U.S. not ready for cyber attack

From Reuters: Government and industry officials report that the United States is unprepared for a major hostile attack against vital computer networks. This came after participating in a two-day "cyberwar" simulation. The game involved 230 representatives of government defense and security agencies, private companies and civil groups. It revealed flaws in leadership, planning, communications and other issues. Analysts report that there is no response or game plan. Further - There isn't really anybody in charge!

A successful attack could include failure of banking or national electrical systems. There is precedent for large scale cyber attacks. Officials cited attacks by Russia sympathizers on Estonia and Georgia as examples of modern cyber-warfare.

<- Reuters ->

Cyberattacks: The new battlefront

Barry sends in a very interesting article from the New York Times. The article documents a curious occurrences that took place several weeks leading up to the Russian invasion of Georgia.

• Weeks before bombs started falling on Georgia, a security researcher in suburban Massachusetts was watching an attack against the country in cyberspace.
• (Internet Experts at) Arbor Networks in Lexington noticed a stream of data directed at Georgian government sites containing the message: “win+love+in+Rusia.”
• Other Internet experts in the United States said the attacks against Georgia’s Internet infrastructure began as early as July 20, with coordinated barrages of millions of requests — known as distributed denial of service, or D.D.O.S., attacks — that overloaded and effectively shut down Georgian servers.

In the early '90, during the first Iraq invasion, the U.S. weakened their opponent with sustained barrages of bombs and missiles. Less than 2 decades later we are seeing clear evidence that the first steps in a sustained engagements contain bombs of a completely different caliber. Every bit as effective towards crippling the opponents ability to share and access data and disrupt communications, is the sustained attack on the internet infrastructure. This kind of attack becomes ever so much more insidious when you consider that projections have the U.S. military comprised of 20% of robotic armament in the coming decade. Disrupting the ability to communicate and control these weapons would be every bit as effective as bombing the individual units themselves with the added advantage of being faster and lest costly overall.

William Gibson and the other crafters of the Cyberpunk venue were pretty much dead on IMHO
The article is full of descriptions of not only ddos attacks but site defacement and other very inventive attacks.

<- more of the NY Times cyber attack on Georgia ->

DOD wants to prep for cyberwar offensive

U.S. military officials seeking to boost the nation's cyberwarfare capabilities are looking beyond defending the Internet: They are developing ways to launch virtual attacks on enemies. The first real question that has to be addressed is "what constitutes an act of war in cyberspace?" Officials say that the military is not looking to gear up for a first strike. Initial uses likely would be limited to diverting or killing data packets that threaten the nation's systems, the way the military may intercept a foreign ship carrying arms in international waters. Lt. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr. said that in the future, the military might rely upon network warfare to disrupt an enemy's communications system, replacing the need for conventional weapons like bombs. Elder said that during the early days of the Iraq war, rudimentary forms of cyber attacks were used by the United States, including electronically jamming Iraqi military systems and using network attacks to hinder Iraqi ground units from communicating with one another.

{ap news via Wired}

Top cop predicts robot crimewave

Boing Boing first brought this to my attention. From "The Age.com"

It seems that the head of the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty is telling is to be afraid, be very afraid.

Technology such as cloned part-robot humans used by organised crime gangs pose the greatest future challenge to police, along with online scamming, Keelty says. Mr Keelty said scams had sprung up in online virtual worlds such as Second Life, where people can spend real money via credit cards to buy products such as virtual real estate and gifts.

"Policing that is going to be quite difficult," he said.

Australian and UK police had also noticed a trend of internet pedophiles crossing into real life pedophilia, and were planning a joint operation in developing countries, he said.

"We are watching people in the virtual world convert what they are doing in the virtual world to travel to some of these countries where children are at risk," he said.

When Computers Attack

Barry just sent this this article by JOHN SCHWARTZ in the New York Times. Its a well thought out piece concerning the looming threat of CbyerWar.

Here is an excerpt, if you would like to read the full article, click the title When Computers Attack

ANYONE who follows technology or military affairs has heard the predictions for more than a decade. Cyberwar is coming. Although the long-announced, long-awaited computer-based conflict has yet to occur, the forecast grows more ominous with every telling: an onslaught is brought by a warring nation, backed by its brains and computing resources; banks and other businesses in the enemy states are destroyed; governments grind to a halt; telephones disconnect.......