someone who will now think twice before thinking he can
interact as a peer to Cyber Czar Putin.  After listening to Putin’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Michael Dell
praised Russia’s technical and scientific prowess and asked a nice,
friendly question:  “How can we help.”  As a former govie CTO I would
get asked that type of question all the time from industry and really
appreciated it whenever a senior thought leader would ask that.  But
not Czar Putin.  He did not appreciate that at all.   Putin was
offended by the assertion that the mighty Russia might need help in anything Cyber.
The exchange is captured here on YouTube:

Fortune: described the exchange this way:

“Putin’s withering reply to Dell: “We don’t need help. We are not
invalids. We don’t have limited mental capacity.” The slapdown took
many of the people in the audience by surprise. Putin then went on to
outline some of the steps the Russian government has taken to wire up
the country, including remote villages in Siberia. And, in a final dig
at Dell, he talked about how Russian scientists were rightly respected
not for their hardware, but for their software. The implication: Any
old fool can build a PC outfit.”

Clearly cyber domination is personal with Putin.  He is the Cyber Czar. 

I think I should end with a plea to all who care about cyber freedom and all who know the potential positive contributions of IT:  Please don’t be
pleased with this current situation.  Please don’t just think the title
of Cyber Czar I’ve now used to describe Putin is something we should be
proud of.  It is not.  We should continue to act till we are able to
assert that we are masters of our own networks.  Our nation’s
intellectual property, including the intellectual property of all our
companies and citizens, is too important to let it be given away
without at least a cyber fight.

This entry was posted in CERT, chief technology officer, Computer Security, CTO, Current Affairs, Cyber Initiative, Cyber War, CyberTrust, CyLab, Dell, Enterprise, Network Security, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology and tagged , , , , , , .

A Blog I Like: ShepherdsPi

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The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Microsoft’s Institute for Advanced Technologies in Governments, Lewis Shepherd, publishes a blog on technologies relevant to enterprises big and small. 

Lewis writes about tools, techniques and concepts in ways that bring home the real utility of advanced technologies.  Recent posts have been on word-clouds and other ways of visualizing information, semantic constructs, flexible devices and of course recent developments from the tech industry. 

Lewis’s blog should be on any technologist reading list and I consider him a “must follow” connection on twitter. 

You can read Lewis and find his twitter account at:  http://shepherdspi.com/

Next week I write about Matt Devost at: http://blog.devost.net/

This entry was posted in Bill Gates, chief technology officer, CTO, Cyber Initiative, Disruptive IT, Enterprise, Great CTOs, microsoft, Social Computing, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology, Web 2.0 and tagged .

Vint Cerf of Google and Bob Gourley of CTOvision.com on CIO Talk Radio

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On Wednesday 28 Jan 2009 at 10am Eastern I’ll be on CIO Talk Radio with one of the stars of the global technology community, Vint Cerf.  

The topic we will be discussing is the next technology revolution in the US and how it will start.  Vint is fantastically qualified to discuss this topic, and I’m honored to be sharing a microphone with him and look forward to learning from the interaction.  Every time I get the pleasure of interacting with Vint it ends up influencing me.  I hope to capture some of our interaction for future blog posts here at ctovision.com

Vint’s bio is incredible and I learn something every time I read it.  I’ve pasted it below.  

But first more on CIO Talk Radio.  CIO Talk Radio is an Internet radio talk show, broadcasted live every Wednesday at 9:00 AM Central/ 10:00 AM Eastern, about how technology has changed and is changing the way we live our lives as well as do business.  Guests are business leaders, subject matter experts, and thought leader who are responsible for shaping the way we use technology. Visit the site at: http://ciotalkradio.com and click on LIVE BROADCAST to listen. A popup window will open and if you have Windows Media Player installed, in 10 – 15 seconds, you will listen to the live radio. In case of issues you may also open broadcasting station websites.  Call 866.472.5790 to ask questions during the live broadcast.

Now for that incredibly interesting bio:

Vint Cerf
Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google

Vinton G. Cerf has served as vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google since October 2005. In this role, he is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies to support the development of advanced, Internet-based products and services from Google. He is also an active public face for Google in the Internet world.

Cerf is the former senior vice president of Technology Strategy for MCI. Previously, Cerf served as MCI’s senior vice president of Architecture and Technology.

Widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. In December 1997, President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. Kahn and Cerf were named the recipients of the ACM Alan M. Turing award in 2004 (sometimes called the “Nobel Prize of Computer Science”) for their work on the Internet protocols. In November 2005, President George Bush awarded Cerf and Kahn the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award given by the United States to its citizens. In April 2008, Cerf and Kahn received the prestigious Japan Prize.

Prior to rejoining MCI in 1994, Cerf was vice president of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). As vice president of MCI Digital Information Services from 1982-1986, he led the engineering of MCI Mail, the first commercial email service to be connected to the Internet.

During his tenure from 1976-1982 with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Cerf played a key role leading the development of Internet and Internet-related packet data and security technologies.

Vint Cerf served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 2000-2007. Cerf also served as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992-1995 and in 1999 served a term as chairman of the Board. In addition, Cerf is honorary chairman of the IPv6 Forum, dedicated to raising awareness and speeding introduction of the new Internet protocol. Cerf served as a member of the U.S. Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 1997 to 2001 and serves on several national, state and industry committees focused on cyber-security. Cerf sits on the Board of Directors for the Endowment for Excellence in Education, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Advisory Committee and the Board of the Avanex Corporation. He also serves as 1st Vice President and Treasurer of the National Science & Technology Medals Foundation. Cerf is a Fellow of the IEEE, ACM, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Engineering Consortium, the Computer History Museum, the Annenberg Center for Communications at USC and the National Academy of Engineering.

Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards and commendations in connection with his work on the Internet. These include the Marconi Fellowship, Charles Stark Draper award of the National Academy of Engineering, the Prince of Asturias award for science and technology, the National Medal of Science from Tunisia, the St. Cyril and St. Methodius Order (Grand Cross) of Bulgaria, the Alexander Graham Bell Award presented by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf, the NEC Computer and Communications Prize, the Silver Medal of the International Telecommunications Union, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award, the ACM Software and Systems Award, the ACM SIGCOMM Award, the Computer and Communications Industries Association Industry Legend Award, installation in the Inventors Hall of Fame, the Yuri Rubinsky Web Award, the Kilby Award, the Rotary Club International Paul P. Harris Medal, the Joseph Priestley Award from Dickinson College, the Yankee Group/Interop/Network World Lifetime Achievement Award, the George R. Stibitz Award, the Werner Wolter Award, the Andrew Saks Engineering Award, the IEEE Third Millennium Medal, the Computerworld/Smithsonian Leadership Award, the J.D. Edwards Leadership Award for Collaboration, World Institute on Disability Annual award and the Library of Congress Bicentennial Living Legend medal. Cerf was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2006.

This entry was posted in chief technology officer, collaboration, CTO, Disruptive IT, Enterprise, Gourley, Great CTOs, standards, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology.

Social Media and the National Security Professional

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This is an update of an article I published last August in Social Computing Magazine (a great enterprise Web2.0 site edited by Dion Hinchcliffe).   A key goal of this piece has been to encourage more in the national security world to use capabilities like Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, and of course Twitter.  If you know someone you would like to encourage to use these sites please feel free to lift from this.  If you know of other sites or capabilities that deserve this sort of tutorial please let me know.

Another key goal of this paper is to enhance the security of our nation, and my thesis is that by getting more senior thought leaders into these web2.0 capabilities we can do just that. 

Social Media and National Security Professionals

24 January 2009

Bob Gourley

Social
Media is a term used to encompass a wide range of technologies used to
enhance shared meaning among participants.  When properly used, Social
Media capabilities also address the information explosion we are all
experiencing.   Social Media includes weblogs, wikis, email, instant
messaging, tagging and broadcast text. Popular social media services
include such familiar names as AIM, TypePad, Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter and Plaxo.

This note captures some tips and techniques for the use of social media focused on national security professionals.

First,
for context and background, let me start with the analogy of
traditional media and it’s still significant contribution to dialog in
the national security space.  Great thinkers with something to say
frequently author an editorial submission to news outlets.  Examples
abound, but as a reference let me point out the thought provoking piece
by Mark Lowenthal in the 25 May 2008 Washington Post titled “The Real Intelligence Failure? Spineless Spies.” 
Here one of the more elegant writers in the intelligence community laid
out his personal views and made a contribution to the dialog on the
intelligence community.   This type of article is of value in helping
us collectively think through some key issues.  The article also
underscores that the explosion of social media does not eliminate the
need and value for authoritative voices.

