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November 11, 2008
Staff Column: Veteran's Day - A Personal Viewpoint
Scott W. Winchell, SVP, Gerard Group
Guest Column: Internet Security: No More Hacking
By Jacqueline Herships
Every year we set aside two days out of our busy schedules to honor our members of the military and the civilians who helped them in service to our country. Many of them have made the ultimate sacrifice.
Today, Veteran's Day, formerly Armistice Day, and Memorial Day are dedicated to these fine individuals and the institutions they represent. However, on this Veterans Day, we do so while fighting two wars, and conducting military operations in numerous places around the globe in the "War on Terror."
It is a precarious time in which we live. Most of us are detached from the battles overseas, except for the sound bites and videos we are shown by the media. Many of us know someone stationed overseas or here at home, dressed in uniform, ready to defend our freedoms. Many also know of a local family who has lost a loved one in action, and most of us have read about a local soldier who was killed or maimed in the line of duty. Despite our misgivings or ardent support for these actions, it is the soldier, first and foremost, who weighs on our hearts and minds today. It is these hearty and courageous men and women who deserve our admiration and respect.
We hear about the plight of the families of these fine people, the military wife, struggling with small children and trying to make ends meet while Dad is in Iraq. Or the difficulties our veterans face returning home, trying to get back to a level of normalcy that so few are ever able to achieve again. The trauma of their experiences, their injuries, and their feelings of deep loss for their brothers and sisters who did not come home has changed them forever. It is only now that many veterans can even speak of their experiences in Korea or WWII or Viet Nam.
Growing up in Connecticut, as a young child, I was unaware of the involvement my own family had experienced in battles because no one spoke of them. I saw the medals two of my uncles and my Dad had earned mounted on the walls of dens and cottages, yet I knew so little of what it meant. Today, 40 plus years later, I am thankful I can still greet one of my uncles with a hug and great conversation about his experiences. It was only in the last fifteen years that he and my other uncle, along with my father, both now deceased, that I learned of heroism I can only now begin to grasp and understand more clearly.
My Uncle Harold served in WWII in the 101st Airborne Division and was inside a glider, laden with supplies, weapons and ammunition, destination: Normandy, D-Day minus one. Over the next year, he was wounded three times, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was literally standing alongside then Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe when the later uttered the now famous word: "nuts" in response to German demands for their surrender.
My father was a Sergeant in the Marine Corps and my other uncle fought in Korea. They both earned Purple Hearts for the injuries they suffered in the line of duty. My Uncle Jack received further recognition for his valor at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in November and December of 1950. As a Navy Medic, he was assigned to the 1st Marine Division and was witness to what can only be described as the sheer, indescribable horror of war.
Retreating from the far North of Korea, chased by over 120,000 Chinese and North Korean armed forces, he was one of the few who attended to the wounded, the frozen and the dying. Seeing this kind of action molded the remainder of his life. In his waning years, he revisited the difficult past with his comrades, the "Chosin Few" or the "Frozen Chosin" as they were called, when they reunited and waded through their memories together. Seeing his grief and tears so many years after the war, it really made me think about what it must have been like. The abject horror of taping up the wounded, taking care of dismembered body parts, seeing soldiers' toes and fingers black with frost bite, and watching as young men died in their arms. I can only imagine how he kept it together all those years before his death.
Today, families are once again involved in foreign wars. Now, it is the children of that generation who fight in foreign wars, such as my cousin, a lifelong reservist from Alaska, who served in Afghanistan. And it is also their grandchildren and great-grandchildren that fight for our way of life, our freedoms, and our liberty. I have seen two nephews, my sister's son and son-in-law; go off to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. My sister's son-in-law, serving in his fourth tour of duty as a Captain in "The Big Red One" is once again on the front lines in Afghanistan. He carries on a legacy that places me in awe as I know what he faced in Fallujah and Baghdad. He has two lovely daughters and a wonderful wife here at home, and we pray every day for his safe return.
These men in my family represent just a small number of the sacrifices that those who were drafted or volunteered faced at home and abroad. I pray that my family members now will not face the same hardships their predecessors faced later in life, retracing their memories on Veteran's Days twenty-five years from now. As my sons come of age, I also wonder what the prospects for them will be in future wars. Will their lives be entangled by our enemies as they grow stronger and bolder? Will it be a battle overseas or will they have to fight in our own city streets and backyards? I pray it will not be so, but I am not that optimistic as I see the gathering storm loom on the horizon.
Yesterday was the 233rd anniversary of the creation of the United States Marine Corps, and today is also the 90th anniversary of the end of WWI. It has been 33 years since the end of the Viet Nam War, and 55 years since the Korea War ended. A flood of memories rise to the surface as Americans ponders the past.
It has been exactly one week since America elected the first African-American to the Presidency, 143 years after the Civil War ended. The "Great Emancipator" Abraham Lincoln would be proud. I just hope Mr. Obama will be just as noteworthy for holding our nation together in a time of great global threat to our 232 year old nation.
During this tenuous time between administrations, threats loom large. Al-Qaeda is ratcheting up its rhetoric for action, Iran is building nuclear capabilities, Hamas is lobbing rockets into Israel from Gaza, Hezbollah is in control of Lebanon, Russia is still in Georgian territories, terrorists conduct piracy at sea, Pakistan is in turmoil, the Taliban are becoming bolder in Afghanistan and the wilds of Pakistan, and chatter about the use of a nuclear EMP device here in the USA is rising. This vast sea of uncertainty should prompt us all to honor our veterans at home and abroad, as they are our shield and sword, and our future depends on their valor and strength.
