NSA has trouble recruiting cyber militia

Back in January 2011, I suggested that the U.S. could follow tiny Estonia's lead and create a "cyber militia," instead of relying exclusively on expensive defense contractors to fight cyber warfare.

I guess I was kind of prescient, considering that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden came from one of those contractors.  

Anyhow, now NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander is having a hard time convincing America's distrustful, trenchant hackers to help out Uncle Sam.  It didn't help his credibility this year that hackers now know, thanks to Snowden's leaks, that Gen. Alexander lied to them at the same Black Hat conference a year ago about the NSA's domestic spying.

NSA chief asks a skeptical crowd of hackers to help agency do its job

By Robert O’Harrow Jr.

August 1, 2013 | Washington Post

URL:  http://wapo.st/18NwZvc

U.S. moving to universal 'Net access too slowly

Obama's FCC is definitely taking steps in the right direction -- toward universal broadband Internet access -- but they are insufficient, especially given: 1) America's great wealth, population, and population dispersion; and 2) our ostensible competitive advantage in high-tech and knowledge-based industries.

A few far-sighted countries like Finland and Estonia, meanwhile, have enshrined the basic right to high-speed Internet access in their law and national constitution, respectively! Other EU countries seem to be headed that way, too....

You can't help but feel we are falling behind, and for no good reason.

F.C.C. Lifeline Program To Help Bridge Digital Divide, Chairman Julius Genachowski Says

By Gerry Smith

January 9, 2012 | Huffington Post

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/09/fcc-lifeline-program-digital-divide-julius-genachowski_n_1194780.html

Uncle Sam needs a cyber militia?

I thought this story was kind of cool. I'm glad tiny Estonia, a David to its belligerent Russian Goliath, has found a way to defend itself against hackers and cyber attackers.

The U.S. so far is fighting cyber warfare the Big Gubument way (albeit often through private contractors), whereas small Estonia is fighting cyber war the militia (you might even say, guerrilla) way, with volunteers (although they are considering instituting a conscript service). The U.S. could do it both ways, why not? As one commenter on this story asked online, why hasn't the U.S. Government simply asked them for help, instead of assuming that all private IT experts are "distrustful" and "standoffish?"

I don't think it's just that; I think it's partly the USG's over reliance on secret clearances, and the cumbersome process of granting them. As the NYT's Nicholas Kristof recently noted, there are more U.S. citizens with "top secret" clearance than there are residents of Washington, DC.


Volunteer Cyber Army Emerges In Estonia
By Tom Gjelten
January 4, 2010 | Morning Edition on NPR

URL: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/04/132634099/in-estonia-volunteer-cyber-army-defends-nation