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New Cyberspace Bill Proposed to Combat DDoS and Other Attacks

Written by Stefan Fouant

Responding to the firestorm of attacks being launched against Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, and other major institutions, various members of the US Government continue to press for dramatic legislation that would put the pulse of dealing with Cyberspace policy squarely within the White House.

All of this started with the infamous "Cablegate" incident on November 28th, 2010 when Wikileaks began releasing a large number of private communiqués belonging to members of the US State Department.

A hacktivist known as the Jester launched an application layer attack successfully targeting Wikileaks and bringing it down indefinitely. In addition, Amazon, Visa, Mastercard and several other organizations began to sever relationships with Wikileaks leaving them little options for successfully continuing operations. Retaliation ensued and a group known as Anonymous Operations likewise launched their own DDoS attacks against these companies in retribution for supporting the censorship of Wikileaks.

In response to this recent spate of cyber attacks, Senator Tom Carper from Delaware released a press release calling for more protections to people and companies operating on the Internet. Carper, a key author of the legislation, along with Senators Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Susan Collins of Maine, is calling for the government and the private sector to begin working together more closely to address the growing threats faced by all organizations conducting business online.

PRESS RELEASE:

WASHINGTON – Today, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following statement in response to the retaliatory cyber attacks on the websites of select companies and organizations recently involved with Wikileaks, including MasterCard and Visa:

“Today’s events, once again, underscore the necessity for more robust cybersecurity efforts in the United States. Time and time again, hackers have demonstrated their ruthless yet effective techniques to attack critical cyber networks, and today they used those sophisticated techniques to bring down two financial giants in MasterCard and Visa. Whether it’s cyber crime or cyber terrorism, clearly the United States needs effective leadership from the federal government to successfully combat these kinds of attacks and mitigate the damage. Legislation I’ve authored along with Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, does just that. This bipartisan bill is a vital tool that America needs to better protect cyber space. It encourages the government and the private sector to work together to address this growing threat and provides the tools and resources for America to be successful in this critical effort.”

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 would create an Office of Cyber Policy in the White House with a director accountable to the public who would lead all federal cyberspace efforts and devise national cyberspace strategy. A National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications within the Department of Homeland Security, also led by a director accountable to the public, would enforce cybersecurity policies throughout the government and the private sector. The bill would also establish a public/private partnership to set national cyber security priorities and improve national cyber security defenses.

Sources:WGMD, InfoSecIsland

About Stefan Fouant

Stefan Fouant is a Technical Trainer and JNCP Proctor at Juniper Networks with over 15 years of experience in the networking industry. His background includes launching an industry-first DDoS Mitigation and Detection service at Verizon Business, as well as building customized solutions for various mission-critical networks. He holds several patents in the areas of DDoS Detection and Mitigation, as well as many industry certifications including CISSP, JNCIE-M, JNCIE-ER, and JNCIE-SEC.