Fusion Centers

So the Grugq does great stand up - his timing and sense of using words is amazing. But it is important to remember that when I met him, a million years ago, he was not pontificating. He was, as I was, working for @stake and on the side writing Solaris kernel rootkits. Since then he's spent a couple decades sitting in cyber-land, getting written up by Forbes, and hanging out in Asia talking to actual hackers about stuff. My point is that he's a native in the lingo, unlike quite a lot of other people who write and talk about the subject.

Which is why I found his analysis of Chinese Fusion Centers (see roughly 35 minutes in) very interesting. Because if you're building cyber norms or trying to enforce them, you have to understand the mechanisms other countries use to govern their cyber capabilities all the way to the ground floor. It's not all "confidence building measures" and other International Relations Alchemy. I haven't been able to find any other open source information on how this Fusion Center process works in China, which is why I am pointing you at this talk. [UPDATE: here is one, maybe this, also this book]

Likewise, the perspectives of foreign SIGINT programs that the US has decided to Gerrymander the cyber norms process is fascinating. "What we are good at is SUPER OK, and what you are good at is NOT GOOD CYBER NORMS" is the US position according to the rest of the world, especially when it comes to our stance on economic espionage over cyber. This is an issue we need to address.