Re: U.S. Army kick-starts cyberwar machine

["Robert G. Ferrell" <root () rgfsparc cr usgs gov>]

> (IDG) -- The U.S. military has a new mission: Be ready to launch a
> cyberattack against potential adversaries, some of whom are
> stockpiling cyberweapons.
>
> Such an attack would likely involve launching massive distributed
> denial-of-service assaults, unleashing crippling computer viruses or
> Trojans, and jamming the enemy's computer systems through electronic
> radio-frequency interference.

One of the fundamental issues to my mind in the 'Internet as battlefield'
scenario is that clean, surgical "massive distributed denial-of-service
attacks" simply aren't feasible.  The Internet is a highly complex web of
interconnected networks and overlapping zones of control that don't follow
geopolitical boundaries to any great extent. Any massive DDOS against a
targeted subnet(s) is likely to drag a great deal of the adjacent Internet
down with it, and have repercussions far beyond the immediate military
objectives.  Think of it as dropping bombs every 5 miles all the way to a
distant target and back.  The amount of the (far too innocuously-termed)
'collateral damage' would be enormous.

Viruses, by the way, are notoriously indiscriminate in their choice of
targets once released into the wild.  While I can envision a virus that
self-destructs if it strays beyond the borders of a preselected target
network, I can also envision that same virus being hacked to wreak untold
havoc on the entire Internet community.  Fires such as this are easy to
start, but hard to control once ignited.

I can't speak for my colleagues in the computer security industry, but I
for one have no desire to be a smokejumper in any digital conflagration
set off by an over-zealous military command, no matter what nation it
calls HQ.  I don't want to see an Agent Orange of the Internet.

Cheers,

RGF

Robert G. Ferrell, CISSP
========================================
 Who goeth without humor goeth unarmed.
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