Pray to our Father in Heaven and ask for His divine intervention on matters of national cyber security. Pray for righteous leadership, wisdom, and governance in our intelligence services nationwide.

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!  For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counselor?  For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen."  Romans 11:33-36

Network security experts from across the U.S. government told a U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee Tuesday that federal networks have been thoroughly penetrated by foreign spies, and that current perimeter-based defenses that attempt to curb intrusions are outdated and futile.

Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities the experts told the assembled Senators that the U.S. government needed to abandon the notion that it could keep outsiders off its computer networks.

"We've got the wrong mental model here," Dr. James S. Peery, director of the Information Systems Analysis Center at Sandia National Laboratories, testified. "I don't think that we would think that we could keep spies out of our country. And I think we've got this model for cyber that says, 'We're going to develop a system where we're not attacked.' I think we have to go to a model where we assume that the adversary is in our networks. It's on our machines, and we've got to operate anyway. We have to protect the data anyway."

Zachary J. Lemnios, the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering at the Department of Defense described the situation as "an environment of measures and countermeasures."

"We can do things to make it more costly for them to hack into our systems...," Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), ranking member of the Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittee said as a point of clarification, "but you didn't say we can stop them."

Dr. Kaigham J. Gabriel acting director of DARPA likened the situation to treading water in the middle of the ocean as a metaphor to describe the state of security on federal networks. Treading water is a great way to stay alive, to buy breathing room, he said, but treading water in the middle of the ocean inevitably leads to drowning.

"It's not that we're doing wrong things, it's just the nature of playing defense in cyber," Gabriel said.

All the experts calledfor better offensive capacities, but opted to wait for a closed-door session to go into specifics.

Dr. Michael A. Wertheimer, director of research and development at the NSA, told the Senators that the federal government also faces a dire shortage of talent that is exacerbated by a sclerotic hiring and promotion system within the government.

The average annual salary increase for computer scientists in the private sector is 4 percent. The government norm is pay-freezes and DoD enforced pay-caps, Wertheimer argued. He noted that individuals with a PhD in computer science can enter the DoD at pay-grade 12, making, at most, $90,000 a year, and then stays at that pay grade an average of 12 years before winning any sort of promotion. Even with those obstacles, agencies are limited in the amount 13, 14, and 15-grade employees they may have on payroll. Finally, staffing is complicated by the fast-revolving door between the government and its private contractors, which lure away top talent, then hire it back to the government at inflated rates. Historically, the government has lost about one percent of their IT talent annually; this year the government is set to lose 10 percent of that workforce, the experts claimed. Wertheimer said that 44 percent of the NSA resigns from their position as opposed to retiring. Within the NSA's IT staff, that figure is 77 percent resigning as opposed to retiring.

Finally, the U.S. education system is failing to produce the number people with the advanced skills and degrees that are needed.

"The production of computer scientists is on the decline," NSA Director Wertheimer, the gloomiest of the group explained. "We are not recruiting and retaining them. ... It's to build tools. It's to be a rapid deployment of capability. I rarely get the opportunity to think 3 years down the line even, in research. The money that comes to us has a very directed purpose.... I feel the nation is frightened to think much beyond one or two years."

Not everyone shared that gloomy perspective. Peery pointed out that Sandia National Laboratories, which operates under the DOE, pays out starting salaries of $115,000 and $95,000 to persons with PhDs and Master's in computer science respectively. Gabriel argued that a focus on candidates with advanced degrees may be misguided, and that a model with the expectancy of high turnover rates may not be such a bad thing. He explained that he has a group of "cyber-punk" program managers that developed their skills in the hacking community. He says their skill sets have a 4-5 year shelf-life before DARPA needs to go out and hire newer white hats.

The open subcommittee hearing was followed by what promised to be a much more interesting closed door session with only the experts and the panel.

You can view the hearing here. 

In a recent article in the Smithsonian Magazine, Richard Clarke had this to say about our current vulnerabilities in the military cyber arena. "My greatest fear is that, rather than having a cyber-Pearl Harbor event, we will instead have this death of a thousand cuts. Where we lose our competitiveness by having all of our research and development stolen by the Chinese. And we never really see the single event that makes us do something about it. That it's always just below our pain threshold. That company after company in the United States spends millions, hundreds of millions, in some cases billions of dollars on R&D and that information goes free to China....After a while you can't compete."

 

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray that this current Iranian regime will be overthrown by the Iranian people who love peace and do not follow this destructive belief. The nuclear threat by the current regime in Iran is very serious due to their false prophetic belief that the 12^th Imam will not return until the world is in total chaos. This regime deems itself the chaos creator to usher in this antichrist figure.

"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." (2 Corinthians 4: 8-11)

The U.S. on Friday signed off on tough new sanctions aimed at hitting Iran's oil exports, after determining there is enough crude supplies in the world market that taking the step won't harm U.S. allies or drive gas prices even higher.