Now let’s discuss how new media helps the dialog.

With
new media, you do not have to be one of the leaders of the national
security domain to publish your thoughts.  You can establish your own
blog.  There are many services that do this. The most popular ones are Moveable Type and TypePad.  I like them both and have used both.  If you are just starting out I recommend you sign up with TypePad.  You can have a blog up in minutes, and with a little more time
you can have your own domain and a blog configured with your own
design.  Having a blog does not mean you are automatically an expert,
but when you have something to say you will have a path to say it.

Part
of the power of new media is that capabilities like blogs give more
people an ability to inject ideas into the dialog, and in many national
security issues more brains with more ideas can be a significant
enhancement to the dialog.  But new media gives even more benefits. 
New media gives others an ability to discover and comment on your
thoughts.  For example, blogs all come with rich commenting and
moderating features so others can share thoughts and endorse, critique,
or add to your original post.  This provides a way to highlight good
ideas from social media.

New media is also known for speed.  The
instant your thought is published you can have it provided to others
via RSS feeds, by e-mail push, and by alerts to Twitter, a micro
blogging site which is also being used by a growing number of national
security professionals.

To see how Twitter works, visit my site at http://www.twitter.com/bobgourley
.  You will see a series of small posts made by me.  Some were
automatically created when I posted to my blog.  Others were either
sent in from my cell phone while I’m on the road or from my computer at
home.    If you desire to “follow” me on twitter all you have to do is
sign up for a Twitter account and click the “follow” button.  Then you
can read those micro posts whenever they are made.  You can also find
other national security professionals to follow on Twitter, and they
will be able to find you as well. For example, from my page, look for
the graphic that shows Lewis Shepherd and click on his head.  You will
see his Twitter site. Or if you don’t remember what Lewis looks like
can click on the list of people I follow and find him there.  
Following feeds like this will keep you informed of key meetings,
conferences and events and of course blog posts.   Producing your own
Twitter feed will provide you with a way to contribute to the dialog.

Another tool of increasing use by people in this discipline is LinkedIn.  This is a site that lets users add a bio or resume and then helps
them manage their social network.  LinkedIn lets you connect to others
on the site who you know.  You can help out people you know who might
need to meet someone you know and vice versa. This site is very helpful
in learning a bit more about people before you meet with them and in
staying in touch with people when they change positions. LinkedIn also provides simple ways to communicate with others, either all at once or direct person to person and I frequently hear from other CTOs via this path.  How do you
get started with LinkedIn?  Sign up for an account, fill in as much of
your bio as you are comfortable sharing, and follow the instructions to
find people you already know and connect with them. 

A site with a different but somewhat related functionality is Plaxo
and I also recommend you create an account there.  Plaxo specializes in
contact management.  You can keep your entire address book there. 
You can also synchronize Plaxo and LinkedIn so if one of your contacts
changes their information in LinkedIn it will update Plaxo.
Additionally, you can have your blog and your Twitter feed
automatically update Plaxo (many readers in the national security space
prefer to read blogs via Plaxo).   The way to get started here is to
log into Plaxo, create an account and upload your address book to it by
following your instructions.  Is that safe?  It is at least as safe as
having your address book on your own computer.  I’ve never had any
problems doing that.

Another key social media site is Facebook. 
A growing number of national security experts are using Facebook to
stay in touch with friends and associates.   It is also a good method
for communicating. You can send private messages to Facebook users and
can also send open messages to them by writing on their “wall”.  You
can configure Facebook to display your latest blog posts and twitter
feeds.   You can join up with Facebook from their site, and then
Facebook’s “friend finder” will help you find the right people to
connect to.

Now let’s continue our discussion on the article Mark
Lowenthal published.  In this case, if you had an opinion on his
content you could post a note at the Washington Post website, and I
noticed many did.  Because the Post is an old media powerhouse they
seem to publish most comments, which has the benefit of letting you see
a spectrum of thoughts.   You can also post comments in your own
blog.   I published my thoughts on Mark’s piece here. 
My blog automatically sent word to Twitter, Facebook and Plaxo when I
did.  It also automatically pinged some key blog search engines so they
could access my content.  Another friend of mine in the community
posted his views on his blog.  Other friends on Twitter began dialog
with me via that channel.  And other associates began an e-mail dialog
with me on the issues raised by Mark.   So within a matter of minutes
wide swaths of people were engaged in collaboration and discussion on
the topics Mark noted.

