Security Basics mailing list archives
Re: military strike possible?
From: SMiller () unimin com
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 17:38:36 -0500
Jim, First, how do we track the culprits down and demonstrate, if not to a legal nicety, at least to a logical certainty, that there is no mistake in identification? Second, unlike most military and paramilitary personnel, hackers and crackers are usually located in neighborhoods with (other) ordinary civilians. How do we prevent what the Pentagon cavalierly refers to as "collateral damage"? Do we employ the same surgical precision demonstrated by the IDF in Gaza? Assuming that we can fulfill those requirements (I'm skeptical) I still have a problem as there is not only no statutory law, but no real custom that informs us about when a cyber act crosses the line from civilian crime to military attack. <sarcasm>Even if all else was favorable, I suggest that we might first wish to execute the culpable fool who routed such vital traffic over the public wire, and/or the bandwidth salesman who assured him that his virtual circuit was actually physically dedicated and immune to public backbone server outages</...> To keep this from becoming a political debate, I won't even go near an analysis of the actual performance of the authorities who would be charged with determining that an attack had occurred and formulating the response. I believe that a near-consensus was recently reached in this forum that the concept of propagating "beneficial" viruses to immunize the computers of the "computer illiterate" was badly flawed; IMNSHO this idea is from the same category, but is far worse... Scott Miller "Meritt James" <meritt_james@bah To: "'security-basics () securityfocus com'" .com> <security-basics () securityfocus com> cc: 10/28/2003 12:11 Fax to: PM Subject: military strike possible? Going from the premptive strike philosophy demonstrated in Mideastern countries, what are your thoughts on a military strike against (as yet unseen) "cyberterrorists" a'la http://www.msnbc.com/news/985295.asp?0si=- if there were extranational agents tampering with identified components of the infrastructure to the extent that they were risking human life? -- James W. Meritt CISSP, CISA Booz | Allen | Hamilton phone: (410) 684-6566 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forum Systems PRESIDIO: PGP / XML GATEWAY APPLIANCE The Presidio integrates PGP data encryption and XML Web Services security to simplify the management and deployment of PGP and reduce overall PGP costs by up to 80%. FREE WHITEPAPER & 30 Day Trial - http://www.securityfocus.com/sponsor/ForumSystems_security-basics_031027 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forum Systems PRESIDIO: PGP / XML GATEWAY APPLIANCE The Presidio integrates PGP data encryption and XML Web Services security to simplify the management and deployment of PGP and reduce overall PGP costs by up to 80%. FREE WHITEPAPER & 30 Day Trial - http://www.securityfocus.com/sponsor/ForumSystems_security-basics_031027 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- Re: military strike possible?, (continued)
- Re: military strike possible? J Kallberg (Oct 29)
- RE: military strike possible? matt willson (Oct 29)
- Re: military strike possible? Meritt James (Oct 30)
- Re: military strike possible? gregh (Oct 29)
- Re: military strike possible? Barry Fitzgerald (Oct 30)
- Re: military strike possible? Bruno G. San Alejo (Oct 30)
- RE: military strike possible? David Gillett (Oct 30)
- Re: military strike possible? Marcos E. Rodriguez (Oct 30)
- RE: military strike possible? Dave Killion (Oct 29)
- Re: military strike possible? Meritt James (Oct 30)
- Re: military strike possible? SMiller (Oct 29)
- Re: military strike possible? Meritt James (Oct 30)
- RE: military strike possible? Raymer, Dan (Oct 29)
- Re: military strike possible? Meritt James (Oct 30)
- Re: military strike possible? J Kallberg (Oct 30)
- RE: military strike possible? Ranjeet Shetye (Oct 30)
- Re: military strike possible? Charles Smith (Oct 30)
- RE: military strike possible? Dave Killion (Oct 30)
- RE: military strike possible? John Canty (Oct 30)
- Re: military strike possible? salgak (Oct 30)
- Re: military strike possible? SMiller (Oct 30)
(Thread continues...)