Category: Journal ISSN 1078-1935

Posted on

Worth a Look: Assorted Headlines…

Worth A Look
DefDog Recommends...

PAKISTAN: Of Taliban and floods

Russia raises its price to rescue Nato from Afghan quagmire

Your COIN Is No Good Here

China Wrests Supercomputer Title From U.S.

Big ideas are emerging from small countries

Armed with new treaty, Europe amplifies objections to U.S. data-sharing demands

Was Estonian Town The Mother Of All Russian Hacker Networks?

Phi Beta Iota: In our view, cyber-security must be a pervasive endeavor that begins with solid code and goes from there.  That is not how the US is approaching the problem, hence the US will fail, at great expense, to achieve the outcome we all require.  The latter article also highlights Gandhi's observation that idle minds will make mischief.  Full employment for all is a huge part of making security for all achievable.

Posted on

Journal: Pentagon Network Attacks–Cloud Truth?

10 Security, Computer/online security, IO Sense-Making, Military, Officers Call
DefDog Recommends...

Despite Scare Talk, Attacks on Pentagon Networks Drop

Listen to the generals speak, and you’d think the Pentagon’s networks were about to be overrun with worms and Trojans. But a draft federal report indicates that the number of “incidents of malicious cyber activity” in the Defense Department has actually decreased in 2010. It’s the first such decline since the turn of the millennium.
Click on Image to Enlarge

In the first six months of 2010, there were about 30,000 such incidents, according to statistics compiled by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Last year, there were more than 71,000. “If the rate of malicious activity from the first half of this year continues through the end of the year,” the commission notes in a draft report on China and the internet, “2010 could be the first year in a decade in which the quantity of logged events declines.”

The figures are in stark contrast to the sky-is-falling talk coming out of the Beltway.

“Over the past ten years, the frequency and sophistication of intrusions into U.S.military networks have increased exponentially,” Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn wrote in a recent issue of Foreign Affairs.

Full Article Online….

See Also:

2010: OPINION–America’s Cyber Scam

Posted on

Journal: Putin to Obama–Stay in Afghanistan + RECAP

02 China, 03 India, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Corporations, Government, History, Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace Intelligence, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy
Chuck Spinney Sounds Off....

Mikhail  Gorbachev, who has been neutralized by the succession of Russian rulers, especially Putin) has just advised President Obama to get out of Afghanistan.  Jonathan Steele suggests here (also attached below) that Obama ought to heed that advice, because Obama is in a similar albeit somewhat worse position than Gorbachev was in 1985-6.

Analogies are dangerous, because they can capture your thinking and take you off the cliff.  But here goes.

If Steele's analogy is accurate, it suggests some pregnant ramifications that are not addressed directly by Steele:  Russia (Putin and Medvedev) appear to be helping US/Nato in Afghanistan with training programs and by providing access routes for northern logistics lines of communication.  This cooperation serve both parties by improving relations in the short term, but it also helps US/Nato stay on its disastrous course in Afghanistan.  Are there other reasons why would Putin, an ardent nationalist, would what the US to remain stuck in Russia's backyard?

Russia needs help in staunching spillover of Sunni radicalism into its Moslem areas and its Central Asian sphere of influence (a variation of the original reason USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979).  The US war on the Taliban serves that interest. So from Putin's point of view, keeping US/Nato bogged down in Afghanistan serves Russian national interests for free.

Putin, a former member of the KGB and an ardent nationalist, certainly knows the US fomented Sunni extremism in Afghanistan to sucker the Soviets into invading Afghanistan with the aimed of bogging the USSR down in its own VietNam-like quagmire (a policy proudly acknowledged by President Carter's National Security Advisor,Zbigniew Brzezinski in his notorious interview in Le Nouvel Observateur, January 1998). Putin must also know that the US/Nato engagement in Afghanistan, is (1) a huge resource drain that is weakening US economically and militarily, as well as  (2) weakening the bonds giving the US political control over its Nato allies.  From his point of view, these two outcomes would certainly improve Russia's relative power with respect to Europeans (especially Germany) and in the world, at the expense of the US.  Moreover, in Putin's eyes, these outcomes might seem to be justified as payback to the US.  After all, did not the US unleash the Islamic radicalism with its efforts to maneuver the USSR into Afghanistan in 1979 and did not the US humiliate Russia by the exploiting Russia's economic misery and military weaknesses, after Gorbachev had done the the US and the West a huge favor by precipitating collapse of the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War without bloodshed?

