Technologies in Department of Homeland
Department of Homeland Security plays a big role in strengthening the security of America. One of the branches of the Department of Homeland Security is Cyber Security Division. Cyber attackers pose a big threat not only to the United States government, but also to private organizations. As the use of internet technology continues to rise in critical infrastructure sectors, many people aim to gain profit from it through hacking, espionage, and many other tactics. In order to prevent negative impacts that may arise from cyber attacks, the United States needs to enhance the security and resilience of its Internet system. Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security strives to promote cyber security through application of advanced technology (United States Department of Homeland Security, 2015b).
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The mission of Cyber Security Division is to enhance security and resilience of America’s critical information infrastructure and its Internet systems by fulfilling a number of objectives. First, Cyber Security Division seeks to develop and deliver new technologies and techniques that will enable the Department of Homeland Security and the United States to protect its current and future infrastructure against cyberattacks. Second, Cyber Security Division aims at conducting and supporting technology evolution (United States Department of Homeland Security, 2015b).
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Third, Cyber Security Division leads and coordinates research and development to improve the security systems of the internet in collaboration with both public and private agencies. Generally, Cyber Security Division intends to improve critical vulnerabilities that exist in the cyber security landscape including internet infrastructure security, critical infrastructure resources, national research infrastructure, leap-ahead technologies, cyber security education, identity management, cyber forensics, and software assurance. Cyber Security Division is adequately prepared to fight the next-generation cyber threats such as digital provenance and enterprise-level metrics.
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In order to accomplish its mission, Cyber Security Division applies various forms of modern technology as a way of protecting the United States’ critical infrastructure systems and the Internet from cyberattacks. The three technologies employed by Cyber Security Division include mobile apps archiving technology, Federated Malware Analysis System, and AMICO and ZeroPoint technologies. Cyber Security uses these technologies well and this explains why many cyberattack plans on the United States internet systems are detected before they are executed.
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The Department of Homeland Security developed mobile apps archiving technology purposely to track copyright violations in mobile apps across various applications available in the mobile app market such as iTune, Google Play, and Amazon. Currently, the Cyber Security Division uses mobile apps archiving technology to secure mobile applications by using it to conduct cyber-crime investigations, infrastructure defense, and forensic techniques. The main advantage of mobile apps archiving technology is its ability to discover approximately 19, 000 apps across Android and Windows app platforms that associated with copyright infringement (Kimery, 2015).
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One major disadvantage of using mobile apps archiving technology in preventing cyber attacks is high cost associated with its implementation. Since the Cyber Security Division began to use mobile apps archiving technology, the rate of e-crime in relation to copyright infringement in the United States has greatly reduced. This is a clear indication that mobile apps archiving technology is used well by the Cyber Security Division (Kimery, 2015).
The purpose of the Federated Malware Analysis System is to counter the strengths of malware attackers. Currently, the Cyber Security Division is using the Federated Malware Analysis System to detect different malware clusters based on how they respond to the environment. The main advantage of the Federated Malware Analysis System is its ability to characterize malware behavior into families or clusters based on their levels of severity. This makes it possible to identify the types of malware that pose the greatest threat to the critical infrastructure and internet systems of the United States (Homeland Security Today, 2015).
Although the Federated Malware Analysis System assists the Cyber Security Division to protect the United State’s infrastructure system from attacks, this technology is very costly to implement and requires highly skilled expertise which is difficult to find. The Department of Homeland Security emphasizes that it will continue to fund projects that aim at improving the functioning of the Federated Malware Analysis System because it has been very effective in countering the strengths of malware attacker. This indicates that the Cyber Security Division is using the Federated Malware Analysis System well.
The other technology employed by the Cyber Security Division is a combination of two tools namely AMICO and ZeroPoint. The purpose of this technology is to send malware alerts in real time. Currently, the Cyber Security Division is using AMICO and ZeroPoint to group malware on the basis of their ability to execute future attacks, and to inspect data to determine the nature of harm that different malwares can cause. The main advantage of AMICO and ZeroPoint is their ability to stop malware before they do harm to critical information infrastructures of the United States. However, the Department of Homeland Security is concerned that these two technologies are difficult to implement and the Cyber Security Division is required to put in extra efforts to ensure their successful implementation which requires utilization of huge finances. According to Homeland Security Today (2015), Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security is using AMICO and ZeroPoint technologies well to provide malware alerts in real time across different sectors in the United States.
Cyber Security Division is still developing new technologies that will assist it to realize its mission in future. One of the technologies that are developed by Cyber Security Division is HONE. This is a cyber-sensor whose purpose is to fix a fundamental flaw in stacks of Internet protocols to provide additional insights for cyber defenders. HONE is of great use to United States government agencies and organizations which are increasingly experiencing a rising number of cyber events in their networks. With the availability of HONE, cyber defenders will be able to characterize communication with maximum accuracy (United States Department of Homeland Security, 2015a). The other technology that is being developed by Cyber Security Division is a choreographer. A choreographer will assist Cyber Security Division to change server locations in order to disorient network attackers, while at the same time ensuring that these servers provide the required functions to their users. Cyber Security Division recognizes that public servers have become centers of attack by adversaries of various organizations. It is therefore developing a choreographer as an early strategy towards protecting servers of all organizations in the United States (United States Department of Homeland Security, 2015a)
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