What started US cyber security? The 1983 movie War Games?

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to Hamid Hussain for a review of Fred Kaplan's new book 'Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War', for this passage:

It was a 1983 movie War Games that prompted President Ronald Reagan to ask Pentagon if someone could break into Department of Defense (DOD) computers and tamper with missile launch. Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Vessey came back a week with the answer that the problem was much worse than they thought. This prompted the first attempts of cyber security.
(Later) Dark Territory is a good book about the history of cyber security and vulnerabilities. It gives a glimpse about how increasing complexity also increases the vulnerabilities.

IIRC there are other examples of how outsiders publicly expose insecurity, sometimes with the help of Hollywood. Plus a decision-maker asks WTF. Well done to President Reagan.

Many excellent reviews on:http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Territory...y+of+cyber+war

[AmericanPride]

Dark Territory is definitely a good and interesting read, though it is definitely an introductory book on the subject.

[AdamG]

The U.S. Cyber Command will conduct large-scale military exercises this week simulating cyber attacks against critical U.S. infrastructure, and the war games will highlight the growing threat posed by foreign states capable of crippling the electrical grid and financial networks through digital attacks.

The exercise, known as Cyber Guard 16, is the latest annual war game involving scores of military personnel and civilians at the Fort Meade-based command. Other players will include officials from the Pentagon, FBI, Homeland Security Department, and private industry.

“Cyber Guard offers a fascinating, realistic (but not predictive) scenario of a cyber attack of significant consequence on U.S. critical infrastructure,” Maj. Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of the command’s National Mission Force, said last week.

Nakasone, whose mission team is tasked with defending military networks, also is in charge of the military unit that would be called in to counter and respond to a cyber attack on elements of critical infrastructure.

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...y-threat-grid/

[selil]

Well... Regan was a nice guy. But, War-games and Regan were not the start of cybersecurity. There were earlier examples (such as the Ware Report c. 1969/1979) and others. All of the Rainbow books were started because of issues of systems being compromised.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R609-1/index2.html