Friday, November 13, 2009

US Cyberwar Capability

There is a very interesting article on our Cyber Warfare capability:

In May 2007, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency, based at Fort Meade, Md., to launch a sophisticated attack on an enemy thousands of miles away without firing a bullet or dropping a bomb.

At the request of his national intelligence director, Bush ordered an NSA cyberattack on the cellular phones and computers that insurgents in Iraq were using to plan roadside bombings. The devices allowed the fighters to coordinate their strikes and, later, post videos of the attacks on the Internet to recruit followers. According to a former senior administration official who was present at an Oval Office meeting when the president authorized the attack, the operation helped U.S. forces to commandeer the Iraqi fighters' communications system. With this capability, the Americans could deceive their adversaries with false information, including messages to lead unwitting insurgents into the fire of waiting U.S. soldiers.

I'm not going to comment further, for reasons that long time readers can guess. However, this is worth your time, if Cyber War is your bag, baby.

3 comments:

  1. Alls fair in love and war. Its their tough luck they chose to be on the wrong side.

    Jim

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  2. Perhaps I might suggest the wonderful Antivirus System Pro to help the insurgents out of their predicament? I hear its quite good...

    No, I haven't let it go :)

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  3. Now, if I thought that cell phones were being used as detonators on road side bombs, and I had a green light to hack, I come up with some sort of plan.

    Let's try making phones ring randomly all over the country. One ring and disconnect. Cycling through every used number, all at once. No pattern to when.

    The first time we did it, we could send rapid response teams to the places that went "BOOM!!" to clean up and deal with any survivors.

    After that, I'll bet that some other sort of detonators were selected.

    But even after that goat-rope, creativity would be really important, and political correctness would have to stay on the bench. Sending the top leaders messages thanking them for the cooperation and information would always be fun. Even sending them the Iraqi equivalent of the Nigerian millionaire scam, or a phishing request for their bank account could provide our cyber troops with days of entertainment. And you know they are all running Windows, unpatched. Nothing like a BSOD to make you curse the fleas in your beard.

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