May 9, 2020
Am Yisrael Chai!
I love the Merkava IV, Israel's main battle tank.
The shape, the versatility, the power!
Complete fighting awesomeness.
The new "Merkava IV Barak" (scheduled for deployment in 2021) will even have artificial intelligence (AI) for advanced battle management systems.
I wish we had the Merkava during the Holocaust and could've given the Nazi bastards what they rightfully deserved.
Never again! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
August 21, 2017
Navy Under Attack?
The Navy destroyer collided early today with an oil tanker off of Singapore.
10 sailors are missing and there is significant hull damage.
This is the 4th known accident just this year of our Navy vessels in Asia waters.
And previously I wrote incredulously about the last Navy collision with a massive container ship in June that resulted in 7 dead.
How do U.S. Navy ships with the most advanced sensors, navigation, weapons, and command and controls systems in the world--that are supposed to be protecting us--just simply collide with other ships like toys in a bathtub?
These Navy ships are a vital projection of U.S. might, and are supposed to be able to keep the worst foes away and keep our dedicated men and women warfighters safe at sea--whether from bomb-laden terrorist attack speed boats to anti-access/area denial missiles and all threats from on, above, or below.
Yet, they just keep crashing...
There was supposedly some buzz online about a stealthy new cyber weapon that is attacking our ships and making them useless and helpless pieces of (G-d forbid) floating junk at sea or perhaps enabling them to be hacked and electronically commandeered and controlled in order to crash them.
Either way, how many collisions does it take for this to become a concerning problem with our Navy's ability to manage the ships under their command and be ever war-ready.
Our ships are a major element of our national strength and security, and loss of control implies a potentially great risk to our nation.
We need our Navy and their tremendous people, assets, and expertise to safeguard our people, freedom, and democracy.
A few months ago, there was a hackathon to test the Navy's systems' security--and most certainly, this is a crucial type of test that we potentially face every day in real life.
These are challenging times for everything cybersecurity, so let's make sure we have all the capabilities we need and are fully up to the task to defend ourselves and take out our enemies--it's not just our Navy in the spotlight and at risk. ;-)
(Source Photo: With attribution to CNN and adapted from here)
Navy Under Attack?
June 4, 2015
Losing Deadly Control
This after a prior incident in December where ebola had been mishandled and a technician potentially exposed.
Again last August, they announced that a lab had accidentally cross-contaminated benign bird flu virus with a deadly strain of it.
And there are at least five other major mishaps just since 2009 including more with anthrax and bird flu as well as with Brucella and botulism--these involved everything from using improper sterilization and handling techniques to inadvertent shipments of deadly live germs.
Also in July, the CDC discovered six vials of LIVE smallpox in an unused storage room at the NIH.
This is reminiscent of similar gaffes by the military with an inadvertent shipment in 2007 by the Air Force of six nuclear warheads while the crew was unaware that they were even carrying it.
And here we go again (a doozy this time), information was disclosed in 2013 that we nearly nuked ourselves (specifically North Carolina) with 2 hydrogen bombs (260 times more powerful than that exploded on Hiroshima) in 1961.
Yes, mistakes happen, but for weapons of mass destructions that we are talking about here, there are layers of safeguards that are supposed to be strictly in place.
After each incident, it seems that some official acknowledges the mistakes made, says sorry, and claims things are going to be cleaned up now.
But if the same or similar mistakes are made over and over again, then what are we really to believe, especially when millions of lives are at stake?
We have too much faith in the large bureaucratic system called government that despite how well it could be run, very often it isn't and is prone to large and dangerous errors and miscalculations.
With all due respect for our experts in these areas, we need to spend a lot more time and effort to ensure the safety of our most dangerous stockpiles--be it of nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological origin.
We can't afford any more mistakes--or the next one could be more than just a simple (not) embarrassment.
What good is all the preparation to win against our enemies, if we are our own worst enemy or we have meet the enemy and it is us! ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Losing Deadly Control
September 13, 2014
6 D's Of Cyberwar
On the offensive side, you want to destroy, deny, degrade, disrupt, and deceive.
"Unlike World War II code breaking, cyber attacks offer the potential to not just read the enemy's radio, but to seize control of the radio itself."
- Step 1: Infiltrate the enemy's networks and communications and gather/exfiltrate information.
- Step 2: Compromise the enemy's information either by:
1) Corrupting the enemy's information, planting misinformation, sewing erroneous reports, and causing poor decision-making.
