(soon)
2/17/2004 10:18 AM
Indiana
Safe-Net
Proposal and discussion
Communication to
Sandy Klausner
CEO and Founder of Core System Inc.
Cc: BCNGroup Board
Sandy
Thank you for the kind note. I had your work
http://cyberseek.com/Coretalk/CoreSystemIntro.PC.zip
very much in mind when I wrote this note to John (Sowa) .
He and I and other "knowledge scientists" have a long way to go in getting a common language together that empowers the anticipated transition from IT-DC to IT-AC.
A very small project to create the Safe-Net technology is to be proposed at the local (rural county) level tomorrow by Don Mitchell.
Don's
work on the concept of Safe-Net includes a simple addition of one computer
(running Linux) and an independent power source. In this specific case,
the only County access to the Internet is via a T1 line from Ohio. So one
simply puts the T1 line connection into the Linux box, implement what is called
(in cyber security) a honey pot network (or HPN) (to make the Safe-Net
disappear from outside hackers). (This is not simply a firewall.)
The proposed (publicly owned) County Institute also becomes a research facility with many different grant potentials. The Linux box splits the signal into a monitored Safe-Net feed and an unmonitored Internet feed. The Safe-Net is then a research tool that can be used for homeland security studies.
When the Internet goes completed down, the Safe-Net functions as if nothing has happened. If power supply is independent of the power grid, there is simply nothing that can knock this system out. Period. But it has to be non-commercial open source software specifically designed. The Python and Linux community have such systems, as does the Pentagon.
Safe-Net could not be simpler. The underlying structure is very understood by Nathan and Don. It is NOT a Core System, but moves us in this direction. At one point, when the Core System functionality is available commercially, the Safe-Net could be usefully converted while retaining the local (public) ownership.
Indiana Safe Net is described in one of the two PowerPoints available from the hyper-link in the URL:
http://www.bcngroup.org/beadgames/safeNet/home.htm
The key is in hijacking the commercial uniformity of the Internet by NOT allowing the Internet to drive the county owned wireless Safe-Net infrastructure.
Scott County, under the leadership of a strong Mayor - Scottsburg's Mayor Bill Graham - has developed an innovative line-of-sight wireless system that uses a "frequency hoping" technical innovation adopted by the Pentagon in rebuilding that part of the wireless Internet in the Pentagon.
Don Mitchell is proposing that additional funds be expended so as to make this wireless system (in Scott county) "resilient" in the sense that if the Internet goes down everywhere, the Scott County wireless service will continue to have full transmission services - supporting public needs. The frequency hoping technology provides additional resilience even if some towers are lost.
The redevelopment of an existing HHS plus DHS BAA into a new BAA establishing a requirement for
1) local (public) ownership of these Safe-Nets
2) county level influence on the Safe-Net mesh (linking all 33 counties in the Southern Indiana Rural Development Project)
3) Open Source software (non-commercial) providing a Gateway (portal) between the Internet and the Safe-Net mesh.
The Gateway will be seen from the outside as a honey net, so as to be able to
1) study the cyber attacks that are occurring in the Internet
2) provide contextual regularity as encoded into Orb and referential base knowledge base regarding digital threats to the Mesh.
Don and Nathan and I are able to demonstration this capability.