Mr. Howard is responsible for the day-to-day intelligence gathering and distribution efforts at iDefense and is charged with developing strategic and tactical plans for the department.
He is an experienced computer security professional with proven success in the utilization of network intelligence for network defense. Prior to joining iDefense, Mr. Howard led the intelligence gathering activities at Counterpane Internet Security and ran Counterpane's global network of Security Operations Centers (SOCs).
Mr. Howard served in the US Army for 23 years in various command and staff positions involving information technology and security and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2004. He spent the last two years of his career as the US Army's Computer Emergency Response Team Chief (ACERT) where he coordinated network defense, network intelligence and network attack operations for the Army's global network. Mr. Howard holds an MS in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School and an Engineering degree from the United States Military Academy, where he also taught computer science later in his military career.
Topic:
Taking Virtual Worlds Seriously: Implications to the Intelligence and Law Enforcement Communities
Given the anticipated pervasiveness of multi-user online environments (MOEs), intelligence and law enforcement communities (ILECs) worldwide should now spend some portion of their resource budget to monitor, track and understand how these MOEs progress over the next 15 years and to actively engage in these environments in preparation for future missions.
As Internet technologies progress, it is not unlikely that these MOEs will become the successor interface to the Web browser for Internet commerce, social interaction or whatever new Internet use may emerge in the future. Indeed, these MOEs may combine into one “Metaverse.” This Metaverse could potentially provide new and unique opportunities in the areas of extremist group recruitment and penetration, covert operations planning, new tradecraft and require protecting virtual assets. This report discusses the current state of MOEs, predicts future trends for these environments during the next 15 years and suggests areas that the ILECs should consider investing their resources in today to be prepared for the future.