Showing posts with label Information Warfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Information Warfare. Show all posts

July 25, 2018

In the Know Or Dark

So here is one way that some people can (try to) manipulate you--positively or negatively. 

They can help either to keep you "in the know" or "in the dark."

As we all know by now, information is power!

When you're in the know--you are a trusted agent and a valuable resource; you have more dots and more connections between the dots to make; you are able to analyze what's happening and make better decision going forward; you can lead with knowledge, wisdom, and hopefully understanding. People come to you for advice, guidance, and because you are a true asset to the team, your superiors, and the organization. 

When you're in the dark--you are untrusted and unvalued, you may actually be seen as the enemy who needs to be marginalized, put out or taken out! You are kept out of meetings, uninformed or misinformed, and so you become more and more intellectually worthless. Further, others are implicitly or explicitly told that you are poisonous and not to get caught up in the pending slaughter.  A colleague of mine put it this way: "Don't get between a man and his firing squad."   

So with others, there can be information alliances as well as information warfare. 

To a great extent, you are responsible for keeping yourself in the know. You need to build relationships, bridges, and networks. You need to read, observe, and talk to lots of people. You need time to digest and analyze what you learn.  And you must build your information store so that it is ready and actionable. 

But to another extent, there are others--superiors, competitors, bullies, abusers--who just might seek to keep you in the dark and bring you down. Not everyone is your friend...some maybe just the opposite. (Wouldn't it be nice, if we all were just friends!) But showing you the intellectual ass of the group is a powerful nut that once superimposed as an image, cannot be easily distilled. There is plenty of groupthink to go around. And taking out a perceived enemy diffuses their power to everyone else.  What a lousy coup by some nasty f*ckers!

Why some friend and others foe you--who the heck knows. Perhaps some is chemistry; some is tit for tat; some is personal bias and bigotry; and some just the crapshoot of fate. 

In the end, keep doing your part to enhance your value, your friendships, and your integrity. The rest, you have to be vigilant about and realize not everyone wants the lights kept on. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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June 9, 2018

Dr. Insane and Meshuggenah Island

So I want you to know that there is a very thin line between fantasy and reality. 

There are those who want you to not only question reality, but also to accept alternative deceptions. 

They want to substitute fantasy and conspiracy and their version of "truth" for what is happening and real or intentionally phony. 

But (more) fake news and lies are not real news and truth. 

They ask questions, and they provide "answers."

But the answers are more often contrived to make you think they are a reality when they are brainwashing and mindf*cking you. 

They show you maps and pictures--it is nothing but entertainment to sow fear and for mass hysteria and distortion. 

Dr. Insane is running her own Meshuganah Island. 

You can easily get caught up in it. 

But I caution you that there is a thin, thin line between fantasy and reality. 

It's not a game.

The game and joke are on you. 

Misinformation, psychological operations throw you off track. 

Yes, there are secrets--there have to be. 

Not everything is for everyone to know at the moment.

But the world is not run on: I say, he says, she says. 

There is power. There are plans. There is execution. 

Randomness sometimes. 

Intent sometimes. 

Corruption all too often. 

You can't really know. 

Were we smart or just plain lucky?

Someday, the unknown becomes known, but not on rants and raves. 

Follow the data carefully and question it to make sure. 

In the end, the King of Kings is guiding everything and therefore there is no reason to fear. 

The world is going according to plan.

Fear leads to you wanting to gain control. 

Some people want to vent or to pretend they know something when they don't. 

There is no reason to conjecture and cross with Dr. Insane into Meshuganah Island.

Making things up makes things worse.

What we do have to do is to keep good winning over evil with truth. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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May 1, 2018

Information Is Power

Just wanted to share something I heard and liked about data and information:
"Everything is a record, record, record
in a table, table, table."
Can everything in life really be reduced to lines of records, with fields of data in tables of information?

This is the information age!

Analytics and Big Data rule!

Knowledge is power!

In any conflict, we seek information dominance and supremacy!

Artificial intelligence is the future!

Records are unique with their own sys.id.

Creativity and innovation are also records in the table--even if they are the one in a million. 