This move gives us the ability to impose sanctions on foreign banks that continue to conduct business from Iran's central bank, cutting them off from the financial systems of the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. and European Union have issued a string of sanctions against Iran to isolate it from the world economy and pressure Tehran to stop developing its disputed nuclear program.

Countries involved in purchasing oil from Iran can still prevent the sanctions if they significantly curtail their imports before the June 28 deadline.

Speculation about an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities has helped push up oil and gas prices, which have become one of the biggest political problems for Obama's re-election.

In clearing the way for the congressional mandated sanctions, Obama said he made his decision after "carefully considering" a Feb. 29 Energy Information Agency report to Congress that analyzed the world's oil supply and the impact the sanctions would have. The penalties are timed to take effect at the end of June, around the same time Europe's embargo on Iranian oil also begins.

In a memo, Obama said he determined "that there is a sufficient supply of petroleum products from countries other than Iran to permit a significant reduction in the volume of petroleum and petroleum products purchased from Iran by or through foreign financial institutions." He also promised to monitor the situation closely to assure that the market can continue to accommodate a reduction in purchases of oil and oil products from Iran.

A White House spokesman said Obama gave the oil sanctions a green light despite a worldwide oil market that has become increasingly tight over the first two months of 2012 because of a series of production disruptions in South Sudan, Syria, Yemen Nigeria and the North Sea, as well as international concern over Iran's nuclear activities and recent steps taken to reduce the amount of Iranian crude oil products worldwide.

"Nonetheless, there currently appears to be sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil to permit foreign countries to significantly reduce their import of Iranian oil, taking into account current estimates of demand, increased production by some countries, private inventories of crude oil and petroleum products, and available strategic petroleum reserves and, in fact, many purchasers of Iranian crude oil have already reduced their purchases or announced they are in productive discussions with alternative suppliers," the spokesman said in a release.

In coming to a decision on the sanctions, Obama navigated some tricky political and foreign policy concerns. Many of the countries that purchase Iranian oil are U.S. allies, including several European countries, India, Japan and South Korea. The sanctions bill, passed as part of a sweeping defense authorization bill in December, allows the U.S. some flexibility to grant waivers to countries who agree to significantly cut down their Iranian oil imports.

The State Department has already announced 10 waivers to European Union countries and Japan because of their agreements to reduce their purchases of Iranian oil.

Iran declared on Monday it will not be swayed from its nuclear "path" by sanctions, a week before talks with world powers that are increasingly seen as a last chance for diplomacy in its showdown with the West.

"The sanctions may have caused us small problems, but we will continue our path," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi vowed in an interview with the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

"We do not underestimate any enemy, no matter how tiny and lowly they are. The regime's officials -- the supreme leader, the president, the army, the (Revolutionary) Guards and Basij (militia) -- are completely vigilant. And the nation is prepared to defend the achievements of Islamic Iran," he said.

The defiant words came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Saturday that the talks between Iran and the world powers would take place April 13 and 14 in Istanbul. (Contributors: Washington Times, France 24)

Pray that the Moslems in the U.S. will have their hearts opened to the truth that Jesus loves them, and will forgive their sins if they put their faith in Him who saves. Pray that they will know the "Truth" and that they will be set free to worship the Creator who gives life abundantly.

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)

A constitutional law attorney says the FBI does not violate the First Amendment when it watches and tracks Moslems for the purpose of national security. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has released reports revealing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has secretly tracked Moslems and collected intelligence information during their religious gatherings. The reports, obtained from a San Francisco division, cover 2004-2008 and detail information gathered from within Moslem mosques.

Karen Lugo is a constitutional law attorney and assistant director at The Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. She asserts that the bureau is doing nothing wrong.

"The FBI does not violate the right to freely exercise religion when it watches Moslem organizations [that] may use the cover of religion to radicalize and plot violence," she explains.

The FBI says the reports are permissible because agents met with the Moslem community for law enforcement and safety purposes. The bureau further asserts that the meetings were overt, and agents identified themselves and handed out business cards to members of Moslem communities.

"Also, recent studies suggest that a majority of American mosques are radicalizing influences, as judged by Saudi funding, clerical teachings and materials that are distributed," Lugo notes. "So, in these cases, Americans do want law enforcement to know if their neighborhood mosque is a house of worship, or ... a hotbed of radicalism."

The ACLU, however, maintains that it is "wrong and counterproductive" for the FBI to target American Moslem groups. The organization filed the lawsuit in 2010, claiming it wanted the information in order to assess whether the surveillance activities had a "chilling effect on the right to worship freely or to exercise other forms of expression."

In New York, a recent poll shows that 82 percent of respondents think the NYPD has been effective in combating terrorism, which includes monitoring Moslems. (Contributors: One News Now, ACLU, Syracuse, FBI)

Pray that our Homeland Security leaders understand the Constitutional bounds of protecting our nation from any foreign threat. Ask the Lord to give wisdom and insight to all those who are in a position to protect our national sovereignty.

"My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:2)

"He will not let your foot slip--he who watches over you will not slumber." (Psalm 121:3)

"The Lord will keep you from all harm--he will watch over your life;" (Psalm 121:7)