Sunday, February 17, 2013

Cyber Wrapping

Susan Brenner has had published her article 'Cyber-threats and the Limits of Bureaucratic Control' published in MINN. J. L. SCI. & TECH. [Vol. 14:1] and downloadable from the link below. Susan's brief synopsis is available here: http://cyb3rcrim3.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/fyi-maybe-new-article-on-cyberthreats.html. A further link to material for review is here: University of Minnesota http://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/144222.

This is a very useful and informative article from Susan and sets out challenges about understanding the impact of 'cyber-' and how a "State" copes with control of such threats.

The marketplace is burgeoning with 'cyber courses' e.g. with content such as: "cyber attack and defense, digital analysis, computer forensics, security policies and strategies, risk analysis, ethical and legal issues, operational processes, cyber crime, and more" (http://www.excelsior.edu/web/news/college-news/-/blogs/five-cybersecurity-programs-certified-to-meet-the-nsa%E2%80%99s-committee-on-national-security-systems-cnss-training-standards) which appears to suggest cyber people have been unable to distinguish cyber as a platform of its own without subsuming e.g. computer forensics and therefore dismantling this job title and work in an attempt to top it.

My original thinking when getting to grips to understand what the cyber-people wanted to show when the approach started back in 2000 was that, irrespective of the technology, it is the fundamental messages/signals, instructions or information included and transmitted through electrical impulses, analogue/digital signalling and so on would complement existing investigatory, examination and forensics programmes and employment and tools. Instead, cyber appears to want to cast a veil over all of these mature approaches to make everything science/technology neutral and claim they are subsets of cyber.

Fundamentally, cyber is a subset to all forms of communication mediums, transmitters and receivers and the technology that interprets communications and signalling. Moreoever cyber-attack/crime/etc is a 50/50 proposition and a subset of "intention" (pragmatically and legally) and must be judged in that context when compared to a "mistake" where the person had no intention to generate an attack but an unwanted outcome occurs anyway.

Download: http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/144222/1/Cyber-Threats-by-Susan-Brenner-MN-Journal-Law-Science-Tech-Issue-14-1.pdf

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