Congressional Staff receives Cyber Security Update from Rsignia
Press Release
Contact: Simone Stanich FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel: 410-290-9697 ext.37
Fax: 410-290-9694
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Congressional Staff receives Cyber Security Update from Rsignia's Gary Woods (former Program Manager of US CERT Einstein Program) and Greg Garcia (former Assistant Secretary for Cyber Security for Department of Homeland Security)
July 20, 2009 – Rsignia, Inc. Corporate Headquarters, Columbia, MD
Washington, D.C./Cannon House Office Building – Following the recent attacks against the United States and South Korean networks a discussion on cyber security threats to the United States was initiated by Security for a New Century, a bipartisan study group for Congress. With the recent cyber attacks key questions were addressed such as what technology is available that can proactively block distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and other vulnerabilities, what capabilities for attributing the origins of cyber attacks are available and what policies exist to mitigate the impact when cyber attacks occur? In addition, how might these attacks affect relations between the U.S. and the countries where the attacks originate? Mr. Gary Woods, Cyber Security Specialist for Rsignia, Inc. and former senior computer scientist for CSC and former program manager for the Einstein Program, and Mr. Gregory Garcia, former assistant secretary for Cyber security and Telecommunications at the Department of Homeland Security and president of Garcia Strategies were invited to join the discussion.
Greg Garcia, the nation’s first Presidentially-appointed Assistant Secretary for Cyber Security and Communications (CS&C) for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2006 – 2008, noted that cyber security starts with everyone in the room after he took a poll to find that none of the Congressional staffers present had had basic cyber security training from the Capitol’s Chief Information Officer. He wondered what legislative and political secrets were they exposing to prying eyes because of careless desktop security practices. He went on to discuss the critical elements of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative that he helped develop during the Bush Administration, emphasizing that it was intended for the Federal government to lead by example and protect the “.gov “ domain from cyber attack. He also asserted that a successful cyber strategy requires collaboration between the government, business, academia and international partners, since the ownership and operation of the Internet and the vast interconnection of enterprise networks is widely distributed with no central control. Any regulatory approach on business, he concluded, is bound to fail, as it could not effectively anticipate evolutions in technology and associated threats, vulnerabilities and risk models.
Gary Woods, Cyber Security Specialist for Rsignia, Inc. spoke first about Cyber Forensics. Pointing out the similarities in a CSI investigation where the team gathers all of the information they can about the crime to include looking at the scene, reviewing surveillance cameras, and analyzing the body. He talked about the Green Zone in Iraq, which has several layers of defense to include checkpoints before someone can even get close to the gate. He advocated that like the Green Zone, our networks need several layers of defenses and must push further out into cyber space (on the SONET layer). Policy for this defense could include mandating that carriers offer such a service. He declared that we are in a state of Cyber War and we need to start responding as such. He affirmed funding is needed for companies focused on attribution and retribution. Policy is needed surrounding what level of pain can we inflict on people/computers who are attacking us. Currently it takes human intervention to terminate a connection and policy could automate our response if an attack occurred.
Mr. Woods and Mr. Garcia addressed the complexity of these attacks and how it is similar to saying “Stamp out Crime.” Crime is always going to be there and we are in the business of risk mitigation. Addressing a question surrounding the inherent flaws of the internet structure and should the protocols be more secure, both Greg and
Gary said that the protocols were fine but flaws in applications were a problem. With more emphasis put on developing code with security in mind, some of these problems take care of themselves.
About Security for a New Century
Security for a New Century is a bipartisan study group for Congress. They meet regularly with U.S. and international policy professionals to discuss the post-Cold War and post-9/11 security environment. All discussions are off-the-record. It is not an advocacy venue. For more information, write This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Rsignia formed as a solutions provider to meet security and infrastructure requirements of the federal and commercial market place. They have emerged as a leader in providing network security, protection, and digital assets monitoring and management. Through superior engineering, they provide custom solutions that address new and emerging security issues including lawful intercept and data forensics. Rsignia takes a full large-scale systemic architecture approach, with full understanding from front-end data acquisition to threat detection methods, a comprehensive solution, which fit your specific needs and requirements. They hold an active GSA schedule contract #GS35F0705P.
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If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Gary Woods, please contact Simone Stanich at 410-290-9697 ext. 37 or e-mail Simone at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text11777 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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