Perhaps the greatest power of new media,
however, is when it is used to accelerate new ideas that were not
identified by one of the greats like Mark.  For example, I recently
read a Twitter post from a thought leader in this new space named
Jeffrey Carr (see his Twitter Feed at http://www.twitter.com/jeffreycarr)   
He posted a short comment about a blog entry he wrote and said it
included “3D imaging and Virtual Earth – mind blowing video http://bit.ly/3SxtdA
”   His Twitter post alerted me and I checked out his blog and yes, he
was right.  I saw a YouTube video that was absolutely mind blowing and
of direct relevance to others in the national security space.  And the
video, frankly, could change things more dramatically and in a more
positive way that Mark Lowenthal’s well thought out piece ever could
(Jeffrey you rock!). So I’ll be blogging about Jeffrey and will be
talking about the capability he highlighted when I attend a major
intelligence conference next month.  Jeffrey’s other readers in the
national security space will also be considering the significance of
his posting and the result will likely be an acceleration of a
capability into the fabric of the national security apparatus, thanks
to social media.

Another example of the power of social media for
national security professionals is in coordinating action and
participation prior to conferences.  How do you decide which
conferences to attend?  I try to pulse experts to see who else is
going.  Once I make up my mind I let everyone I network with know I’ll
be there so they can advise me of their intentions and so we can
arrange side bar meetings as required. This is all so simple in the
world of social media like Twitter, Plaxo and Blogs.

So a key
benefit of Social Media for national security planners is to accelerate
good ideas, whether they be good ideas for policy or good ideas for
technology.  Social Media can also be leveraged to address the
information explosion by enabling people to enlist the capability of
others to seek out and bring the right information to your attention. 
These others can be crowds, random individuals, fields of experts or
trusted friends.  Which of these you leverage can vary from subject to
subject or task to task.

Is there a dark side for national
security?  What are the risks of social media?  Perhaps the greatest
risks are that we not fully engage in the power of these tools,
especially when adversaries are not constraining themselves.   But
there are risks to mitigate in our use of new media.  These include
risks to the confidentiality of ongoing operations and in some cases
risks to personal security.  By identifying these risks and taking
steps to address them now we can accelerate the use of new media faster
through the community.

I have personally encountered several
other examples, but it seems we have just scratched the surface on the
benefit of these capabilities to our nation’s security.  New thinkers
are pioneering paths that are already helping the nation come to grips
with some significant issues. With more participation by thinkers like
you the contributions of social media will likely grow in importance.  
So please, if you have not started engaging in social media sites yet,
jump in now.

Bob Gourley
http://ctovision.com

This entry was posted in Barak Obama, chief technology officer, Cloud, collaboration, CTO, Enterprise, Facebook, LinkedIn, obama, Social Computing, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology, Web 2.0, Web Services, Weblogs and tagged , , , , , .

The Future of Cyber Security and Cyber Conflict

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As I write this there is evidence that the Russian’s are once again
attacking another country through massive denial of service attacks. 
For a recap with analysis you will not see elsewhere see The Kyrgyzstan Cyber Attack That No One Is Talking About . 
This is not the first time that a major nation state has been accused
of launching attacks like this.  Russia has been implicated as responsible for two other large scale attacks (Estonia and Georgia).   In other
investigations China has been implicated of sponsoring/supporting
attacks designed to extract information.  These are very serious high
end attacks that are hard to mitigate, but organized crime is also
becoming increasingly capable, investing large amounts in R&D to
allow their continued ability to sap resources through cyber theft.  
In a recent example a payment processing company called Heartland
Security Systems admitted its security system had been breached and
millions of credit and debit card numbers were extracted.

I’ve previously written about the government’s response and many of us
have been strongly supportive of the efforts and activities of Melissa
Hathaway and the team of coordinators she assembled in government.  
Her approach has been viewed as very positive by all credible
observers and it is good to know she will be continuing to work to make
our nation safe in this area. 

It was also good to see the approach of the Obama team posted on the
Whitehouse.gov site.  In a homeland security policy statement six key
goals were articulated.  They are copied below:
   

    Protect Our Information Networks

    Barack Obama and Joe
    Biden — working with private industry, the research community and our
    citizens — will lead an effort to build a trustworthy and accountable
    cyber infrastructure that is resilient, protects America’s competitive
    advantage, and advances our national and homeland security. They will:

  • Strengthen Federal Leadership on Cyber Security:
    Declare the cyber infrastructure a strategic asset and establish the
    position of national cyber advisor who will report directly to the
    president and will be responsible for coordinating federal agency
    efforts and development of national cyber policy.

