06.20.11

Banksters want cyber-help

Posted in Cyberterrorism at 1:34 pm by George Smith

From the wire:

Professional hacker Nicholas Percoco received an unusual request from a major financial institution this week: How can you help us avoid becoming the next Citigroup Inc?

Amid a wave of cyber attacks on Citi, the International Monetary Fund and other institutions, Percoco and his team at security firm Trustwave Holdings Inc are fielding more and more calls from banks wanting to stress-test their online defenses.

Again, cybersecurity is wanted by the halves — the plutocrat US multinationals — not because they’re thinking ahead about it being sound business. But now because they don’t like the cyber-paupers being into their stuff. Particularly when it’s embarrassing big news.

It’s another aspect of the detaching of security interests from the national welfare. Security, from the US military down to the grass roots of the Internet, is for protecting the haves from the have-nots.

It does not preserve or make better prospects for average Americans. Bombing paupers doesn’t promote living standards and boost wages for anyone not directly connected to that industry. And securing Vikram Pandit doesn’t even remotely chip away at unemployment.

A year ago I found intrinsically hilarious the argument, used by cyberwar and cyberdefense salesmen, that the American financial system had to be protected at all costs.

Most Americans, around the same time, were feeling (and still feel) a bit different. They think, justifiably, that they need protection from the American financial sector.

Long range, this brings into view the problem of what to do when there’s no popular interest in defending you, even if it’s — like — against the law to break into giant banks and multi-national businesses via cyberspace. What happens when more people believe in “you had it coming” than the rule of law?

Your security problems intensify, if only because the paupers in your organization, the people you’ve beggared through wage compression and outsourcing, no longer have total interest in defending the turf they work on. And they may be some of your IT staff.

You can always hire mercenaries. But it’s not a perfect solution. You’re always going to be looking over your shoulder.

For example, it’s now not hard to find a certain Schadenfreude, perhaps even outright glee, over the problems of Citi or Sony at the hands of hacking groups.

As contempt and dismay spread through the empire’s network it becomes even more difficult to secure. One of the symptoms of the disease of decline and fall is when security is only called for and dearly important when the wealthy want it to keep others from taking bits of their stuff and causing public humiliation.

The stories on the Bitcoin speculator who couldn’t keep the malware from stealing part of his wealth.

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