Feds Say Fidel Is Hacker Threat

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41700,00.html

by Declan McCullagh
2:00 a.m. Feb. 9, 2001 PST

WASHINGTON -- These must be jittery times for anyone in the military
who uses the Internet.

Not only do they have to guard against Love Bug worms and security
holes in Microsoft Outlook -- now they've got to worry about Fidel
Castro hacking into their computers.

Admiral Tom Wilson, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, says the
74-year-old communist dictator may be preparing a cyberattack against
the United States.

Wilson told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a public hearing
Wednesday that Castro's armed forces could initiate an "information
warfare or computer network attack" that could "disrupt our military."

The panel later went into closed session to discuss classified
material.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked in response: "And you would say that
there is a real threat that they might go that route?"

Replied Wilson: "There's certainly the potential for them to employ
those kind of tactics against our modern and superior military."

He said that Cuba's conventional military might was lacking, but its
intelligence operations were substantial.

The partly classified hearing is an annual event -- and an important
one: It represents this year's World Threat Assessment discussion.
That's a chance for the intelligence committee to set its agenda for
this session of Congress and hear from senior intelligence officials
about the latest national security threats.

In addition to the aging president of Cuba, witnesses and senators
both cited encryption as another technology-related threat during a
far-ranging discussion that also encompassed nuclear, biological and
chemical weapons.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the committee's hawkish chairman, said
that the classified hearing later in the day would "explore the
challenges posed by, among others, the proliferation of encryption
technology, the increasing sophistication of denial and deception
techniques, the need to modernize and to recapitalize the National
Security Agency, and other shortfalls in intelligence funding."

Shelby has been a vehement opponent of any proposal to remove
encryption export regulations. In 1998, he said "the effects on U.S.
national security must be the paramount concern when considering any
proposed change to encryption export policy."

He is currently the co-chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus. Last
week, Shelby sent out a press release saying, "Personal privacy is one
of the most important issues that we must confront in the new world of
the information economy."

At the January 1998 World Threat Assessment hearing, the talk also
turned to encryption. "I don't want to tell some father that we've
lost a child because we couldn't break the telephone conversation or
we couldn't get to a storage disk or something like that," FBI deputy
director Bob Bryant told the panel at the time. "And that's all we're
saying."

Also warning of the dangers of encryption products, which let users
shield communications from prying eyes, was CIA Director George Tenet,
who has frequently spoken out against the technology in the past.

Tenet testified that terrorists such as Osama bin Laden are now using
the Internet and encryption to cloak communications within their
organizations. "So, you know, you recruit people on Internet sites,
and you use encryption," Tenet said. "You move your operational
planning and judgments over Internet sites' use of encryption. You
raise money."

His comments come as a series of newspaper articles have highlighted
how bin Laden allegedly uses encryption -- and a variant of the
technology, called steganography -- to evade U.S. efforts to monitor
his organization.

Tenet said that bin Laden "and his global network of lieutenants and
associates remain the most immediate and serious threat" to America.

And what about Castro? It might seem odd to view a country best known
for starving livestock, Elian Gonzalez and acute toilet paper
shortages as a looming threat, but the Pentagon seems entirely
serious.

The DIA's Wilson said: "Cuba is, Senator, not a strong conventional
military threat. But their ability to ploy asymmetric tactics against
our military superiority would be significant. They have strong
intelligence apparatus, good security and the potential to disrupt our
military through asymmetric tactics."

Asymmetric tactics is military-ese for terrorist tactics when your
opponent has a huge advantage in physical power.

Shortly after those comments, Shelby adjourned the hearing until the
afternoon, when it resumed behind closed doors.

This week's drumbeat of criticism about encryption and steganography
from within Washington's national security circles may hint at
congressional efforts to impose additional restrictions on the
technologies. President Clinton relaxed -- but did not remove -- rules
governing the export or Internet distribution of encryption products.

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