CSO

Last week a friend of mine went to testify before congress on a topic completely un-related to Critical Infrastructure Protection.  As is usual in the legislative branch, the hearing was focused on a relatively controversial topic where the committee was evaluating regulating a particular industry that to-date has gone without significant government intervention for quite some time.   His testimony to the committee recommended that the committe evaluate the beginnings of regulation for the industry. 
 
My friend knew that his comments would be controversial, and that he would face potential public ridicule from those who oppose his viewpoints.  He did not expect what he found when he returned home.
 
When logging on to his computer upon his return to the office he was confronted with a significant amount of interesting emails.  One of them contained a malicious payload that proceeded to deface his system and cause significant unwanted behavior.  The message contained in the defacement and the subsequent system behavior - someone strongly suggested that he should stop his interactions with the committee and re-think his position on suggesting industry regulations. 
 
While the internet does facilitate a tremendous forum for the exchange of political views and information, my friend's experience has caused me to think about how the increase in malicious activity generally on the internet could significantly alter the landscape of political web use.  Is this an early indicator of an increasing trend in how political disagreements will be played out online?  What would be the result if one group of political extremists targeted proponents of opposing views through bot nets, root kits and all the other malicious tools being used among the criminal underground element?
 
As we at INL focus on protecting critical infrastructure, my friend's experience has made me think more about the importance of protecting the internet as a forum for facilitating political dialogue.  We also should evaluate how to assure that the internet is not turned into a real political battle ground through the appropriate use of security controls on political web services, awareness of appropriate security best practices for political site visitors, and - perhaps most importantly - strong statements from political leaders that illegal/unethical internet activity will not be tolerated as a political tool.
 
- Aaron Turner