Pentagon types are spending God-knows-how-much to wage battle online. *Brave New War *author John Robb offers 'em some tips on how to put their dough to the best use.
Over the few years, the Defense Department has morphed the nuclear weaponeers of U.S. Strategic Command into network warriors, and turned the 8th Air Force into a new "Cyberspace Command." Not to mention plowing countless billions into the National Security Agency and all kinds of digital combat cadres, scattered throughout the armed services. And from the interviews I've done, at least, the roles and expectations for each of these agencies is, um,* evolving*, at best.
Robb's advice, to his former Air Force colleagues now putting Cyberspace Command together:
- Real-world experience and rapid (open source) innovation.
Most, if not all, of this experience and innovation in cyberwarfare is gained through criminal activity. Innovation is a product of rapid cycles of competition with software vendors and computer security companies. - Massive self-replication. Think in term of small teams (the smarter, the better) designing software that seizes control of tens of millions of computer systems through various forms of infection.
- Deniability. Nearly all of the successful operations conducted in offensive cyberwarfare will require deniability. Post-attack forensics must not point back to a government since these wars/battles will be fought in peacetime.
"Given these requirements, Robb believes, "this new Command will likely fail (and badly)." It'll create public relations disasters -- and retreat into a largely defensive crouch. And once it does, it'll be outmaneuvered by countries willing to get in bed with online mafias. We'll see.
ALSO:
* DHS' Cut-and_paste Bid for Online Snoops
* DHS to Outsource Open Source Intel
* Targeting the Jihadist Noise Machine
* 18 Months Later, Charges for Jailed Journo in Iraq
* U.S. Enlists Arab Bloggers for Info War
* Some of Her Best Friends Are Terrorists
* Inside Al-Qaeda's "Intranet"
* Intel Director Launches Qaeda Leak Probe
* Ex-Spies Blast Qaeda Breach
* Al-Qaeda "Intranet" Goes Dark After Leak
* Bloggers vs. Terrorists?
* Army Gearing Up for Info War (Finally)
* DARPA's New Tools for Net Defenders, Cyber-Snoops
* Pentagon Launching Net Attacks
* Air Force Readying Cyber Strikes
* Osama: Back in Black
* Al-Qaeda Channels Pixar
*Inside the Insurgent Noise Machine
* Terrorists Keep Blogs, Too
* [Al-Qaeda Ramps up Propaganda Push](https://www.wired.com/defense/2007/05/alqaeda_ramps_u.html)
* Al-Qaeda Propaganda at New High
* British Military Gags Blogs
* Army Audit: Official Sites, Not Blogs, are Security Threat
(Image courtesy of THREAT LEVEL)