Government Technology - October 2007 - (Page 50)

signal: noise BY PAU L W. TAYLOR CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER CENTER FOR DIGITAL GOVERNMENT index Jurisdictions/Agencies: j Awarelessness verything we know about cybersecurity we learned on YouTube. Not exactly, but a video contest for college students tapped the current YouTube zeitgeist in an attempt to move the needle in the long, hard slog that is cyber-security awareness. A pair of videos took top honors in the “30 Second Public Service Announcement” genre of the 2007 Computer Security Awareness Video Contest, conducted by the EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force, the National Cyber Security Alliance and the ResearchChannel. The silver award recognized a subtly sardonic PSA, Whoa, That’s Awkward, by a Dartmouth College student featuring a hapless library patron whose laptop is overtaken by an E of Management and Budget called the Top Ten Risks Impeding the Adequate Protection of Government Information. In it, E-Government and Information Technology Administrator Karen Evans itemizes common mistakes, including inadequate IT controls. The first in the list encapsulates the other nine in a single, simple sentence — “Security and privacy training is inadequate and poorly aligned” — which brings us back to national awareness month. Awareness campaigns have a certain truthfulness to them, insofar as they project what we wish were true despite what appears to be a purposeful ignorance, or as The Colbert Report’s The Wørd might conjure it: “awarelessness.” If awareness were going to work, it would have worked by now. It’s just a hunch, but Belgium 32 China 14 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 14, 20 Federal Emergency Management Agency 40 Hoboken, N.J 46 Hong Kong 32 New York City 46 North Carolina 40 Pasco County, Florida 38 Portugal 32 School District of Philadelphia 18 Sweden 32 U.S. Geological Survey 40 Washington, D.C. 46 West Virginia Department of Education 42 Vendors: Augmentix 48 Automotion Parking Systems 46 Datalux 48 Dewberry 40 Ford 38 Google 14, 20 Konami Corp. 42 L&S Coaches 38 Microsoft 18 Toshiba 48 Windows 30 Xerox 48 Yahoo 30 Awareness campaigns have a certain truthfulness to them, insofar as they project what we wish were true despite what appears to be a purposeful ignorance … endless sequence of embarrassing malware ads. The gold went to a more serious and stylized University of Delaware student entry called Avoid Infection. The video played on the metaphor of organic infections in a manner reminiscent of the ominous black-and-white films schools once played in health class. The videos are on message with the allied but officially unrelated National Cyber Security Awareness month — turning on firewalls, turning off computers when not in use and keeping anti-viral software updated in between. The videos may be the bright light in the fourth annual month of cyber-security awareness. For proof that such messages still have not penetrated organizations that should know better, look no further than a July 2007 memo to federal government agencies from the Office the people and organizations refreshing their cyber-security initiatives this month are likely the same ones that made a point of reviewing their readiness contingencies during National Preparedness Month in September. Volunteer efforts only get so far. Absent incentives for good behavior or sanctions against bad behavior, all the safe computing messages in the world will be lost on people who prefer the freedom of computing naked. Our collective “awarelessness” suggests that we don’t have four years of cybersecurity awareness, we have one year of awareness four times. LINKS TO THE WINNING AWARENESS VIDEOS ARE AVAILABLE AT Advertisers Index Alcatel 13 Brother 37 CDW.G 35 Dell 17 ESRI 44 Gateway 2-3 GTSI 23 Hewlett-Packard 9, 25, 52 NetOp Tech 5 NIC 26-27 Sungard 15 Symantec 29 Tessco 7 OCT_07 50 http://WWW.RESEARCHCHANNEL.ORG/securityvideo2007/index.asp http://WWW.RESEARCHCHANNEL.ORG/securityvideo2007/index.asp http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - October 2007

Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile GT Spectrum Letters How It Works Cerf on the Net Way Back Machine Separation Anxiety Let's Roll Rising to the Challenge Wednesday Afternoon Fever Parking Possibilities Products Signal: Noise

Government Technology - October 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.