... how about a strategy of preemptive attacks on political fanatics, so that nobody ever gets around to really launching a cyberwar?
*Oh yeah. That scheme's practically bound to work, don't ya think? Practically pays for itself, too!
*The eventual upshot of a pre-emptive policy by scared nations with cheap, frail infrastructure sounds pretty much like "hunting suicide bombers in the ruins," but one wouldn't call that, like, a plausible face of modern warfare or anything.
*From SANS, who is hard to beat when it comes to these tales of woe:
TOP OF THE NEWS
–Senate Committee Hears of Nation's Unpreparedness for Cyber Warfare
(February 23 & 24, 2010)
Former US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Admiral Mike McConnell
told the Senate committee overseeing on commerce, transportation and
technology, that if the nation was attacked today in a cyber war, "we
would lose."
McConnell told them that it will take a catastrophic cyber
attack (one he told them to expect) to force the country to take action
to protect IT systems. (((The Director of National Intelligence is merely the super-War on Terror uber-spook of all possible American uber-spooks, so it's not like he's got any credibility or anything.)))
Jim Lewis, chair of the CSIS Commission on
Cybersecurity for the President echoed McConnell's sentiments that
private industry needs to take decisive steps to protect IT systems that
support the country's critical infrastructure from attacks and that they
won't do it until they are forced to do so, through federal procurement
and regulation. ((("Let Blackwater do it all! Hey, those private-industry boys are men of stainless steel!")))
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/23/AR2010022305033.html
http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223100425
[Editor's Note (Paller): Watching the Senators' expressions when Admiral
McConnell told them that we would lose in a cyber war, was a powerful
awakening. They didn't know! (((The Senate doesn't get it about health care, banking failures or climate change either, and even if they did, they'd be adjusting their purple togas and going out to fiddle while New Orleans drowned, went broke and died of cholera.)))
Other than the chairman and ranking
member, who served in the same roles on the Senate Intelligence
Committee until last year, and had had intense classified briefings, the
Commerce Committee members had no idea how far behind the United States has fallen. (((The USA isn't "behind" – the USA is AHEAD, which means the USA has more targets for destruction than anyone else. Except for the hapless Estonians, who bought into the whole headlong digital-infrastructure thing because their nation was already in ruins to begin with.)))
(((Y'know, cyberwar is not "cybarmageddon." It's mostly painful ankle-biting, but then, so is losing two skyscrapers and part of a military complex, and that assault was enough to transform the USA from serene military ultrahyperpower into spooked and paralytic broke guys.)))
(((And given that grumpy freaked-out tech engineers are flying into government buildings in Austin nowadays, you gotta figure "ideological cyberwar" as a major threat the US can use to defeat itself.)))
Their lack of knowledge (((I don't know why people still say this – they've heard about risks for years. It's not nobody ever heard of financial risks, either. They're not IGNORANT about the risks, they have MADE THEMSELVES DELIBERATELY HELPLESS, and whenever they even TRY to do anything constructive about the IT infrastructure, the NSA freaks out and runs over to Capital Hill to sabotage their rivals.))) completely explains (((oh come on))) why Congress passed such a terrible law (in FISMA), (((maybe you're better off ignoring Congress entirely, then))) why they never fixed it, and why
the Office of Management and Budget staff, living in similar oblivion, (((nothing compared to the oblivion they'd LIKE to live in, but that may have to wait until their lights go out under some cyberdelic bad-moon-rising)))
won't take the clear and proven steps necessary to reduce the security
risk to federal systems.
(((Y'know, I wrote a novel about this situation back in 2004. You could change a few names and dates in ZENITH ANGLE and publish it now, and it would be just as darkly comical, in this new decade and new Administration. Not that this is some brilliant futurist insight of mine or anything, but it explains why I lean toward shrill in these comments nowadays.)))
(Schultz): Unfortunately, senior management in the U.S. commercial
sector is unlikely to heed McConnell's warning, let alone act on it. (((Of course they're not going to do the work of the state, that's why they're in the commercial sector.))) The following quote from a prominent CIO summarizes the problem nicely: "You security guys keep talking and talking about the end of the world. It doesn't seem to come."] (((Well, that's what they USED to say – nowadays McConnell is talking about security guys ENDING THE WORLD THEMSELVES because it's so obvious that it can't stand up.)))
–Mike McConnell's Strategy to Win a Cyber War (((get the popcorn)))
(February 28, 2010)
Mike McConnell says the US needs a "cohesive strategy to meet [the]
challenge" of cyber war. He says government and industry needs to be
more forthcoming on the challenges the nation faces in cyber space. An
effective strategy will incorporate both deterrence and preemption
because of the varied threats we face. (((And VENGEANCE. Don't forget furious acts of vengeance falling on Axis-of-Evil guys who probably didn't do anything and were only PRETENDING to have massive arsenals of cyberwar.)))
Deterrence involves a clear expression of intent backed up by policies and international agreements as well as real-time monitoring of cyber space (((I wonder where that space in cyber/space came from))) and the capability to
identify attacks and pinpoint their origins. (((That's an especially great capability when you're cannily spending billions so your own spies CAN'T be pinpointed or attacked, ever. Look – maybe your cyberspies don't even HAVE to be invisible at all. Maybe they can just waltz into Dubai in a crowd of thirty people and choke a guy to death with a pillow. I bet if that mysterious global-assassin squad had netbooks under their arms, we'd be getting all pre-emptive right now.))) Preemption involves
identifying adversaries who are motivated by ideology rather than greed
and taking steps to undermine their ability to launch attacks. ((("Hey Taiwan. We're here to take steps to undermine your ability to launch attacks." "Oh yeah? We make all your iPhones." etc)))
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022502493.html
(((I know you've seen these Hitler Downfall schticks rehearsed a thousand times over... But in the bunkers of cyberwar, it really is this very same story over and over again.)))
