dreamdancer 0 #1 June 28, 2009 interesting... QuoteLast Wednesday, the American secretary of defence, Robert Gates, announced the US was finally getting its act together on cyberwarfare. After a couple of false starts and a good deal of bureaucratic infighting, the Pentagon is setting up a unified US Cyber Command to oversee protection of military networks against cyber threats. It will be called USCybercom and will be led by the director of the National Security Agency, Lt Gen Keith Alexander. In a memo to the joint chiefs of staff, Gates said he had directed General Kevin Chilton, head of US Strategic Command, to develop implementation plans for the new command, which he wants on his desk by the beginning of September. Gates says that he expects USCybercom to be up and running by October and to have reached "full operating capability" within a year. That is lightspeed by federal government standards, so you can bet something's up. What it signifies is official recognition by the Obama administration that the world has embarked on a new arms race. The weapons this time are malicious data-packets of the kind hitherto employed mainly by spammers, malware programmers, phishers, hackers and criminals. But whereas those operators are in business for mischief or private gain, nations will use their cyber-tools to wreak economic havoc and social disruption. We've already had a case study of how it will work. Two years ago, Estonia experienced a sustained cyberattack. It happened during a period of tension between Estonia and Russia. "For the first time," the Economist reported, "a state faced a frontal, anonymous attack that swamped the websites of banks, ministries, newspapers and broadcasters; that hobbled Estonia's efforts to make its case abroad. Previous bouts of cyberwarfare have been far more limited by comparison: probing another country's internet defences, rather as a reconnaissance plane tests air defences." The onslaught was of a sophistication not seen before, with tactics shifting as weaknesses emerged. Individual "ports" (firewall gates) of mission-critical computers in, for example, Estonia's telephone exchanges were targeted. The emergency number used to call ambulance and fire services was out of action for more than an hour. And so on. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/28/cyber-warfare-internet-attacksstay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
