The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has embarked on a major effort to improve network security protocols in the wake of the now infamous WikiLeaks scandal.
However, some analysts warn that current network technology may be woefully outdated by the time the belated upgrade is complete.
“This is [really] a continuing [digital] arms race and we’re [definitely] still way behind,” Stewart Baker, former Homeland Security undersecretary for policy, told the Associated Press.
To be sure, the government is planning to systematically bolster security shields protecting non-military computers.
Virtually, the DHS will limit access control, while physically making it more difficult for rogue individuals to download information using external peripherals like a flash drive.
Although the idea of brazenly stealing information from a super secure computer may seem difficult to imagine, that is exactly what happened when a US army analyst (allegedly) used a simple flash drive to download sensitive data, which he subsequently transferred to WikiLeaks.
“There are very few private sector actors who depend on information security who think that installing intrusion prevention systems is sufficient protection against the kinds of attacks that we’re [currently] seeing,” added Baker.