2) Taking control of their networks, disabling or jamming them, and disrupting their command and control or harming their critical infrastructure and causing mass confusion, destruction, and death.
Examples are "not merely to destroy the enemy's tanks, but to make them drive in circles--or even attack each other" or to cyber attack an enemies control systems for electricity, dams, transportation, banking, and so on.
With the ability to steal information, sow misinformation, seize control, or even stop the information flow altogether, cyberwar is not just another weapon in our arsenal, but "a tool to help achieve the goals of any given operation."
On the flip side, you want to defend against the enemy's use of cyberspace to hurt us.
We need to continue to get serious about cyberwarfare and cybersecurity and become the masters in the information domain, and quickly. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
6 D's Of Cyberwar
March 9, 2014
SCADA in Pictures
SCADA in Pictures
March 8, 2014
Security Is A Joke!
Fascinating video with Dan Tentler on the Shodan Search Engine...which CNN calls the "scariest search engine on the Internet."
The search engine crawls the Internet for servers, webcams, printers, routers, and every type of vulnerable device you can imagine.
It collects information on more than 500 million devices per month and that was as of last year, so it's already probably a lot more.
Tentler shows the unbelievable amounts and type of things you can access with this, including our critical infrastructure for the country --from utilities to traffic lights, and power plants:
- Private webcams
- Bridges
- Freeways
- Data Centers
- Polycoms
- Fuel cells
- Wind farms
- Building controls for lighting, HVAC, door locks, and alarms
- Floor plans
- Power meters
- Heat pump controllers
- Garage doors
- Traffic control systems
- Hydroelectric plants
- Nuclear power plant controls
- Particle accelerators
- MORE!!!!
Aside from getting information on the IP address, description of the devices, locations (just plug the longitude and latitude into Google for a street location), you can often actually control these devices right from YOUR computer!
The information is online, open to the public, and requires no credentials.
- "It's a massive security failure!"
- "Why is this stuff even online?"
Where is our cyber leadership????
>>>Where is the regulation over critical infrastructure?
If there is a heaven for hackers, this is it--shame on us. :-(
Security Is A Joke!
March 6, 2014
Beware of Botnets
Interesting video demonstration of how botnets work and can literally take over your computer.
In essence, your computer becomes a zombie under the command and control of the botnet sender.
Computers get infected through a trojan or worm, and then the sender has you--they control your computer and information.
Generally, they do this to send spam, steal information, or send out other malware, all under anonymity.
Once infected, the sender has complete control over your computer and can exfiltrate, delete, or change your data, turn on the keyboard lights, add a tail to your mouse, and even format your hard drive.
The malware often can even disable your firewall.
The sender can turn on a keylogger and log your keystrokes, and capture your user ids and passwords to banking and financial institutions, and draw out your money.
The video demos an example of botnets with a variant of the Zeus trojan.
Worth a watch.
Makes me wonder whether our adversaries are infecting more and more computers, until they have almost everyone--eventually a virtual army.
Then at the time of their choosing, they can conduct one big massive attack, or incremental ones, logging into peoples accounts, stealing their identities and savings, sending out misinformation, destroying data and computers en masse.
We need to be aware of what's possible, maybe even probable.
Is your computer infected and you don't even know it yet?
Beware of Botnets
January 20, 2013
Under The Beautiful Sea
Under The Beautiful Sea
May 19, 2012
Preparing For All Hell To Break Loose--The "Doomsday Plane"
Diane Sawyer from ABC News has a great piece here on the Flying Fortress, our Airborne Command Center, for the President and a 50-member entourage including the DefSec and the Joint Chiefs, to manage the United States response and retaliation should a worst-case situation happen--such as a nuclear, chemical, or biological attack.
The plane has been referred to as The Doomsday Plane, Flying Fortress, Airborne White House, Airborne Arc, and The E-4B Nightwatch.
Located at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, this plane is on constant high-alert and ready 24 x 7 x 365--it is airborne within 5 minutes notice!
According to Ideas and Discovery Magazine, there are actually 4 planes--the most-technologically advanced 747s in the world.
Built based on more than $2 billion in research, these planes are the most expensive in the world, fly 40 miles per hour faster than regular 747s, can stay in the air for about 3 days straight with in-air refueling, and are shielded from thermo-nuclear radiation and electromagnetic pulses.