Friends, colleagues, and family; please take the time today to remember our fallen and injured, their loved ones and families as well. It is my feeling that we need to come together to honor these Americans, regardless of the political beliefs that have separated us over recent months. Today we honor the true heroes!
Scott W. Winchell is a frequent contributor to Intel Analysis and is the SVP of Gerard Group
Editor's Note: Because the purpose of this newsletter is to share with our readers analysis of some of today's most critical issues, we do not generally report about new technology or promote particular products in our commentary. However, every once in a while our attention is drawn to an issue that we believe is worth talking about. The issue today is secure communications, and it is one that is currently demanding attention because of the rapidly increasing losses through the insecure transfer of information.
One of the significant trends in communications security is that hacking has passed from the domain of individual teen-age geeks to organized crime and terrorists. With unlimited funds to draw from and the will to overcome steep obstacles in the quest for financial gains, this is fast becoming the number one non-violent crime against business and individuals alike.
We therefore think that it is important to consider solutions that can add a significant level of security to communications. The technology below is one that addresses this problem and is ready for practical development. We hope it will provide food for thought and discussion.
Ilana Freedman, Editor and CEO of Gerard Group.
Recent Patent Series Promises a New, Secure Telecommunications System
The entire worldwide Domain Name System (DNS) was brought to its knees by hackers not too long ago. But his new Internet telecommunications system will not depend on DNS.
In theory at least, the Wild West days of the Internet are over. Based upon the inventions articulated in his five-patent suite, inventor Harry Emerson III, has mapped out a union between our secure and venerable telephone system - AKA POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) - and the hyper-evolving, media-rich Internet which is so famously not one bit secure.
As it evolves, he believes this next generation telecommunications system, dubbed IronPipe™, will have huge implications for national security as well as tremendous new revenue opportunities for the carriers and supply chains which serve them.
Conceived in response to what he views as the seriously flawed paradigm which is currently developing as telecommunications migrate to the Internet, Mr. Emerson says he designed IronPipe™ to offer an alternative with a high degree of security.
The Internet has produced something akin to a gold rush experience for those mining its resources and developing its vast potentialities, he said. But, in the midst of this frenzy, he has observed that fundamental requirements of privacy, secrecy, and security are seldom openly discussed when it comes to Internet-based phone services known as 'Voice over Internet Protocol' (VoIP) systems such as SKYPE, which are proliferating in cyberspace.
These are serious issues, he maintains, and they need to be fully considered by users such as corporations, telecommunications carriers, VoIP carriers, law enforcement agencies, and federal and state governments, as well as by the millions of Internet using individuals who are concerned with their own personal privacy.
According to Mr. Emerson our current state of vulnerability came about because we have turned a blind eye to these issues of privacy, secrecy and security, combined with the scramble for profit, and an unregulated environment for VoIP. "The Internet is a lawless frontier where nothing is safe and secure and reliability is always one step away from calamity," he says.
"As things stand today, VoIP does little to protect the interests of the aforementioned entities, not to mention protecting the security of the United States. We are suffering untold numbers of hacker attacks DAILY, with systems broken into and identities stolen. Not too long ago the entire worldwide DNS system (Domain Name System) was brought to its knees by hackers," he said. In his opinion, if the technology continues to develop in its current direction, no one will be able to guarantee that communications cannot be intercepted and monitored.
In addition, if we examine our circumstances, a lot of the excitement generating the rush to VoIP is based upon an illusion, the appearance that we are being offered new and sophisticated technologies. In fact, existing VoIP offerings are simply discounted POTS service, he says, with no value-added features, only lower cost caused by fierce price pressure from cable TV and other low-overhead vendors.
The result is the continued downward spiral on price that has plagued the telecommunications industry for 30 years. IronPipe™ is a re-thinking of 21st century telecommunications architecture, which will return a sense of safety to our society as a whole, reinvigorating our economy from the inside out.
If his vision is implemented, Mr. Emerson says we won't have to put up with either the fear of intrusion or the huge financial burden of protecting ourselves from the ever-increasing army of those with malicious intent. We will now have a choice. The challenge is that VoIP companies such as Skype, Vonage and the various Cable carriers which have migrated to the Internet did so not only to provide cheaper communications, but to avoid regulatory scrutiny.
"If you don't have to deal with the regulations it tends to make it cheaper," he said."But these profits come at a price," he said. "The integrity of the communications system has been compromised because of this short term thinking geared towards reducing costs."
In its simplest terms, IronPipe enables us to make web 2.0 Internet-style media rich calls utilizing the existing private, protected, secure, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and its unseen private data network - known as SS7, which connects all the main switches around the world. While VoIP uses the Internet exclusively and thus can be, and regularly is, compromised by persons of malicious intent, if we establish Internet calls through these telephone company switches there will be no access from the outside.
We can create rich media visual telephone calls on broadband Internet connections, using wireline or wireless touch-screen phones such as the iPhone, simply by dialing a phone number, and still enjoy the privacy, security and reliability of traditional telephone calls. Mr. Emerson says that his technology seamlessly merges the best of the Internet with the best of the telephone network.
Considering the cost to government, industry and society at large to protect against intrusion and to remediate the damage caused by intrusion, IronPipe could be well worth looking into.
Please address your questions and comments to: hemerson@EmersonDevelopmentLLC.com
Jaqueline Herships is a specialist in business development and bringing new products to market.
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