Akamai: U.S. Ranks Third As World's Source Of Attack Traffic; China ranks 4th

Akamai just released its 2Q 2011 State of the Internet report. For those of you who think that China is the end-all and be-all of cyber attacks, you'll want to get a copy of this report right away. Akamai serves up to 30% of the world's Internet traffic with its Akamai Intelligent Platform; more than 604 million unique IP addresses from 238 countries and regions to be precise. In addition, Akamai runs a dark net of unadvertised honey pot systems. Since they aren't part of Akamai's production platform and aren't utilized in any way, any attempt to connect to those honeypots is interpreted as an attack. Here's the attack data from Akamai's latest report:

The geolocation of IP address isn't proof that any given nation's government is responsible for attacks emanating from servers on its soil, otherwise the Chinese government would be demanding that Secretary of State Clinton explain why the U.S. is generating so much attack traffic (instead of vice versa  which is equally wrong). What these statistics do suggest is that the U.S. government needs to start regulating the Internet Service Provider industry in this country. We have WAY too many bad ISPs operating on U.S. soil that are being used to conduct criminal acts around the world. Host Exploit's latest report shows that the U.S. hosts 5 of the 10 worst ISPs in the world, including the #1 position. 

Note that SoftLayer and The Planet are at the #11 and #12 positions. Both are located in Plano, TX whose Governor (Rick Perry) is hoping to be the Republican nominee for President. Perry has also been courting Huawei to open its North American headquarters in Texas. It seems to me like the Governor of Texas has a great opportunity to demonstrate that cybersecurity should become a priority for this country by making it a priority for the State of Texas first.

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Rick Perry Welcomes Huawei To Texas - Security Be Damned

This is what happens when a politician's knowledge about nation state cyber capabilities and operations is only as deep as a headline or a sound bite. Governor and Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Perry was courted by Huawei for months, up to and including a trip to China where he dined with Huawei's founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei. 

Yesterday's Washington Post article described the history of Huawei in Texas, dating back to 2001. In June, 2010 the State of Texas sent Perry and a delegation to the Shanghai Expo to court Huawei, ultimately resulting in Perry's announcement in October that Huawei would base its U.S. headquarters in Plano bringing hundreds of jobs and tax dollars. The fact that Huawei has been viewed as a national security threat by the U.S. government for many years apparently mean't nothing to Perry or the State of Texas legislature. There's an almost willful ignorance on the part of Perry's campaign to this fact. According to the WaPo article, Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner said that “if there are national security issues surrounding this company, they should be fully looked at.” 

Oh, really? "If" there are issues? If Perry is this ignorant about China in general and Huawei in particular, he has no business running for the office of President of the United States. 

And if the State of Texas has a Chief Information Officer*, here's a bit of free advice. If you're doing business with China, China is in your network. If Governor Perry and his staff took laptops with them to the Shanghai Expo and re-connected to their office networks when they returned, you've got a compromised network. 

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* The State of Texas CIO appears to be Karen W. Robinson and, as of July 25, 2011, she appears to be looking for a Chief Information Security Officer. The job posting can be read here. 

Related Posts:

Is Huawei A Security Risk?

Huawei's Chairwoman Worked For China's Ministry of Public Security

Huawei Symantec Hardware Powers U.S. Critical Technology Research

China's Silent Cyber Takeover

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