The planes are protected by 60 Air Force special forces troops, have their own on-board maintenance teams, and precision technical communication specialists.
The planes have an area for battle staff to assess the situation and draw up action plans and a technical control facility for managing surveillance and command, control, and communications to issue encrypted commands on "virtually all frequencies" through 67 satellite dishes and antennas on the roof.
They can even communicate with submarines by dropping a 5 mile rope with a transceiver into the ocean below.
These planes stand ready to evacuate the President and his staff in the case of a national emergency.
"The commander-in-chief can then send orders to troops and personnel, communicate with allied governments, or update the American people on the situation."
While it has far less amenities than Air Force One, this high-tech doomsday plane is very cool indeed.
What I admire the most about this plane is not even the technology per se, but the planning and risk management that go into preparation for something "really bad" happening.
While some people think emotionally that preparing for disaster is almost tantamount to pushing for one to actually occur, really that is an emotional reaction and denial of reality anchored in fear.
Like insurance, you hope you never need it, but are really glad you have it, when all hell breaks loose!
Perhaps, we can all learn something for ourselves here as well, that (disaster) preparedness can be scary and expensive, but we all need to have a plan and make it a good one.
Preparing For All Hell To Break Loose--The "Doomsday Plane"
December 16, 2011
Decloaking The Adversary
Initially, the word coming out was it was a mishap, an accident, but the Iranians claimed otherwise--that they brought it down.
Who believed that they could actually do that?
Then there was word that the craft being displayed by the Iranians was a fake, a mock-up, only to reversed with a confirmation, as reported in Christian Science Monitor, that the drone "is almostly certainly the one lost by U.S. forces."
Well now, InformationWeek is reporting (16 December 2011) that Iran really did bring down the stealth drone as well as how they claim to have done it.
First they jammed the communications of the RQ-170 Sentinel, so that with its command, control, and communications (C3) no longer intact, it was forced to go into autopilot and rely on GPS signals to find its way.
Then, the Iranians spoofed the GPS signal making the Sentinel think it was landing at a U.S. base rather than right into hostile territory.
If this is true, then not only is all the captured sensitive technology aboard the craft (such as radar, fuselage, coating, and electronics) in jeopardy of being comprised by reverse engineering, but also as the article states, the Iranians may have demonstrated the means to be able to literally "divert any GPS-guided missiles launched at targets inside its borders."
Quite a scary thought when according to Reuters reports, Iran is less than a year from going nuclear!
So what is the truth and what is misinformation (PsyOps) to confuse or outwit the enemy and how much does any of that really matter if the Iranians have possession of our advanced technology along with the time and the nefarious partners to study it and use it against us?
Or perhaps, this is a great ruse by us and we intended for the Iranians to get the drone--tick, tick, tick... ;-)
We live in a new sophisticated world of electronic and cyber warfare and that combined with nukes makes for some truly dangerous scenarios.
Finally, we should never underestimate the capabilities or intent of our adversaries--surprise may be the the most potent enemy of them all.
(Source Photo: here)
Decloaking The Adversary
October 14, 2011
EMP Cybergeddon
The Economist (15 October 2011) in an article called Frying Tonight describes how "warfare is changing as weapons that destroy electronics, not people, are deployed on the field of battle."
Here a brief summary:
During the Cold War, the notion was to explode an atom bomb high in the atmosphere (i.e. a High-Altitude EMP or HEMP) "to burn out an enemies electrical grid, telephone network, and possibly even the wiring of his motor vehicles."
Today, that principle is being applied in smaller weapons using microwaves---from powerful batteries or reactive chemicals that generate high-energy radio frequencies.
By zapping electronics, EMPs can take down enemy missiles, destroy command, control, and communications capability, and stop in their tracks everything from enemy tanks to planes and speed boats.
EMP weapons are already being deployed:
- Fighter planes are being developed with EMP capabilities using the active electronically scanned array (AESA) as defensive weapons against air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, while other planes (like the "Growler") are being outfitted with offensive EMP capabilities.
- Ships too are being armed with EMP guns to defend against high-speed boat "swarms" or to defend against pirates.
- Land vehicles will be armed with EMP cannons such as the Radio-Frequency Vehicle Stopper that can stall enemy vehicles' engines or the Active Denial System used as a heat-ray to disperse crowds.
