Digital Domains: Threats to Nation States and Corporate Board Rooms...

The last two plus weeks the planet Earth has witnessed the use of Digital Social Media to help facilitate the overthrow of the 30 year reign of Hosni Mobarak in Egypt. Is this the last example of how the use of the Internet combined with the masses of humanity can overthrow government leadership? The Operational Risk to nations states and the implications of the impact on business, commerce and political outcomes is increasingly being subjected to the new digital influence of social networking apps.

(CBS) The revolution in Egypt was historic not only for toppling President Hosni Mubarak after 30 years, but for revealing the awesome power social media had amassed - enough to be the instrument that inspired hundreds of thousands of people already staunchly opposed to the regime to rise up and act as one.

Now the questions are already being asked - can social media's power be used that way again and if so, where and when?

The protesters In Egypt were mobilized largely via the use of Facebook and Twitter, over 18 long days.

Special Section: Historic Change in Egypt

The revolt there is already being dubbed the Social Media Revolution.

It started Jan. 25, with a call-to-action -- from a Facebook page dedicated to Khalid Said, an Egyptian businessman who was beaten to death by police last summer after threatening to expose police corruption.

Millions of Egyptian youth are big users of Facebook, and saw the page.

Over time, a few prominent faces emerged from the masses. One, Google executive Wael Ghonim, identified by Mubarak's government as the creator of that first Facebook page, was detained.

But the movement had already gained momentum.

Facebook and Twitter, said one protester, "It's a very good way for communication. It has no power or control from anyone."

Now that the US State Department has established a Twitter feed in Arabic, the odds are that the strategy to more effectively communicate US policy to the muslim world will grow. The risks associated with the speed of communications via the Internet and the "Ground Truth" situational awareness have forever changed the meaning of an "Intelligence-led" enterprise. The continuous news cycles fueled by the masses will provide the Fortune 500 executives and the nations states world leaders with the sentiment of their brand, their policy or their reputation at the touch of a personal "Blackberry" or "iPhone."

What has not changed however, is the requirement for increased confidentiality, integrity and assurance of information whether that be streaming from the US State Department feed or the public relations department of a company such as Cisco. Will human behavior begin to migrate from reading the latest official press releases or the Facebook and Twitter feeds to better understand the current state of affairs on the company. The answer is both. It will just be a matter of what lens you want to look through to determine the truth about a subject or situation with the organization that you are investigating.

The information integrity conversation is ongoing from the board room to battle field. How do you continuously insure that the Intel or the digital data you are receiving is the truth and not changed along the path to the leaders decision support consoles? Monitoring the information streams within an organization is not only a strategic necessity, it is a survival requirement.

NEW YORK — The company that runs the Nasdaq stock market said Saturday that hackers had penetrated a service that handles confidential communications between public companies and their boards.

The service run by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. carries strategic information for about 300 companies. The company said it appears no customer data was compromised.

Nasdaq OMX said the hacking attempts did not affect its trading systems. Nasdaq is the largest electronic securities trading market in the U.S. with more than 2,800 listed companies.

The targeted application, Directors Desk, is designed to make it easier for companies to share documents with directors between scheduled board meetings. It also allows online discussions and Web conferencing within a board.

Since board directors have access to information at the highest level of a company, penetrating the service could be of great value for insider trading. The application's Web page says "Directors Desk provides multiple layers of security to protect our clients' most vital corporate records."

The Digital Domains will continue to be threats to Nations States and Corporate Board Rooms for years and decades to come.

operational risk

LEO: The Economics of Remote Digital Forensics...

At the speed of the modern global enterprise, cyber incidents are a growing component of operational risk, according to 1SecureAudit Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer Peter L. Higgins. Digital forensics intelligence provides analysts, investigators and management the ability to make more informed decisions regarding a prudent course of action. Utilizing digital evidence can mean the timely detection of unethical behavior by an employee or the intelligence nexus with kidnapping, child pornography, industrial espionage or terrorism. The legal process in a specific state or country and the preservation of evidence, chain of custody and even early case assessment are now a converging area of concern with local and state law enforcement, prosecutors and defense law firms.

"The 1SecureAudit Digital Forensics Practice capitalizes on the Digital Forensic POD powered by Evidence Talks Ltd. Our systems enable our team of subject matter experts to work on clients cases across the country or across the world," said Higgins. "Our certified professionals using the Digital Forensics POD gives a client quick access to resources that can help with an investigation without the high cost of flying people across the country or the globe."

"A good lesson learned from my first-hand experience in Afghanistan is that we depend on support back home from subject matter experts to help our soldiers remotely without the need to be in the actual combat zone," said Cristian Balan (CISSP, CHFI) of NY Computer Networks.

"We recognized that many police agencies, as well as law firms, needed an affordable solution to help clear up their digital forensics back log," said Craig Cantwell, SVDFL Forensics Laboratory Director. "By teaming up with 1SecureAudit and Cristian Balan and using our remote digital forensics POD systems, we are able to offer more clients a better economy of scale and service at a price that they can justify."

Counselors initial conferences and additional motions for discovery during litigation results in the need for additional digital forensics capacity. The Digital Forensics POD assists with case backlog especially as court dates approach rapidly or many cases at the same time. "We are excited to be working with Peter Higgins and the team at 1SecureAudit, as well as Cristian Balan of NY Computer Networks who brings his full Digital Forensic and Incident Response capabilities to the team," said Cantwell.

1SecureAudit has assembled a team of professionals that are ready to work on clients cases for a secure and timely response. With the advent of Remote Digital Forensics powered by Evidence Talks, the level of service and responsiveness that first responders can provide has increased tenfold. The firm's MetaLogic early case assessment services will ensure both civil and criminal cases are ready for an initial meeting with the legal teams. FlexResponse professional services ensures that client have the additional expertise available on demand as a case unfolds. The law enforcement organization, state or county prosecutors and private law practice now has access to experts across the country or the world at a moment's notice.

For more information visit RemoteForensics.us (http://www.RemoteForensics.us) or e-mail Dispatch@RemoteForensics.us.

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