Is The US Ready For The Next Level Of Cyber Combat? Maybe.
Various components of the US government and military are preparing for a future of cyber espionage and warfare of a greatly heightened intensity. We at Mashable mentioned recently some of the basic construction and logistics that is going into the full-fledged launch of AFCYBER, The US Air Force’s new cyber command division. And according to a piece by David Axe of Wired.com, a number of other organizations, including the Navy, Coast Guard, and the US Army, are revving up their own respective tech squads in order to ready for any inevitable onslaughts of digital chicanery on the Web.
That said, it may interest some observers among the citizenry to know that of all abovementioned US military organizations, the Army is one which has proven most successful in combating hacking and hijacking. Simulated attempts at hacking and hijacking, to be more accurate.
As we’ve already said, the US is at a stage in which it is increasing its defenses against threats to its technological infrastructure. More manpower is being devoted to more keyboard- and mouse-based missions, and spending for those efforts is seemingly only bound to increase. And in order to test what has been created, some in-house allied forces must suit up as enemies at times. Of course, as when, say, a football team battles itself in advance of open and official gameplay, such trials are not perfect in their analysis of strengths and weaknesses. Still, they’re necessary exercises.
Working with a custom-built network constructed upon Fedora Core 8, 34 West Point cadets spent four days late last month combating hits dealt by the National Security Agency. The attacks were a mixture of SQL injections (for distraction) and an infusion of a “kernel-level rootkit” whose job was essentially the same as Sony’s infamous software exploit: scrape data and phone home. Except, well, potentially much worse results for the victim(s). Long story short, the results this year were pretty much the same as the last. As Axe explains, Army folk “placed first over the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and others, winning geek bragging rights and the privilege of holding onto a gaudy, 60-pound brass trophy festooned with bald eagles and American flags.”
Are US forces ready for what true foes are likely to unleash? Perhaps. Security is never guaranteed, however. According to Lt Col. Joe Adams, an instructor and coach at West Point, the efficient response and particular know-how of one’s core network - which Army hats displayed with quite commendable alacrity - can essentially mean victory or defeat.
Now, if West Point’s admission that its Linux- and FreeBSD-based network took but three weeks to establish is anything to go by, it’s default strength may also prove surprisingly resilient in the face of artificially-induced fault or compromise. Notch another win for open source?
mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/10/us-cyber-combat/
© Paul Glazowski for Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog, 2008. |
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