At the same time, defenses against EMPs are being deployed, such as Faradays cages--which are enclosures of conducting material often in a mesh pattern that protects electrical equipment from getting fried.
What is important to note though is that EMPs are not just battlefield weapons--they can take out our everyday electrical and cyber systems.
A Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report to Congress (21 July 2008) called High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and High Power Microwave (HPM) Devices: Threat Assessments states "Several nations, including sponsors of terrorism, may currently have a capability to use EMP as a weapon for cyber warfare or cyber terrorism to disrupt communications and other parts of the U.S. critical infrastructure."
The EMP Commission reported that EMP "creates the possibility of long-term, catastrophic consequences for national security."
One of the major concerns is the "cascading effects" that a loss of electrical infrastructure would cause in terms of people being unable to obtain basic life necessities and thereby resulting in that "many people may ultimately die."
The report finds EMP weapons to be an "attractive asymmetric option" for our adversaries, and that analysts find that "it could possibly take years for the United States to recover fully from the resulting widespread damage."
Therefore, it is critical that we increase our cyber security capabilities not only in terms of fighting conventional malware attacks from within the cyber realm, but we must be thinking in ernest about energy weapons directed at us from without.
We must continue to harden our defenses, invest in new technologies and countermeasures to thwart the enemy, develop punishing offensive capabilities, as well as prepare for the possibility of a strike against our homeland.
Although called "human-safe" (and aside from the traditional weapons of mass destruction), EMPs may be actually one of the most devastating weapons of all to a society dependent of technology.
(Source Photo: here)
EMP Cybergeddon
April 15, 2011
A Combat Vehicle That Rocks and Rolls
A Combat Vehicle That Rocks and Rolls
September 3, 2010
What's In An IT Acronym
In the military and public safety world, information technology is often discussed in broader strategic and operational terms.
For example, in the Coast Guard, it is referred to as C4&IT--Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Information Technology.
In the Department of Defense, they often use the term C4ISR--Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance.
According to GovTech Magazine, some public safety agencies (i.e. law enforcement and firefighting) often use another version of this, namely 4CI--Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence.
The article provides some simple straightforward definitions for these (although perhaps skewed for first responders), as follows:
"- Command: The authority and responsibility for effectively using available resources, and for organizing, directing, coordinating and controlling personnel and equipment to fulfill a mission.
- Control: The ability to issue orders or directions, with the result that those directions are carried out.
- Communications: The most essential element. Communications between responders on the ground and command staff are critical to ensure that both groups have a common operating picture of the situation.
- Computers: They process, display and transport information needed by commanders, analysts and responders. Today this increasingly includes mobile devices, such as laptops and smartphones.
- Intelligence: The product of the collection, processing, integration, analysis, evaluation and interpretation of all available relevant information."
While these capabilities are all critical to mission performance, I am not sure why we have all these variations on the same theme, but at least, we all agree on the 4Cs or is it C4?
What's In An IT Acronym
August 8, 2009
What China’s Bullet Trains Can Teach Us About Governance
One of the foundations of this great country is that we believe in respecting the rights of the individual. This belief is founded on the Judeo-Christian doctrine that every life is valuable and the loss of even one life is like the loss of an entire world.
The rights of the individuals are enshrined in the Bill of Rights that establishes what we consider our fundamental human rights, such as freedom of speech, press, religion, due process, eminent domain, and many others.
The flip side of the protection of individual rights—which is sacred to us—is that it may occasionally come at some “expense” to the collective. This can occur when those individuals who may be adversely affected by a decision, hinder overall societal progress. For example, one could argue that society benefits from the building of highways, clean energy nuclear plants, even prison facilities. Yet, we frequently hear the refrain of “not in my backyard” when these projects are under consideration.
In my neighborhood, where a new train line is proposed, there are signs up and down the street, of people adversely affected, opposing it—whether in the end it is good, bad or indifferent for the community as a whole.
So on one hand we have the rights and valid concerns of the individual, yet on the other hand, we have the progress of the collective. Sure, there are ways to compensate those individuals who are adversely affected by group decisions, but the sheer process of debate—however valuable and justified, indeed—may slow the overall speed of progress down.
Why is this an especially critical issue now?
In a high speed networked world with vast global competition—nation versus nation, corporation versus corporation—speed to market can make a great deal of difference. For example, the speed of the U.S. in the arms and space race with Soviet Union left just one global superpower standing. Similarly, many companies and in fact whole industries have been shut down because they have been overtaken, leapfrogged by the competition. So speed and innovation does matter.
