FUTURE FUSION OF Wi-Max and WiFi

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CASE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL COMPUTER
EMERGENCY READINESS TEAM (CERT)
By Emmanuel E. Ekuwem, PhD, MIEEE, NPOM CEO,
Teledom Group Immediate past national President,
Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria
(ATCON) info_at_teledominternational.net
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Key Terms Expressions

• Cyberspace
• Movement to where we are
• Vulnerabilities
• Incident Simulation Mock Incident
• Proactive Strategy
• Reactive Strategy
• Inter-CERT Collaboration
• World Wide Watch and Warning (WWWW)

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CERT Raison detre-1

• The objective of this paper is not to convert the
  converted to belief in CERT
• It is not to convince the ICT professionals
• It is definitely not to convince the telcos,
  ISPs, banks, universities, corporate
  organisations, ICT-compliant MDAs, defence
  establishment, etc

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CERT Raison detre-2

• This paper is aimed at selling the
  desirability/indispensability of a National CERT
  or a CERT to our national leadership and the
  leadership of the listed institutions and
  orgnisations.
• It is about bringing CERT to the UNAWARE selling
  CERT to the reluctant.
• It is about subduing turf protectionism Heads of
  MDAs for the national good and security.

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CERT Raison detre-3

• The paper is about amplifying the CERT
  consciousness of complacent institutions
• It is about establishing a coalition of the
  willing to START a CERT for their mutual cyber
  security.
• It is also about GROWING A CERT by attracting the
  unwilling or the reluctant or the complacent via
  the evident benefits of a CERT

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CERT Raison detre-4

• A CERT can be started by a group of organisations
  and institutions for their mutual cyber security
  needs the same grows in size, scope, scale,
  usefulness, strategic importance and relevance to
  naturally attract the attention and interest of
  governments to want to be involved, control,
  regulate and fund.
• A National CERT becomes a fait accompli via a
  grown CERT or CERTs by the coalition of willing
  organisations and institutions.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-1

• Nigerian Territorial Integrity breached?..........
  .external aggression an act of WAR the enemy
  will suffer the fire power of the Nigerian Army!
• Nigerias Airspace infringed on/trespassed?
  ..an act of WAR the Nigerian Air Force will in
  seconds clear the Nigerian airspace of invading
  airplanes.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-2

• Nigerian Territorial waters infringed upon by
  foreign navies an act of WAR. The Nigerian Navy
  will rise to defend the Fatherland ..sink all
  invading warships in seconds!
• Internal criminal activities, violent and
  non-violent, the Nigeria Police Force will
  dutifully ensure law and order restore the peace.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-3

• Internal criminal and violent uprising,
  insurrection and insurgency, etc,.. an act of
  internal aggression against the Fatherland.
  Combined teams of the Army, Air Force, Navy and
  Police will bring the situation quickly under
  control.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-4

• The President and Commander-in-Chief, via the
  National Assembly if the specific emergency
  situation permits, orders the Service Chiefs to
  roll out their troops and defend the Fatherland
  against aggression external or internal

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-5

• The President and Commander-in-Chief orders
• National Security Adviser
• Chief of Defence staff
• Chief of Army Staff
• Chief of Air Staff
• Chief of Naval Staff
• Inspector General of Police (Chief of Police
  Staff)

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-6

• Where is the CHIEF OF CYBER STAFF in all this?
• Threat from Cyberspace is NO THREAT to NATIONAL
  SECURITY
• TRAGIC ignorance
• The ICT professionals, institutions and
  organisations have not sold the threat posed by
  an insecure cyberspace to national security well
  to the political leaders.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-7

• Chief of Cyber Staff is non existent because
  cyberspace as a source a real aggression and
  threat to national security is not yet fully
  understood by our political leadership.
• Conventional battles on land, in air and on water
  will be won or lost based on victory or defeat,
  as the case may be in the cyber battles that
  precedes those battles of conventional wars.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-8

• Ideas are the building blocks of a creative
  society
• A creative society is necessarily dynamic
• The quantum of ideas and body of knowledge of a
  preceding generation engendered the present.
• The present generation uses the acquired
  knowledge to bore into new knowledge via research
  and development and transmits same to the
  succeeding generation.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-9

• The quality of thoughts and ideas, as building
  blocks of a creative society are successively
  higher from one generation to the other.
• There are as many sources of knowledge as there
  human beings, institutions, organisations and
  settlements.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-10

• These sources of knowledge were, before the
  advent of computers, were scattered and
  isolated. Access to them was physical.
• Computers, computer networks and
  telecommunication networks enabled the local,
  wide-area, national and global networking of
  computers into a global network of networks, the
  Internet.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-11

• The Internet and the seamless national and global
  telecommunications network, cellular and fixed,
  have resulted in the information superhighway we
  have today.
• This has enabled high speed access to remote
  sources of knowledge in desktop computers,
  laptops, cellphones, servers, etc with high
  computing/data processing power.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-12

• The resultant global network enables high speed
  access to knowledge, transmission of knowledge
  and translation of acquired knowledge into
  productive ventures to boost productivity
  locally.
• This is the individuals or companys or agencys
  or nations competitive edge.

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-13

• ICT therefore is to the national economy what the
  nervous system is to the human body
• Electric power is the national economy what food
  is to the human body
• CERT is a national Cyberspace defence and
  management agency

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Cyberspace as Secure as Weakest Point
Access Devices
Access Devices
GSM/CDMA phone PDA Land line Tabletop Fixed
Wireless (CDMA/GSM) WiFi Mobile WiMAX Phone
Skype Handset Laptop Desktop

• Copper Wire
• Optic Fibre
• Wireless
• (radio)
• Laser
• Visible light
• Infra-red
• VSAT
• Terrestrial
• Microwave
• etc

International Conference on Cyber crime, DBI,
Abuja '2010
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Case for CERT Cyberspace-14

• Imagine what will happen if one day we wake up
  from sleep to hear that
• A banks or group of banks customers databases
  have been wiped out or tampered with?
• A telecom operators subscriber database has been
  corrupted or wiped out?
• An Air Traffic Controls has been corrupted to
  warrant allocation of similar or conflicting
  altitudes to aircrafts in landing sequence?

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Case for CERT Cyberspace-15

• We must not forget the Israeli-Syrian airspace
  conflict.
• We must not forget the Estonia incident

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Case for CERT Recommendations-1

• 1. Sector-specific enlightenment and awareness
  workshops or stakeholders fora for
• Banks, including Insurance, CNB, SEC, NSE, NDIC,
  PENCOM, etc
• Telecommunications
• Petroleum
• Defence establishment
• Government MDAs
• Academia
• National Assembly
• Aviation Industry

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Case for CERT Recommendations-2

• 2. Pilot CERT or Proof of Concept CERT for the
  coalition of the willing institutions.
• Universities
• Banks, CBN, SEC, NSE, PENCOM, NDIC
• Telecom Operators, ISPs and other willing ICT
  companies.
• Petroleum companies
• Aviation Industry

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Case for CERT Recommendations-3

• Discouragement of under-reporting of cyber
  security incidents let us know who or what
  institution is being attacked, when, where, when,
  for what, for how long and by who?

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Thank You