  • Initiate a Safe Computing R&D Effort and Harden our Nation’s Cyber Infrastructure:
    Support an initiative to develop next-generation secure computers and
    networking for national security applications. Work with industry and
    academia to develop and deploy a new generation of secure hardware and
    software for our critical cyber infrastructure.

  • Protect the IT Infrastructure That Keeps America’s Economy Safe: Work with the private sector to establish tough new standards for cyber security and physical resilience.

  • Prevent Corporate Cyber-Espionage:
    Work with industry to develop the systems necessary to protect our
    nation’s trade secrets and our research and development. Innovations in
    software, engineering, pharmaceuticals and other fields are being
    stolen online from U.S. businesses at an alarming rate.

  • Develop a Cyber Crime Strategy to Minimize the Opportunities for Criminal Profit:
    Shut down the mechanisms used to transmit criminal profits by shutting
    down untraceable Internet payment schemes. Initiate a grant and
    training program to provide federal, state, and local law enforcement
    agencies the tools they need to detect and prosecute cyber crime.

  • Mandate Standards for Securing Personal Data and Require Companies to Disclose Personal Information Data Breaches:
    Partner with industry and our citizens to secure personal data stored
    on government and private systems. Institute a common standard for
    securing such data across industries and protect the rights of
    individuals in the information age.

Another goal was in the Defense portion  of the Whitehouse.gov site which called for DoD to lead in operational defense.  It reads:

  • Protect the U.S in Cyberspace: The Obama-Biden
    Administration cooperate with our allies and the private sector to
    identify and protect against emerging cyber-threats.

My assessment of these seven goals:  This is too important for us to kibitz on at all.  Now is the time for us to all form up on these goals and execute.  Collectively we have to move faster in all these areas if we are to lesson the impact of the thinking/changing/technologically advanced adversaries that face us.  I only add that we should keep bold visions in mind.  I really believe that security and functionality of IT are totally connected and should always be considered in the same breath.  And both can be dramatically improved, this is not a zero sum game where functionality is compromised by security.  I believe our goal should be, as I’ve stated before, that the security and functionality of the federal enterprise will be improved by two orders of magnitude over the next 24 months.  And I believe the cyber and CTO team of the new administration can deliver on that.

I also believe that DoD will continue to have a key leadership roll in cyber, since increasingly that domain is being used by military adversaries and our own military must be able to operate with knowledge that their IT systems are safe from adversary attack.    

More later.

This entry was posted in Barak Obama, CCSA, chief technology officer, Cloud, Computer Security, Cyber Initiative, Cyber War, Enterprise, Hathaway, Network Security and tagged .

Steve Ballmer and Cloud Computing

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In this video Steve Ballmer shares some views on Cloud Computing and helps shed some light on why what we have now in most data centers is not really “cloud” computing in the technical sense.  

I think we all need to be ready to use the term two ways.  When talking to users and non-technical types we will probably always hear the term used to refer to anything that occurs in a different location, and this is the simplest definition of the term.  In that context, almost everything we have now is in “the cloud”.  But when we technologists use the term we are primarily talking about architectures specifically designed to support large scale, distributed, replicatable computing that is normally outside the “firewall.” 

This entry was posted in chief technology officer, Cloud, CTO, Disruptive IT, Enterprise, microsoft and tagged .

Federal Government Technology Directions and the Fed CTO

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Technologists in and out of government have been very excited about the work of the Obama transition team, especially the work of their technologists.   A group known as the TIGR (Technology, Innovation and Government Reform) Team has brought some of the best and brightest minds together to strategize and impact the action plans of the federal government.

We have now been treated to an insider’s view into the workings of this team.  The Change.gov website posted a 4 minute video introducing these thinkers and showing us some of the dialog underway.  See it below:

The video shows glimpses of the entire team, but features :

  • Vivek Kundra, CTO of Washington DC
  • Beth Noveck, Author and idea generator who has written on topics like “Wiki-Government”
  • Andrew McLaughlin, head of global policy and government for Google.
  • Dan Chenok, a former IT executive and Obama advisor.
  • Blair Levin, Telecom analyst and former FCC executive.

