NATO, US gear up for cyberpunk warfare

The threat of military cyber attack must be taken seriously, according to NATO: but the alliance isn't sure what to do about it. Meanwhile, the USA is preparing not only its cyber defences, but the ability to mount network assaults. In Brussels yesterday, NATO defence ministers agreed that firm and decisive action was …

[daniel]

NATO employed Vietnamses fishing boats

Why bother with worm and zombie based DoS attacks when all you need is to pay for the diesel of a vietnamese fishing fleet?

Tell them that there is scrap copper on them there seabed, and let them dig up all the cables that connect <insert belligerant seabound countrty> to the rest of the innerneck, and physically DoS them (like they did to themselves some time back): - and then they cannot DoS you back unless they have a similar deal with someone else to take out your lines...

It worked during the US civil war (until they were disguised as grape vine leaders...)

About landlocked countries (albania etc), how about turning the routers off on links from your unfriendly nations, and ask other NATO members to do the same? Any attack that would get through would have to go through links to a neutral-ish (switzerland) or friendly (china) country, and seeing how slow access to .cn sites are today, I think that the threat could be ignored...

This would mean a huge cooperation between ISP's, cable companies and link providers alowing for a quasi-immediate, continental-wide response, and getting multinationals that operate in target/source countries to continue to operate in the same locale without prejudice after a cyberconflict.

All looks nice in theroy, but it's going to be a PITA to implement...

Cheers,

Daniel

[amanfromMars]

Softly, softly ..... catchee Monkey

And the British contingent? Too Stealthy to mention in dispatches, probably running the Show from some suitably obscure location, which would take some believing? .

Walter Mitty and Friends probably. I wonder how much is Invested into their Personal Corporate Accounts on account of all the Slush and Funds they would QuITe naturally have discovered/discover.

Pay Peanuts, get Monkeys is not wrong, and in CyberSpace, they don't even get a Look in to ITs Control Space.

I suppose Charlie Boy [HRH] would be the Man to ask, but one wouldn't necessarily expect him to reveal too much of himself with such an Enlightenment, although God knows why not. It would fit him better than be classed by the masses, as a bumbling Fool...... and would be just what Britannia Orders.... Freedom from Organised Chaos.

[James Summerson]

Screaming Fist

Hopefully the Generals will have read the whole story and realize that Screaming Fist was a disaster on a par with the Iranian Hostage Rescue attempt and the real life 'Black Hawk Down' scenario.

Much easier to hack from the Sprawl than hanging upside down from a microlight, eh?

[Jonathan Richards]

Official positions

The hyperlink says "their official position" and then leads to blogs.wired.com, fercrissakes, quoting an Agence-France Presse bulletin. Where is the real Estonian official position, maybe even with a .ee provenance?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not?

I do believe that having a special group that looks after our (economic and energy) network is a must have. At the same time, Europe and the US should have there own special attack group.

If a foreign power attacks us via the internet we must have a way to respond, if only to repel the attacks of this foreign power. I do understand that its not like the movie hackers or the like, but having the ability to correctly understand a "cyber attack" and counter this with our own attack is a must have.

Just look at the Estonian attack. We must have the ability to know for a fact who was behind it, where there location is and what they wanted if only to put diplomatic pressure on the attacking country.

I for one am for having a clear policy on cyber attacks, with defensive and offensive capabilities.

[Kurt Guntheroth]

don't need no stinking connection

Any cyber-warrier worth paying would be prepared for a connection cut. The cool thing about botnets is that they live on your target's own soil. You could failsafe 'em so that once armed, if they lose touch with the mothership they could carry out a specified program of attack. C&C for a botnet doesn't have to be fast, so dribbling commands around a cable cut or other disruption could be accomplished. After all, the whole point of the internet was survivability of the C&C network when links were severed by atomic explosions. For cold war type situations, agents in-country running otherwise respectable businesses (with fat pipes) could control cyber warfare assets as a sideline. It's all so easy.

And lets not forget the role of sabotage in cyber warfare. Our physical network infrastructure is probably not that robust. It may be easier to down the root servers with a backhoe than with a hack.

Face it, the West is naked and spreadeagled when it comes to cyber vulnerability, and probably always will be. The chinese are far less dependent on the internet for commerce. Of course, if the 'net goes down, millions of chinese teeners may attack their parents with knives, so perhaps our evil plan will unfold in a different way.

[Brendan O'Rourke]

Paying the piper.

One wonders where the Military would recruit such people from.

Just looking at how they would pay them is a problem.

With the salary ranges in my game running from the low forties up to the odd person on 70k a year this would mean they would have to start at the rank of major and all the top bods would be at least Lt Colonels.

Try http://www.armedforces.co.uk/army/listings/l0104.html for salary scales

[Matt W]

Military pay

Not quite true. Army pay is only the cash portion. There is also free/subsidised housing, health care etc. How much is your rent and insurance p.a. ?

[jon]

and the PNAC agenda rolls on...

and the PNAC agenda rolls on...

[Robert]

with a ruffle and a flourish...

I present - King of the Cyber Rifles.