For example, in the field of information technology, where Moore’s Law dictates a new generation of technology every two years of so, the balance of speed to modernization with a foundation of sound IT governance is critical to how we must do business.
Fortune Magazine has an article called “China’s Amazing New Bullet Train (it leaves America in the Dust!)”
China’s new ultra-modern rail system will be almost 16,000 miles of new track running train at up to 220 miles per hours by 2020. China is investing their economic stimulus package of $585 billion strategically with $50 billion going this year alone to the rail system. This compares with the U.S. allocating only $8 billion for high-speed trains over the next three years. Note: that the high speed Amtrak Acela train between Boston and Washington, DC goes a whopping average speed of 79 mph.
One of the reasons that China’s free market is credited with amazing economic progress—for example, GDP growth this year projected at 8.3% (in the global recession)—is their ability to retain some elements of what the military calls a “command and control” structure. This enables decisions to get made and executed more quickly than what others may consider endless rounds of discourse. The down side of course is that without adequate and proper discussion and debate, poor decisions can get made and executed, and individuals’ human rights can get overlooked and in fact sidelined. (Remember the shoddy school construction that resulted in almost 7000 classrooms getting destroyed and many children dying in the Earthquake in China in May 2008?)
So the question is how do we protect the individual and at the same time keep pace—and where possible, maintain or advance our societal strategic competitive advantage?
It seems that there is a cost to moving too slowly in terms of our ability to compete in a timely fashion. Yet, there is also a cost to moving too quickly and making poorly vetted decisions that do not take into account all the facts or all the people affected. Either extreme can hurt us.
What is important is that we govern with true openness, provide justice for all affected, and maintain a process that helps—and does not hinder—timely decisions action.
We cannot afford to make poor decisions—these are expensive—nor do we have the luxury of getting caught up in “analysis paralysis.”
Of course, there are many ways to approach this. One way is to continue to refine our governance processes so that they are just to the individual and agile for our society by continuing to simplify and streamline the decision process, while ensuring that everyone is heard and accounted for. Recently we have seen the use of new information sharing and collaboration technologies, like those provided through social media—wikis, blogs, social networks and more—that can help us to do exchange ideas and work together faster than ever before. Embracing these new technologies can help us to pick up the pace of the vetting process while at the same time enabling more people than ever to participate.
Perhaps social media is one of the only things faster than China’s new bullet trains in helping us to progress how we do business in the 21st century.
What China’s Bullet Trains Can Teach Us About Governance
October 7, 2008
Holographic TV and Enterprise Architecture
CNN reported on 6 October 2008 that “Holographic television to become reality.”
Of course, the TV piece of it is only the tip of the iceberg, because 3-D holographic technology can be used in our organizations for all sort of presentations (forget about simple PowerPoint slideshows anymore), video-teleconferencing (think CISCO Telepresence on steroids), desktop computer applications (think Office and Internet applications that take place literally on your desk rather than on a flat screen). Also, holographic technology will be able to be applied to specialized areas such as tele-medicine (for example, battlefield surgery), more realistic professional training (all kinds), and enhanced command and control functions (such as common and user-defined operational picture for defense, law enforcement, and Intel), and much more.
Why is all this now seen as possible?
Recently, researchers at the University of Arizona had a major “breakthrough in rewritable and erasable holographic systems.” This is “prerequisite for any type of moving holographic technology,” like a television where “images would need to be changing multiple times each second,” says Dr Nasser Peyghambarian.
Dr.T ung H. Jeong, a retired physics professor at Lake Forest College outside Chicago, says that “We are moving toward the possibility of holographic TV…It has now been shown that physically , it’s possible.”
Peyghambarian believes that this “technology could reach the market within five to ten years.”
The challenge will be to produce it cheap enough to make it viable for the mass market.
As with most technologies that reach a basic level of maturity and profitability, competitors will rush in, drive down costs and commoditize the product.
We can look forward to this tremendous evolution in the way we watch and interact with information, applications, entertainment, training, and social media.
Users will have a richer and fuller experience by virtue of using this technology. It is the job of the enterprise architect to identify new technologies like this for our organizations and to plan the way ahead for their alignment with the business, adoption and use.
Holographic technology will change the way we conduct our operations in business, government, and our personal lives.
Holographic TV and Enterprise Architecture