The Obama Administration took its first major steps toward implementing its promise to make government more open and transparent, with two presidential memoranda covering freedom of information, transparency and open government. The first memo directing all agencies to “adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure.” This is a 180-degree turn from the policies of the Bush Administration. Most interesting for e-democracy fans: The memo says “all agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government.”

… Obama is calling on the federal government to explore and embrace the wisdom of crowds and to greatly expand the “collaborative government” experiments that have been popping up inside and around the bureaucracy like mushrooms after a storm.

There was some good early progress on eGovernment, not world-leading but sound. But some years ago the pace slowed, and the state of REACH is a particular embarassment. So yes, we need to get back the drive on this, and this will naturally provide new impetus to private sector initiatives. The “rapid response function” mentioned also seems a good and practical action, as the danger is real and growing, and the impact now from any major attack would be severe, and this will only grow, and a major attack can be managed by really very few people.

Ireland’s economy has grown rapidly over the past decade thanks in no small part to the increasing use of information technology. Information technology and the Internet has enabled consumers and businesses alike to better access and deliver services, create new markets, exchange information rapidly and process information in more efficient means. However this increasing reliance on information technology brings with it numerous risks and threats that if not properly addressed could result in significant negative impact on Ireland’s economy and potentially on the country’s national security. Just as business and consumers have found legitimate use for the Internet there are others who use the Internet for more nefarious purposes such as criminal, illegal, terrorist and corporate and national espionage activities.

Recent media coverage has highlighted the increasing number of security breaches impacting on companies and individuals while at the same time criminals are finding more ways to exploit the technology that we use in our day to day business and personal lives.

This media coverage has also been reinforced by the recent Irish Cybercrime survey (http://www.issaireland.org/cybercrime) which shows 1 in 4 Irish companies have suffered from an external intrusion onto their systems.

The vulnerability of a nation’s ICT infrastructure was also highlighted in the spring of 2007 when Estonia suffered a massive cyber attackwhich resulted in it being effectively taken off from the Internet while these attacks lasted. The cyber attacks mirrored social unrest which included street riots and vandalism. While no cost has been put on the effects of the sustained cyber attacks, research indicates the costs were higher than those incurred as a result of the actual physical riots.

This type of attack was also repeated during the recent Russian/Georgian conflict with attacks inflicted against the ICT infrastructure of both countries.

The attack on Estonia highlighted to many nations, Ireland included, how vulnerable many businesses and online systems are to attacks from cyberspace. Estonia had recently established a national Computer Emergency Response Team which is felt greatly diminished the potential impact of these attacks.

Ireland needs a dedicated, professional, single body within Ireland that can provide services to consumers, businesses and other organisation alike advising them on how to better protect their information assets and what to do in the event they discover they are the victim of an attack.

I look forward to seeing this initiative go forward and will provide whatever help and assistance I can to do so.

Brian

I hit the above and the wireless research before, and would endorse something innovative here, preferably led by industry and facilitatd by the IDA / EI.