FC: Military frets about sensitive .mil info on Internet

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

I'm surprised the article didn't complain about John Young's efforts:
http://cryptome.org/naic-eyeball.htm

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Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 09:47:28 -0700
From: "Jeffrey St. Clair" <sitka () attbi com>
To: CP List <counterpunch-list () counterpunch org>,
   David Vest <davidvest () attbi com>, Dave Marsh <marsh6 () optonline net>,
   Chuck Spinney <cspinney () erols com>, Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: Space Command v. the Internet

http://www.gazette.com/stories/0811top2.php

August 11, 2002

Internet Good Friend to Terrorists - Schriever squadron
roots out information that makes bases vulnerable -

By John Diedrich, The Gazette

[ -- PHOTO: Bryan Oller, The Gazette. This Global
Positioning System jammer shows how compact such a device
can be. The 527th Space Aggressor Squadron at Schriever Air
Force Base assembled the item using parts commonly available
at retail stores. -- ]

A computer and Internet connection found in millions of
homes can reveal a lot about a U.S. military base: how high
a fence is, where the operations center and fuel supply are
located and how many troops live there.

That scares a military braced for more terrorist attacks.

Airmen in the 527th Space Aggressor Squadron at Schriever
Air Force Base work to make such an attack tougher. They
scour the Internet for potentially compromising information,
thinking and acting like the enemy.

They can't, however, yank the information when they find it.
They simply show commanders where their base might be
vulnerable.

Such information once was the domain of powerful nations
with satellites, spy planes and billion-dollar budgets. The
Internet and high-quality satellite pictures from private
companies put the information a click and a credit card
away. The threat from easily available information - coined
"open-source intelligence" - is real.

Last year, U.S. soldiers found a General Accounting Office
report on an al-Qaida computer in Afghanistan that showed
how easy it is to breach security at sensitive U.S.
buildings.

The United States has since "scrubbed" its Web sites of
potentially sensitive information, but more than government
information is available on the Internet.

High-resolution satellite pictures, including images of
military installations, are for sale or free on the Web.

[...]

<http://www.gazette.com/military/schriever.html>




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