Showing posts with label Cyber Weapons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cyber Weapons. Show all posts

June 9, 2013

Turnkey Cyberwar

Interesting article by Noah Shachtman in Wired about how the Pentagon is gearing up for cyberwar.

It's called Plan X and it's being pursued by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The idea is for cyber warfare to be conducted like traditional kinetic warfare--where "munitions made of 1s and 0s [are] to be as a simple to launch as ones made of metal and explosives."

Cyberspace is considered a domain of warfare similar to land, sea, air, and space, and it is necessary to be able to craft offensive capabilities where "a military operator can design and deploy a cyber effect, know what it's going to accomplish...and take the appropriate level of action."

We can't fly by the seat of our pants in cyberspace any longer; we've got to have turnkey solutions ready to launch in order to defend our people and interests. 

To accomplish this, we need:

1) Surveillance: A good map of cyberspace detailing enemy cyber outposts and threats akin to the geographical maps we have identifying physical targets and dangerous movements.

2) Weapons: Reliable cyber weapons ready to take on and take out enemy networks similar to kinetic weapons ready to destroy their military hardware and infrastructure.

3) Launch protocols: The rules of engagement for attack and counterattack and the ability to intuitively and securely unleash those even faster then the turnkey capabilities with which we can respond with traditional military might. 

Whether, the cyber weapon looks like Angry Birds or some other point (at the target) and swipe (to launch at them) interface is almost beside the point--what is key is that we are ready to fight like hell in cyberspace, win uncontested, and keep the peace again. ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Great Beyond)
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February 27, 2013

Cyberweapons Power Up

In you haven't heard of Project Aurora, this is a wonderful segment from 60 Minutes on this cyberwar project. 

Faced with some of the worst case scenarios for cybergeddon, Idaho National Labs set out in 2007 to test what would happen to a 27-ton power generator if the researchers hacked into it from a mere laptop. 

The turbine was sent instructions that would essentially tear itself apart--and in the video you can see what happened--it shudders, shakes, smokes, and ultimately destroys itself. 

The test was a grand success demonstrating our capabilities to conduct cyberwar operations against an adversary.  

Interestingly, Reuters reported the Symantec researchers "uncovered a version of Stuxnet from the end of 2007 that was used to destroy two years later about 1,000 Iranian centrifuges used in their Natanz nuclear uranium enrichment facility for alleged development of weapons of mass destruction. 

The flip side of this cyberwar test is the realization of the potential blowback risk of cyberweapons--where adversaries can use similar technology over the Internet against our critical infrastructure--such as SCADA industrial control systems for the power grid, water treatment, manufacturing, and more--and cause potentially catastrophic events.

As stated toward the end of the video, this is a type of "pre 9/11 moment" where we identify a serious threat and our vulnerability and we need to act to prevent it--the question is will we? 

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June 1, 2012

Cyberwar, You're On

There was significant news this week about the U.S. and Israel making major inroads with cyberwar capabilities

First, the New York Times today (1 June 2011) writes about alleged Bush and Obama administrations' "increasingly sophisticated [cyber] attacks on the computer systems that run Iran's main nuclear enrichment facilities"--sabotaging as many as a 1000 centrifuges, delaying their deadly program by as much as 2 years, as well as conducting cyber espionage to strengthen our negotiating hand. 

The cyber offensive program code-named Olympic Games allegedly involved cyber weapons codeveloped by the United States' National Security Agency and Israel's advanced cyber corps, Unit 8200.

The malware included such programs such as Stuxnet, Duqu, and The Flame and according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek (30 May 2012) may date as far back to 2007.

These cyber attacks have been viewed as the best hope of slowing the Iranian's sinister nuclear program while economic sanctions have a chance to bite. 

Additionally cyber attacks were viewed preferentially over using traditional kinetic military options and potentially causing a regional war in the Middle-east. 

At the same time, the use of cyber weapons is a double-edged sword--if we use it on others, this may encourage cyber proliferation and it's eventual use on us--and as the NYT writes, "no country's infrastructure is more dependent on computer systems and thus, more vulnerable to attack than the United States."

Therefore, it was good to see in The Washington Post yesterday (30 May 2012) that the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is pursuing Plan X--"ambitious efforts to develop technologies to improve its cyberwarfare capabilities, launch effective attacks, and withstand likely retaliation."

"If they achieve it, they're talking about being able to dominate the digital battlefield just like they do the traditional battlefield."
The "five-year $110 million research program" is seeking to accomplish three major goals in arming U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade for cyber war:

1) Mapping Cyberspace--create realtime mapping of the entire cyberspace and all its devices for commanders to use in identifying targets and disabling them and seeing enemy attacks. 

2) Building A Survivable O/S--Just like DARPA invented the Internet as a survivable messaging and communication system, so too, they want to develop a battle-ready operating system for our computers (like a tank) "capable of launching attacks and surviving counterattacks."

3) Develop (Semi-)Autonomous Cyber Weapons--so cyber commanders can engage in "speed-of-light attacks and counterattacks using preplanned scenarios that do not involve human operators manually typing in code."

Just to be clear, with cyber warfare, we are not just talking about computers taking out other computers--and end there, but rather this is where computers take out computers that are controlling critical infrastructure such as the power grid, transportation systems, financial systems, supply chain, command, control, and communications, weapons systems, and more.

"Cyberwar could be more humane than pulverizing [targets]...with bombs," but I doubt it will be. 

Imagine, everything you know coming to a complete halt--utter disruption and pandemonium--as well as the physical effects of that which would ensue--that's what cyber war is all about--and it is already on the way. 

So as, Richard M. George, a former NSA cyberdefense official stated: "Other countries are preparing for a cyberwar. If we're not pushing the envelope in cyber, somebody else will."

It is good to see us getting out in front of this cyber security monster--let's hope, pray, and do everything we can to stay on top as the cyberspace superpower. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal taken of mural at National Defense University, Washington D.C.)


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