Hardening Intelligent Infrastructure and Mission Critical Networks is a Must
A pragmatic, visionary perspective —–
In the age of global cyberattacks, enterprises and government agencies which have some type of cloud-based network solutions should be looking at a strategic design focus that guarantees a very secure intelligent infrastructure which is not susceptible to cyberattacks.
In my upcoming book on Military Infrastructure, Strategies & Tactics for the War on Terrorism, NANOKRIEG BEYOND BLITZKRIEG, I discuss some of the following concepts. We need to be prepared for a totally different type of warfare which depends on a totally different type of weaponry and warfare strategy.
HARDENING ASSETS AND INFRASTRUCTURE IS NOT JUST FOR MILITARY APPLICATIONS
Hardening an organization’s data center as well as its networks (and clouds) is a critical step to insuring its business continuity. Forget “disaster recovery” as it is a dated term and dated concept. Disaster recovery refers to the organized shutdown of systems and then when the disaster (event) is over, a systematic restart of the total application is initiated.
In today’s corporate business environment, many organizations cannot survive if their applications are out-of-service for a couple of days. Business continuity, where enterprise operations continue through the duration of the disaster, is a more robust design approach to system, data center, and network resiliency.
Disaster recovery is a dated term like data processing. More resilient systems, which are not susceptible to disasters and outages, are what should be planned and designed, especially for any organization’s mission critical applications.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is Only as Good as the Internet of Reality
I have said this in previous columns, “The Internet of Things is only as good as the Internet of Reality: the Network Infrastructure.” Too many IT executives buy off on glossy brochures and catchy buzz-phrases about the “Internet of Things” spun out by the “P.T. Barnum-like”, vendor evangelists in their corporate-logo golf shirts.
IT execs, who are not asking hard questions as to the “resiliency and robustness” of some of the inter-workings these cloud products, will be the first ones suffering when their organizations is exposed as having a data leak, a network failure, or a loss of all customer records and credit card information due to a cyberattack. Of course, this also applies to government systems and networks as well.
If the corporate (or government) network infrastructure is not fully protected or resilient from cyberattacks and other threats, the functionality of its cloud will be compromised whether it is a public or private cloud.
Why is this so important? If you are looking at any cloud-based computing, it better be bulletproof especially if it is carrying time-sensitive mission critical applications for your enterprise or information deemed private and confidential (like customer credit card information or health records).
One cloud feature missing in financial networks which I have pointed out in the past is Cloud Transaction Synchronicity ©. (Article – http://jamescarlini.ulitzer.com/node/2136070 )
Basically, this is the total traffic synchronization of ALL transactions being sent across within a cloud. This should be a traffic monitoring service available in any cloud application (Article – http://jamescarlini.ulitzer.com/node/2225061 )
This would guarantee a much higher and comprehensive level of compliance within the boundaries of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) as well as other regulatory bodies within the financial and brokerage area. By having this timing synchronization embedded into the total network infrastructure of a cloud, it would guarantee the ability to re-construct the transaction sequence in any major drop or jump in the velocity and value of transactions processed. It would be able to provide exact sequencing of transactions and where they originated from, which in today’s cloud networks is not a functional capability of any network utilizing HFT servers (High Frequency Trading).
Without having this type of diagnostic capability, no cloud network offers what is really needed to be able to re-construct and diagnose the sequence of transactions occurred in a market crash scenario like the one that happened in 2010. (The 1000 Point Drop of the Dow)
THE REALITY OF EMP ATTACKS
EMP attacks are a real possibility. With the rise in terrorist attacks and a country’s national economy viewed as a viable target, it makes sense to harden both data centers and their networks to a standard where EMP attacks are nullified, (From article – http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/emp-attack-on-us-power-grid-could-kill-9-in-10-americans ):
As the Heritage Foundation has reported, an EMP attack with a warhead detonated 25 to 300 miles above the U.S. mainland “would fundamentally change the world:”
“Airplanes would fall from the sky; most cars would be inoperable; electrical devices would fail. Water, sewer and electrical networks would fail simultaneously. Systems of banking, energy, transportation, food production and delivery, water, emergency services and even cyberspace would collapse.”
Is your data center susceptible to an EMP attack? (Electro-Mechanical Pulse bomb) Are your network EMP-proof? If you are dealing with a third party supplying a data center capability and/or a private cloud, are they EMP proof?
COVERAGE OF AN EMP BOMB BURST
These are questions to have fully answered before you embark on building out any enterprise or third party-supplied, cloud network or data center supporting any mission critical application.
Iron-clad clouds are needed in an era of NANOKRIEG, electronic warfare (EMP), cyberattacks, and digital economic terrorism.
CARLINI-ISM : “We need to prepare for new warfare and develop new defenses, not wallow in weapons, strategies, and tactics from the last century.”
His next book, NANOKRIEG BEYOND BLITZKRIEG will be out next year, 2016.
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Copyright 2015 – James Carlini
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