funsec mailing list archives
Re: U.S. Joint Forces Command releases new irregular warfare vision
From: Jarrod Frates <jfrates.ml () gmail com>
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:10:49 -0700
On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 11:06 AM, Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah <rMslade () shaw ca> wrote:
There is something inherently odd about that statement, and intent. As in any area of security, how can you protect against threats you don't know about as effectively as against threats you do know about? Not to say that you can't attempt to protect against the unknown (and you should), but doing it at the same level doesn't seem possible. (Or wise, in terms of cost/benefit analysis and risk management.)
I don't think that conducting irregular warfare necessarily means going into an unknown situation any more than regular warfare means going into a known situation. Ambushes and feints are part of regular warfare, and can certainly make for significant unknowns to the battlefield commander. Special forces for most nations focus a great deal on irregular warfare: infiltration, intelligence gathering, sabotage, subversion, assassination, and guerrilla tactics. The specialization goes beyond typical small-unit tactics to include blending in with the local scene, and that sometimes means dressing up as a local or as a tourist to be able to walk through urban environments without attracting attention. When active in combat, they are better at hit-and-run raids than are normal infantry, who are often loathe to give up ground they've fought to take. However, as good as they may be, a typical special forces unit would find it a challenge at best to hold off an entire battalion. Massed formations are where regular forces come in. The US military has focused for most of its existence on conventional warfare. It takes a long time to make shifts in tactical doctrine that have an effect on the strategic level. Snipers were used in every war from the Revolutionary War through Korea before the Army established a permanent sniper presence. Vietnam began to teach the importance of guerrilla warfare, and follow-up experience in Central America and the Philippines reinforced the lessons. Irregular and urban combat in Iraq and Afghanistan solidified this not only in the military but in the public and, more importantly, in Congress, and now the focus is how to adapt our regular forces to better handle this "new" threat. The security industry is similar, albeit a bit faster to move. Learning how the black hat operates and emulating that allows us to respond to the unconventional tactics that they use. Whereas the hacker used to be thought of by many at best as an underground geek of little relevance to the real world and at worst a low-life, many of them are now sought out and indeed have attained minor celebrity status. Firewalls, account privilege limitations, passwords, and encryption are our conventional warfare, dealing with the masses who would otherwise walk in and take what they want. IDS/IDP, DEP, ASLR, and other mechanisms are our answers to the irregular warfare of mangled protocols, improper code execution, overflows, and manipulated input that the specialist uses to remain undetected or multiply available resources, and increasingly, sides are adopting the tactics of their opponents to remain viable, with white hats looking for programming flaws in malware and black hats creating their own defenses analogous to antivirus and intrusion detection. In both the warfare and security realms, conventional warfare will continue to slowly evolve but has reached a high level of maturity, but developing irregular warfare and its is where the focus will be for some time to come, and the battlefield will even out as all sides come to a more complete understanding of the intricacies therein. -- Jarrod Frates GAWN, GCIH _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- U.S. Joint Forces Command releases new irregular warfare vision Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah (Mar 25)
- Re: U.S. Joint Forces Command releases new irregular warfare vision Jarrod Frates (Mar 26)
- Re: U.S. Joint Forces Command releases new irregular warfare vision Valdis . Kletnieks (Mar 26)
- Re: U.S. Joint Forces Command releases new irregular warfare vision Jarrod Frates (Mar 26)