[ISN] At Black Hat, a search for the best response to China

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9151018/At_Black_Hat_a_search_for_the_best_response_to_China_?taxonomyId=17

By Patrick Thibodeau
Computerworld
February 2, 2010

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Google's revelation last month that attacks out of 
China resulted in the theft of some of its data drew attention to the 
broader question at the Black Hat conference here over what can be done 
to the villains.

Cyberattacks give rise to anger and a very human desire to strike back, 
but pursuing attackers in ways that matter isn't accomplishing much. The 
number of people who are arrested and convicted for any of the phishing 
attacks, intrusions and thefts is tiny.

Several countries, Russia and China in particular, don't want to 
cooperate on cybersecurity enforcement, said Andrew Fried, a security 
researcher at the Internet Systems Consortium, a nonprofit group, and a 
former special agent at the U.S. Treasury Department. "The reality is 
they don't want to do squat to help anybody," he said, on a panel at the 
cybersecurity conference today.

After an attack, such as the China-Google incident, there's always 
interest in establishing "attribution" - identifying the source of the 
attack. But Jeff Moss, the founder of Black Hat and director of the 
conference, questioned whether too much emphasis is placed on that 
effort. Moss also serves on the Department of Homeland Security's 
security advisory council.

"We should be spending more energy on dealing with the containment of an 
attack, reducing the effects of an attack," Moss said. "I don't think we 
will ever be able to stop the attack."

[...]


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