So, who should Obama and his advisors listen to?  Putin the nationalist and go for a short term political gain at expense of remaining stuck in the quagmire that serves Russia's interests, or Gobachev the statesman who advises Obama to bite the bullet and absorb short-term political pain to gain long term benefits of exiting a quagmire that is weakening the US economically and militarily?

Of course the war advocate could counter by saying this is based on an analogy run amok.  We are not making the gross mistakes the Soviets made in Afghanistan, and besides, it is cutting and running that weakens us.  After all, Gobachev is just an old man who refuses to see that his time has past and is struggling futilely to remain relevant.

Russia's Afghan agenda | Jonathan Steele

guardian.co.uk 10/27/10 10:00 PM Jonathan Steele

Gorbachev has valuable advice for the US on the war in Afghanistan that Putin would rather he keep to himself

The surprise in this week's reports that Russia is planning to help Nato in Afghanistan by training Afghan helicopter pilots is that people are surprised. Memories are short, it seems, for the shift in Moscow's line came as early as July last year during Barack Obama's first summit in the Kremlin.

Designed to press the “reset” button after east-west tempers flared over the war in Georgia, the meeting ended with several agreements, the most dramatic of which was Russia's nod for the US to send military supplies across Russian territory to its forces in Afghanistan. Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin wanted to give Obama a reward for taking a calmer view of Russia than George Bush, in particular for accepting Georgia's share of blame in the South Ossetian crisis and for cancelling the most provocative aspects of Bush's missile defence scheme which Moscow viewed as a threat.

Read rest of Jonathan Steele's article….

See Also (RECAP)

Continue reading “Journal: Putin to Obama–Stay in Afghanistan + RECAP”

Posted on

Journal: It Takes a Comic (or Two)…to Rebuild a Nation

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence

Thousands to Voice Frustrations at Stewart and Colbert Rally

Those Planning to Attend Fed Up By American Politics, Want to Laugh

By MAYA SRIKRISHNAN and JENNIFER SCHLESINGER

ABC News Oct. 28, 2010

From across the country – and Canada – thousands of supporters are expected in Washington to attend Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's “Rally to Restore Sanity” and “March to Keep Fear Alive” this Saturday.

More than 220,000 people have RVSP'd that they are attending on the event's official Facebook page. The National Park Service application, however, only estimated 25,000 people would attend the event, which is scheduled to last from noon to 3 p.m.

The rally is billed as a chance for people to voice their frustrations with American politics and the media, and, of course, be entertained.

– – – – – – –

“I don't think people are going to the rally because they are liberal or conservative,” Wilford said. “It's not about political ideology, but about the way politics are being sold.”

– – – – – – –

“Coming from an outsider, it sounds like Americans are constantly being told to be afraid, but they aren't being told what to be afraid of. Despite the fact that Jon Stewart is a TV host and the rally is based on a platform on comedy, I feel that Jon Stewart has more to say about politics than any pundit.”

– – – – – –

“I personally have been frustrated with what I view as a lot of hypocrisy in politics,” Miko Wilford, a 24-year-old psychology graduate student from Iowa State University said. “I feel ‘The Daily Show' and the ‘Colbert Report‘ do a good job of pointing out the hypocrisies.”

– – – – – – –

“I think it's time we restored truth and civility in this country. Our politicians need to acknowledge that this generation is beyond right-left categories.”

– – – – – – –

“The rally appeals to me because I agree with the underlying premise, that the tiny percentage of people screaming at each other on television should not be the only voices we're paying attention to,” said Alexis Sigger, a 32-year-old television producer who is coming from Brooklyn for the rally.

See full (three screen) article….