The more records and tables--the more dots and connections between them--the more intelligence we can glean. 

Yes, everything is a record, record, record in a table, table, table. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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October 29, 2017

Who Won The Election? Russia

So it turns out that the all important election of 2017 for the 45th President of the United States...

Was not between President Trump and Hillary Clinton at all.

Oh no.

Because who really won the election is Russia!

From the dossier to the uranium deal, charges of collision and stealing the election, the investigations, special counsel, weakened White House, chaos, confusion, misinformation, fake news, and alternative facts.

This is called INFORMATION WARFARE. 

All of these serve not only to weaken our elections and political system, and unnerve the trust of the American people, it wastes the time and efforts of our elected officials and media chasing ghosts. 

When you can't win an election fair and square, you pull out the McCarthyism card invoking fear of Russia and provoking political repression here at home. 

It's the "Commie bastards," of course that are interfering in our democracy.

But really it wasn't!  

Unless you count a hundred thousand dollars or so of political ads and botnets in a billion dollar plus election as serious meddling--not

Basically, we are talking a self-inflicted national wound--that keeps bleeding and bleeding. 

Our country is going on a wild goose chase--looking for something, turning over stones, but what they find--how significant is any of it?

The real winner again is Russia.

They are strengthening themselves in the world. 

They have the West on edge.

Our politicians and system of government is weakened.

We waste time, while Russia takes over Crimea, wins big in Syria, militarizes the Arctic, partners with China, and advances their world agenda. 

We are distracted with eyes off the ball--spending days, weeks, months, and years in a tizzy pointing fingers at each other, seeing shadows, scared of ghosts, and punching into the air. 

Russia won the election for sure. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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October 8, 2015

Please Tell Us Your Diabolical Intentions

So Russia is escalating in Syria (from devastating air strikes to sea-launched cruise missiles, and now a possible land offensive) and even considering expanding into Iraq. 


"We believe this is a fundamental mistake."  --Maybe a mistake for us, but not for Russia who is wielding their mighty bear claws and showing a decisive victory!  


"We are not prepared to cooperate on strategy."  -- Is this perhaps because we don't have one, and Russia apparently does. 

"Syria is not going to turn into a proxy war between the Russia and the United States." -- Okay, so the alternative is to capitulate and give the Middle East over to Russia, like with Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. And what then will we let over to the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians next (because there's no reason for them to stop there)? 

"One of the profound difficulties dealing with Russia in Syria or elsewhere is how opaque Putin's intentions are and how the Russia system lies about what they are up to." -- Gee whiz, we can't figure out what Russia is up to as they slam Assad's opposition (that we are supporting) into smithereens? We're expecting the competition to tell us their strategy, and why should they do that? 

This last one is perhaps the most bizarre as we all implicitly understand that an adversary is not going to divulge their strategy, and moreover are using misinformation and deception to throw us off balance and advance their objectives. 

It is time for us to bring sanity back to the military equation here.

Immediately...

- Establish a no fly zone over Syria. 

- Put our own base on the ground or military assets into sharp play. 

- Issue a cease and desist ultimatum and mean it. 

The time for losing is over, and the time for winning must begin. 

We can pretend that we can look the other way and simply avoid a conflict, but all we are doing is bringing ever more devastating confrontation that much closer as we lose ground, credibility, and allies (who fear the commitment and iron hand of Russia far more than our own wavering and dubious one)--and we deceive ourselves far more than our adversaries could ever deceive us. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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September 13, 2014

6 D's Of Cyberwar

Popular Science had a interesting article that spelled out the six 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)
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June 2, 2014

Information Where We Look


I like this short video on advances in Augmented Reality by Applied Research Associates (ARA).

ARA supports DARPA's Urban Leader Tactical Response Awareness and Visualization (ULTRA-Vis) program--to develop Augmented Reality (AR) for our soldiers. 

Augmented Reality is "Virtual icons, avatars, and messages overlaid accurately on the real world."

The purpose is to know"where you are and where objects are around you" and to "access information simply by looking at them."

The interface is a heads-up wearable display, rather than an smartphone or tablet. 

