I recently made the call to institute an Office of Digital Transformation. The premise is simple – an technology expert from the private sector that will function on matters of technology that affect the American people. Adding yet another employee to the United States Government (already the largest employer in the world) is not something I take lightly, but it is in this case and in these times, necessary.

If you look at the recent event in the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk where over 100,000 people were left without power for six hours, you can see the risks as plain as day. The multi-hour loss of power is being investigated as a cyberattack, the first successful one of its kind, or at least the first that we have been made aware of. Attacks on civil infrastructure must not succeed here in this country. I think most people would agree on that, but how to assure the desired result is a big issue.

Experts have pointed to a piece of malware known as BlackEnergy as the culprit in the Ukrainian attacks. This malware has been used in the past to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, information theft, and other forms of cybercrime. This is only one of many different types of malware and variants out there, much of which can be directed at critical infrastructure. All the while, we hear how malware has become more sophisticated, but we never really feel how that threat affects us. That could change at any time.

I have also repeatedly discussed the potential of an electromagnetic pulse attack (EMP). Hopefully this is not a threat that has to be experienced to be taken seriously. The impact of such an attack on a wide scale would be vast, and far more painful than a nuclear attack. Our country would be crippled and we would be left to our basal survival instincts. In many cases this would turn Americans against each other, we would tear each other apart.

Making a change

I spent a major portion of my career looking for ways to stop malicious software, to stop infiltrations, and to empower the common people to protect themselves. I still position innovative software in this way, but the most valuable tool to protect ourselves today is knowledge. Knowledge is power, awareness is protection, and information is the key.

I ask, do you seek the truth or do you enjoy the façade that your government feeds you? When we are talking about the government, why is it that every technology and security event is treated like a public relations matter? There is no way your government can improve the things that affect the American people if they are never to blame, and everything is always going right. That’s a farce.

If we only knew then the depths of how far men and their governments will go.

I am part of the post-Watergate awakening of the people, in a way, we all are. The lessons learned from that event have somehow faded in time: Our government hides way too much from its own citizens. Imagine the level of secrecy and the level of posturing we see from our current government, back in the days of the founding fathers. You can’t.

If there is one thing that people can say about me personally, there is one thing that nobody can deny: everything about me is on full display and I have nothing to hide. The transparency is perhaps the only infallible thing that will be said about John McAfee, long after I am gone.

The only way to improve yourself is to expose and improve on your faults. The only way to improve software is to find the flaws and fix them. It is never ending, but it is a journey worth the results. The same goes for our country. If we can’t have a frank discussion about what is working and what isn’t – then we can never improve. Of all the threats out there, economic, cyberattacks, EMP, diseases, or whatever – the worst might be the inability for our government to cut out the bullshit and improve in the open.

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Photo credits: Lagenta, DBKing Video: BlackCert