Posted on

Reference: Open Source Civilization

03 Economy, 04 Education, 06 Family, 11 Society, About the Idea, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Peace Intelligence
Open to See the Future

Phi Beta Iota: We cannot say enough good things about these folks.  This is righteous good stuff–eight times cheaper than industrial offerings, virtually no “true cost” externalities, interchangeable parts, human scale, the whole enchilada.

Tip of the Hat to Brandin Watson at Facebook.

Posted on

Journal: Building Information Modeling as the Core of Sustainable Design Impacts on 40% of Global Energy Consumption

Analysis, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Geospatial, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Mapping, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Policies, Reform, Strategy, Threats
Published October 27, 2010

OAKLAND, CA — Building information modeling can be a valuable tool for architects, engineers and contractors that allows them to explore different design options, see what projects will look like and understand how a structure will perform long before it's built.

BIM, as it's known in the industry, also can help building owners and operators throughout a structure's lifecycle by providing visual context to performance-related data, retrofit plans and other projects intended increase energy efficiency.

In a webcast on Tuesday moderated by GreenBiz.com Executive Editor Joel Makower, representatives for design software giant Autodesk, DPR Construction and the consulting engineering firm Glumac talked about “How Building Information Modeling Solutions Transform Sustainable Design.”

– – – – – – –

Increased costs of energy, ongoing challenges posed by the economy and concerns about sustainability, market demands, occupany and eventual regulation of carbon output combine to make building owners, operators and managers increasingly aware of how their properties perform — and compare with others.

Those issues and the availability of state and federal incentives are powerful drivers to improve portfolios. “Not surprisingly, large multinational companies are getting their buildings in order,” Deodhar said.

Examples include Walmart, which will retrofit 500 buildings this year, Marriott, whose hotel chain includes 275 hotels that bear the Energy Star label, and Starbucks, which by the close of the year will begin to seek LEED certification for all new company-owned stores around the world.

Globally, buildings account for about 40 percent of energy consumption and more than 200 million buildings are candidates for efficiency improvements, Deodhar said. But optimizing a building's environmental performance requires incorporating interrelated factors, such as location, orientation, internal systems, how the building is used and other variables, into design.

Read full article (long and valuable)

Phi Beta Iota: This is the kind of project we had in mind for DIA/DO (Directorate of Open Sources & Methods).  Apart from DoD being the biggest gorilla on the planet where any improvement can be measured in billions of dollars, this is the tip of the “true cost” iceberg and a success here could be immediately extended to every aspect of acquisition across all mobility, weapons, and other systems, over to the rest of the federal government, down to state and local, and out to the world.   In the 21st Century design is intelligence, intelligence is design, and intelligent design, not weapons, is the influencer most likely to achieve the desired outcome.

Posted on

Journal: Technology Can Save Feds $1T in 10 Years

03 Economy, 09 Justice, 10 Security, Computer/online security, Government
content by Greener World Media

By GreenerComputing Staff at Greener World Media

Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:00am EDT

Throughout this highly charged election season, government spending and the federal deficit have been a linchpin of political arguments. At the same time, a gridlocked Congress means that very little has been accomplished despite all the debate.

But a report published earlier this month highlights seven ways that, using existing technologies, the federal government could save $100 billion dollars a year for the next 10 years, not-insignificant portion of the current federal deficit.

The report, “One Trillion Reasons,” was published by the Technology CEO Council, a group chaired by IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano. It lays out how technologies from data center management to fraud-fighting tools can improve efficiency and productivity in the government.

– – – – – –

Initiative 1: Consolidate Information Technology Infrastructure
Initiative 2: Streamline Government Supply Chains
Initiative 3: Reduce Energy Use
Initiative 4: Move to Shared Services for Mission-Support Activities.
Initiative 5: Apply Advanced Business Analytics to Reduce Improper Payments.
Initiative 6: Reduce Field Operations Footprint and Move to Electronic Self-Service.
Initiative 7: Monetize the government's assets

Read Full Article

Download Report (10 Page PDF)

Tip of the Hat to Bob Gourley at LinkedIn.

noble gold