Rob:  Well there is a growing insecurity these days over our cyber security.  In the past year we’ve seen cyber attacks that have taken entire electrical grids down for millions of people, while various companies and even our government have had to admit their systems have been hacked into.  It’s a growing trend, and one that has industry leaders predicting more to come in twenty ten.  Our Betiel Michaels gives us a close-up look at the challenges and opportunities surrounding this 21st century problem.
Betiel:  Corey Croci is on the prowl.
Corey Croci:  I can take an IP number of whose been attacking us and I can see that our firewall has been dropping them which means we’re not letting the bad guy in.
Betiel:  Armed with a keyboard, CareerTech’s Information Security Officer sees danger everywhere.
Corey:  I can use that IP number that I can see is trying to attack us and I can do a search on it to actually find the country that it’s coming from, and as you can see, all these attacks right here from that IP number are coming from China.
Betiel:  His tools, experience, and a passion for finding the enemy.
Corey:  Two sets of hackers working on us right now; we have kind of one set that’s after the money, they’re trying to make money off of it, they’re trying to get your credit card number, they’re trying to get your personal information, they’re trying to make money off of it.  Then, we have a second set of hackers which are trying to get inside of your systems to insert some little, basically Trojans that lay in wait so they can basically activate later on to do something, maybe that’s to shut your systems down, to gain information then they can sell it or use it against you.  So any site they go to, you know, every site has the adds on it so it’s going to be constantly blocking it; and of course the web filter, it’s having to web filter everything.  Now this is a lot of detective work because you got to know what you’re looking for, know where to go find it, where to find the information, and then kind of decide…  Another one from China…
Betiel:  In fact, cyber threats from overseas are a growing phenomenon that’s caught the attention of the FBI.
Richard Lay:  What we’re seeing a lot of is computer intrusion attempts especially from overseas, pretty much anybody who runs any sort of a web server or any sort of an Internet application, we’re seeing lots of network scans and even attempts to break into computer networks; some originating within the United States but a whole lot of this stuff is coming from overseas.
Betiel:  FBI agent, Richard Lay, on the disturbing trend of foreign hackers.
Richard:  We’ve had some recent activities from Russia where there are folks who are taking advantage of folks connection to the Internet by trying to break into the computers of businesses, get their credentials, perhaps some financial credentials, and we are seeing those folks utilize businesses credentials in order to transfer funds from the businesses bank accounts to accounts overseas.
Betiel:  And they’re also looking for something else.
Richard:  Well, Oklahoma just like everywhere else, is well connected to the Internet; Oklahoma does have a number of things that folks are interested in, we have a big oil and gas industry here and some folks may think, well what, what does Oklahoma have that other countries may be interested in?  Well that, that’s one of them; we have oil, we have gas.  Other folks in other countries would like to know how we do our production, how we go about our business.
Betiel:  With so many attacks coming from, well, everywhere, staying up to date is a necessity in this field and annual trainings like this one bring Security Specialists from around the state.
Corey:  Usually this, these scenarios start out very slow paced, inoculous; you think oh that’s just another infection so we’ll run this to fix it, but in the end of it you’re dealing with items like your entire server has been compromised, you have data that’s been stolen, you have social security numbers, credit cards, what do you do when that happens?  And that’s the way these tabletop exercises train you as Security Officers to deal with that.
Betiel:  And there is always something new to deal with.
Richard:  We are seeing folks particularly whenever we have a, say an investigation where somebody is possessing child pornography.  We are seeing those folks try to take steps to encrypt those files so that whenever we do a forensic examination of computers that we seize in a search warrant, things that are encrypted are, are difficult, if not impossible, to break back.
Betiel:  Back on the front lines…
Corey:  I’ve been working for two months wiping drives every day.  So basically, sometimes the hard drive you can’t shred it, you can’t erase it, so what you gotta do is, you gotta destroy it.  And, we take it upon ourselves to make sure they’re all destroyed before they go out the door.  Once I rub my fingers over it, probably the electronic information is gone; but this is what we have to destroy, scratch out, melt, put holes through and that’s what, if a person gets hold of it, they can get your information off of it.
Betiel:  And that battle over information will continue on, but Corey says there is a bright spot.
Corey:  Our jobs is just always there, you know, security is always ongoing, it never stops, no matter if it’s from a piece of paper on your desk, to a hard drive in your computer, to your laptop, to your PA, to your Blackberries, you always have a security that’s built in that the people need to adhere to.