The AR integrates GPS, terrain information, commercial data, and sensors.

Further, you and others using this technology will be able to tag and share data in what I would call Social Reality (a mixture of social computing and augmented reality). 

Here your world of information is augmented by other's AR views shared with you.

AR offers an enormous opportunity to make our world far richer with information everywhere we look, rather than just when we look it up. 

For it to be ultimately successful, the display will need to be worked in as an embed or overlay on our actual eyes (like a contact lens), rather than worn like Google Glass.

For the non-soldier, not every open field needs augmented reality--in fact, it would sort of spoil the natural beauty of it--but it sure won't hurt to be able to turn it on, at will, to see which flowers are blooming and perhaps, whether there just might be a snake out there too.  ;-)
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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. :-(
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February 21, 2014

Can You Trust Social Media?

Interesting article in BBC about a project underway to develop a system that will rate information on the Internet as trustworthy or not. 

Considering how quickly we get information from the Net and how easy it is to start crazy rumors, manipulate financial investors, or even cause a near panic, it would be good to know whether the source is legitimate and the information has been validated. 

Are we simply getting someone mouthing off on their opinions or what they think may happen or perhaps they are unknowingly spreading false information (misinformation) or even purposely doing it (disinformation)?

Depending how the Internet is being used--someone may be trying to get the real word out to you (e.g. from dissidents in repressive regimes) or they may be manipulating you (e.g. hackers, criminals, or even terrorists). 

To have a reliable system that tells us if information being promulgated is good or not could add some credibility and security online. 

What if that system though itself is hacked? Then lies can perhaps be "verified" as truth and truth can be discredited as falsehood. 

The Internet is dangerous terrain, and as in the life in general, it is best to take a cautious approach to verify source and message. 

The next cyber or kinetic attack may start not with someone bringing down the Internet, but rather with using it to sow confusion and disarm the masses with chaos. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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July 20, 2008

A Net-centric Military and Enterprise Architecture

Information is central to the Department of Defense’s arsenal for fighting and defeating our enemies and the ability to share information across interoperable systems in the way ahead.

National Defense, March 2008 reports that while a net-centric military is our goal, the transformation is a work in progress.

Brig. Gen. David Warner, director of command and control at DISA stated: “in this war, information is truly our primary weapon. You can’t move, you can’t shoot, if you can’t communicate.”

Yet, “the Defense Department continues to acquire stovepiped systems…the requirements change, the system grows, and then there are cost overruns. One of the first items to cut from the budget is interoperability.”

Air Force Gen. Lance L. Smith says, “the dream of a truly net-centric U.S. military will not happen overnight. But progress could be achieved within the next five to 10 years, It will be a matter of waiting for the stovepiped legacy systems to come to the end of their lifespan. If the services get onboard and stop building non-interoperable technologies now, then the new generation of net-centric communications can take over and become the norm.”

This sounds to me like the problem isn’t limited to legacy systems, but that there are still cultural, project management, and change management issues that are obstacles to achieving the net-centric goal.

The challenges are even greater and more complex when it comes to sharing information with “federal civilian agencies and foreign allies…NATO, for example, has no mechanism to ensure its members are interoperable with each other.”

Today the normal way to do business is to ‘exchange hostages’ which means sending personnel from one service, agency, or coalition partner to each other’s command centers so they can verbally relay information.” This typically takes the form of interagency operation command center, and is not very net-centric.

So we continue to have stovepipes for “communications or data sharing systems built by different agencies, armed services, or coalition partners that cannot link to each other…[yet] the U.S. military is trying to make itself more lethal, faster, and more survivable. [And] the key to doing that is the ability to share information.”

Net-centricity, interoperability, and information sharing are true cornerstones to what enterprise architecture is about, and it is where we as architects are needed to take center stage now and in the years ahead in the war on terrorism and the other challenges we will face.

From an EA perspective, we need to ensure that all of our agencies’ targets, transition plans, and IT governance structures not only include, but emphasize net-centricity and enforce it through the EA review processes and the investment review board. There is no excuse for these stovepipes to persist.
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