OAS Cyber Security Workshop

This week in Rio de Janiero three entities of the Organization of American States are joined by the Government of Brazil in a workshop on cybersecurity. Representatives from the legal, telecommunications and counter-terrorism units of the OAS (REMJA, CITEL and CICTE) along with representatives from nearly all 34 countries of the OAS are discussing the steps necessary to establihs an implement a national cybersecurity framework.

Tune in and watch. Live meeting link here.

I am moderating panel eight on Wednesday.

Open Source Software and Security

Many of the issues in cyber security, malware, viruses, etc centers on the vulnerability of proprietary software (e.g. Windows and its family of programs) to code flaws that bad guys can exploit. Proprietary software uses a closed development model where the source code (the inner workings) is guarded by the designer. Open Source (see Linux) on the other hand lets anyone see and add to the code. The theory being that the collective intelligence is greater than any one individual and the potential flaws can be detected and corrected by the forum of users. And the code is made available for free!

What then is the drawback? Mostly it is perception. If it is free it can't be as good or as secure as the one I paid a lot of money to get. A recent memorandum from the US Department of Defense's Chief Information Officer is an effort to debunk that idea. The memo implies that software that has undergone a peer review process is often more secure than proprietary models. It encourages agencies to consider open source in future procurements. It goes on to state that open source software may be modified at will as the need changes in the future.

For more info check out this article at Nextgov.com

Call for papers

The Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (www.ndu.edu/CHDS) is planning its next Sub-Regional Security Conference to be held in June 2010. The conference focuses on security issues affecting Mesoamerica (Colombia, Central America, and Mexico). The Center has issued a call for abstracts based on the conference themes:

1. Area 1: Causes and effects of the insecurity, criminality and violence in the region and its impact on society
2. Area 2: What has been the response and impact of response by individuals. governments, and NGO's?
3. Area 3: What programs, processes, legal changes, etc. could be taken to improve the effectiveness of the fight against violence?

The papers selected will be presented at the conference, with travel funding provided by the Center.

Get more information at http://www.ndu.edu/chds/docUploaded/SRCMexico2010.pdf