Another Woke Disaster
Publisher’s note: I was approached recently by Julio Rivera who is the author of this well written and well documented article. Mr. Rivera asked me to consider the merits of what he had to say and if I might be interested in sharing it with my readers. Since I am always open to such submissions, I welcomed it with open arms, and I’m glad I did as Mr. Rivera hits the nail on the head in his discussion of the failed administration of Joe Biden. You will find more information about Mr. Rivera and where his work can be found at the bottom of this article.
Julio Rivera: Another Woke Disaster? Will Security Challenged Biden Administration Be Capable of Closing Cyber-Gap?
Joe Biden is about a year and a half into his first, and hopefully last term, and one thing crystal clear – the United States has never faced a larger number of security issues. After beginning his term with major issues in regard to the US-Mexico border early last year as a result of the new President’s short-sighted executive order that terminated the national emergency declared by the Trump administration and established with Proclamation 9844, the ongoing construction of the border wall was halted and the subsequent months saw the development of a severe border crisis that has seen well over a million illegal border crossings since early 2021.
As a result of this disaster, that in addition to being the impetus for the resurgence in COVID-19 cases in border states at several points during the last 18 months, has provided financial support to the human trafficking operations in the Northern Triangle countries and Mexico, the Biden administration is now attempting to quietly reverse course on bad policy by authorizing the completion of the Trump-funded border wall in what is a particularly high traffic area of southern Arizona near the City of Yuma.
In addition to border failings of the past year and a half, Biden has also had to deal with some of the more devastating high-profile cyber-attacks against the United States ever, particularly in 2021. In 2021, the supply chain halting attacks that targeted Colonial Pipeline and JBS Foods rocked the American economy.
These attacks displayed the potential for disaster that exists in the theater of cyber warfare. As most countries operate at a serious disadvantage against the US militaristically, the only shot most of our enemies have at causing significant damage against the US lies in the cybersphere.
In an attempt to address these issues, this past week, the Biden administration rolled out a multi-agency initiative intended to create hundreds of new cyber apprenticeship programs with private businesses that it thinks will address the serious lack of IT staffing in both the public and private sectors. The new program draws its funding from the larger $500 million Commerce Department program named the Good Jobs Challenge.
But, like seemingly every liberal-led initiative in our current era of phony wokism, instead of concentrating on identifying the best possible candidates for these apprenticeships and creating a merit-based system, the Democrats running this show are looking to ageistly and perhaps even racistly, focus on recruiting young people, women, and minorities.
Not that there is anything wrong with offering opportunities to young people, women, and minorities, but the anti-white rhetoric that is already flowing from the administration officials tasked with initiating the program contains overtones that sound suspiciously racist.
For example, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo at a White House event this past Tuesday was quoted as saying, "We're not going to find 700,000 people if we're only looking for white men. It's not going to happen,"
One of the other new cyber-related initiatives that was recently launched by the administration centers around security for the upcoming midterm election, as the State Department announced in June that this new program will grant a reward of up to $10 million for information regarding foreign-based interference in the election.
The new initiative's international elections analyst, Marie Harf, told a recent workshop hosted by the University of Southern California Election Cybersecurity Initiative that there are fears related to potential attacks that are likely to continue into this November's midterm elections.
“Much of that concern, again, centers on Russia, and how it could exploit American divisions and seed false conspiracy theories about the integrity of our elections,” Harf said.
The Workshop’s presenters also attempted to educate those in attendance on spotting fake news, how to secure their passwords more effectively, and how they can stay safe from "phishing" scams, that involve cybercriminals sending phony emails in an effort to draw personal information like passwords and social security numbers from victims.
Joe Biden, through his ineptitude, has exposed America to an unprecedented number of dangers in just this past a year and a half. The border, dangers presented to American servicemen and women during the tragic botched Afghanistan pullout, and ongoing attacks against police officers in many major American cities, the majority of which are run by Democrats.
If the United States is to be kept safe against threats like increasing ransomware attacks and the dangers posed by state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Groups that exist in the cybersphere the next two and half years, the sadly reactive and futile Biden administration must perform at a much higher level than it has so far, as the long-term security of not only America, but of the entire free world, hinges on the United States ability to fend off the threats posed by countries like Russia, Iran, North Korea and China.
Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, the Editorial Director for Reactionary Times, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cybersecurity and politics, has been published by numerous websites and he is regularly seen on National and International news programming.
https://www.enigmasoftware.com/threat-database/ransomware/
https://www.cyclonis.com/threats/advanced-persistent-threat-apt/
https://www.reactionarytimes.com/