Watch the video to see them in action!  Listen for the term “mashups.”  And a good definition of cloud computing relevant to the federal enterprise.

For those who have made it a hobby to speculate on who Obama’s CTO will be, I think the answer now is that it almost doesn’t matter which of the nation’s great tech leaders will be selected.  We know whoever it is will stand on the shoulders of giants and will be served with a group of advisors who have mapped out a vision and an action plan for success (whoever it is, I just hope to have dinner with periodically to pick his or her brain and see how I can serve from the outside- I sure want to see them succeed).

Now things are about to get exciting!  Time for all of us to do what we can to ensure the visions of this group become reality.

This entry was posted in Apps for Democracy, chief technology officer, Cloud, collaboration, Computer Security, CTO, Disruptive IT, Enterprise, Google, Great CTOs, innovation, Mashup, R&D, Social Computing, standards, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology, Vivek Kundra, Web 2.0, Web/Tech and tagged , , , , , .

Government 2.0 Camp 27-28 March 2009 in DC

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Have you ever heard of an Unconference?

Have you ever heard of a BarCamp?

If these are new terms please read on, there are some important aspects of these concepts that CTOs should be familiar with.   And there is a specific BarCamp Unconference coming up 27-28 March in the DC area focused on Gov2.0 that I’ll mention below.

But first, back to those two terms.

An Unconference is a participant driven conference, normally facilitated, but never dictated.  Unconferences are centered around a theme or a purpose.  For more on Unconferences see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference

You can think of a BarCamp as a type of unconference.  BarCamps are a network of user generated conference that are open, participatory events based on workshops.  They have been commonplace in the open source community, but have also been applied in other areas, even political organizing.  For more history see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcamp   But if you really want to know what a BarCamp is, go to one and contribute and see how you can change the world.

A great opportunity to contribute is coming on 27 and 28 March.  The Government 2.0 Camp, organized by three widely followed experts in social media and collective action (Maxine Teller, Peter Corbett, Mark Drapeau) is a 100% participant planned, not-for-profit event that will bring together leading thinkers from government, academia and industry to share government 2.0 initiatives that are already in process and to collaborate about leveraging social media tools and Web2.0 technology to create a more efficient and effective government– Government 2.0.

Maxine Teller writes that:  “The
unconference format embodies these same collaborative principles as our
nation’s democracy–of the people, by the people, for the people–and
thus, is the ideal structure for the topic of Government 2.0.  This
event is a tremendous opportunity to practice what we preach and create
something better collectively than we could individually.“

This event will be happening at a great time.  The Obama administration will have been on scene long enough to have mapped out not only their strategy for the future but strengths, weaknesses and gaps in pursuit of their strategy.  With input from feds in the know, the attendees at this event may be able to help address gaps and contribute to the technology path of the nation in ways that are hard to predict, but likely very positive.     

To learn more about the event and to sign up for it (and to help plan for and sponsor it), see the event wiki at: http://barcamp.org/Government20Camp

To register for the event visit the site at: http://gov20camp.eventbrite.com

I hope to see you there. 

This entry was posted in Apps for Democracy, Barak Obama, chief technology officer, Cloud, collaboration, CTO, Disruptive IT, Enterprise, innovation, obama, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology, Vivek Kundra and tagged , , , , , , .

Cloud Computing and Net Centric Operations

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I’ve just posted a draft paper on my site on the topic of Cloud Computing and DoD’s Net Centric Operations.   My intent with this paper is to keep beating it up till it is in condition to publish, and I would value your comments on the paper.  Please check it out at:

13Jan2009_Computing_and_Net_Centric_Operations.pdf

One of the things I learned while pulling together this info is that honest people disagree, sometimes vehemently, on exactly what the term Cloud Computing means.  For that reason I recommend anyone writing or briefing the topic start with a definition right up front.  For the purposes of the paper I’m working on for DoD I mention two ways to look at the term.  For most users, they view anything done elsewhere as “cloud” computing.  For most technologists and architects they view “cloud computing” as a much more elegant term which implies new ways of providing capability on demand by use of virtualized resources, pools of storage and other scalable computational resources. 

Note, I’m very thankful to the dozens of friends and associates who have already commented on this paper.   Most initial dialog I had on the paper was via Twitter, which once again proved to me the value of that cloud based capability. 

Bob
 

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