Journalists, bloggers are threats in terror drill
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Journalists_bloggers_are_threats_in_terror_0131.html
Associated Press Published: Thursday January 31, 2008
It's the government's idea of a really bad day: Washington's Metro trains shut down. Seaport computers in New York go dark. Bloggers reveal locations of railcars with hazardous materials. Airport control towers are disrupted in Philadelphia and Chicago. Overseas, a mysterious liquid is found on London's subway.
And that's just for starters.
Those incidents were among dozens of detailed, mock disasters confronting officials rapid-fire in the U.S. government's biggest-ever "Cyber Storm" war game, according to hundreds of pages of heavily censored files obtained by The Associated Press. The Homeland Security Department ran the exercise to test the nation's hacker defenses, with help from the State Department, Pentagon, Justice Department, CIA, National Security Agency and others.
The laundry list of fictional catastrophes which include hundreds of people on "No Fly" lists suddenly arriving at airport ticket counters is significant because it suggests what kind of real-world trouble keeps people in the White House awake at night.
Imagined villains include hackers, bloggers and even reporters. After mock electronic attacks overwhelmed computers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unspecified "major news network" airing reports about the attackers refused to reveal its sources to the government. Other simulated reporters were duped into spreading "believable but misleading" information that worsened fallout by confusing the public and financial markets, according to the government's files. The $3 million, invitation-only war game simulated what the U.S. described as plausible attacks over five days in February 2006 against the technology industry, transportation lines and energy utilities by anti-globalization hackers. The government is organizing another multimillion-dollar war game, Cyber Storm 2, to take place in early March. "They point out where your expectations of your capabilities may be overstated," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the AP. "They may reveal to you things you haven't thought about. It's a good way of testing that you're going to do the job the way you think you were. It's the difference between doing drills and doing a scrimmage." The AP obtained the Cyber Storm internal records nearly two years after it requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. The government censored most of the 328 pages it turned over, marked "For Official Use Only," citing rules preventing the disclosure of sensitive information. "Definitely a challenging scenario," said Scott C. Algeier, who runs a cyber-defense group for leading technology companies, the Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Center. For the participants including government officials from the United States, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and executives from leading technology and transportation companies the mock disasters came fast and furious: Hacker break-ins at an airline; stolen commercial software blueprints; problems with satellite navigation systems; trouble with police radios in Montana; school closures in Washington, Miami and New York; computer failures at border checkpoints.
The incidents were divided among categories: computer attacks, physical attacks or psychological operations.
"We want to stress these players," said Jeffrey Wright, the former Cyber Storm director for the Homeland Security Department. "None of the players took 100 percent of the correct, right actions. If they had, we wouldn't have done our job as planners." How did they do? Reviews were mixed. Companies and governments worked successfully in some cases. But key players didn't understand the role of the premier U.S. organization responsible for fending off major cyber attacks, called the National Cyber Response Coordination Group, and it didn't have enough technical experts.
Also, the sheer number of mock attacks complicated defensive efforts. The little-known Cyber Response group, headed by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, represents the largest U.S. government departments including law enforcement and intelligence agencies and is the principal organization for responding to cyber attacks and recovering from them. The exercise had no impact on the real Internet. Officials said they were careful to simulate attacks only using isolated computers, working from basement offices at the Secret Service's headquarters in downtown Washington.
However, the government's files hint at a tantalizing mystery:
In the middle of the war game, someone quietly attacked the very computers used to conduct the exercise.
Perplexed organizers traced the incident to overzealous players and sent everyone an urgent e-mail marked "IMPORTANT!" reminding them not to probe or attack the game computers.
"Any time you get a group of (information technology) experts together, there's always a desire, 'Let's show them what we can do,'" said George Foresman, a former senior Homeland Security official who oversaw Cyber Storm. "Whether its intent was embarrassment or a prank, we had to temper the enthusiasm of the players."
This video is from The Associated Press, broadcast January 31, 2008.
http://www.rawprint.com/media/2008/0802/ap_bloggers_cyberstorm_threat_080131a.flv
They ran version 3 of this drill 2 months ago!
CYBER STORM I
2006
CYBERSTORM I
THIS IS A DRILL
THIS IS A FALSE FLAG OPERATION IN THE MAKING
JUST LIKE WHEN THEY RAN DRILLS OF A PLANE HITTING THE PENTAGON
[Pentagon crash drill, Oct. 24-26, 2000]
THIS IS LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD FIRE SALE
WILL FULL PENTAGON AUTHORITY TO CARRY OUT THESE ATTACK ON THE US POPULATION
HOW INSANE ARE THESE PSYCHOPATHS?
THIS IS A DRILL
THIS IS A FALSE FLAG OPERATION IN THE MAKING
JUST LIKE WHEN THEY RAN DRILLS OF A PLANE HITTING THE PENTAGON
[Pentagon crash drill, Oct. 24-26, 2000]
THIS IS LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD FIRE SALE
WILL FULL PENTAGON AUTHORITY TO CARRY OUT THESE ATTACK ON THE US POPULATION
HOW INSANE ARE THESE PSYCHOPATHS?
SCENARIOS THE PENTAGON IS CREATING IN CYBER STORM I
Imagined villains include hackers, bloggers and even reporters. After mock electronic attacks overwhelmed computers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unspecified "major news network" airing reports about the attackers refused to reveal its sources to the government.
Other simulated reporters were duped into spreading "believable but misleading" information that worsened fallout by confusing the public and financial markets, according to the government's files.
Why is the US government running multimillion dollar, multi-national, and multi-thousands of personnel drills to set up the blaming of people who believe in protecting the United States government in the face of international attacks on our financial security? Why are they conditioning the Secret Service and the highest levels of our military to view people who are protecting the sovereignty of the United States of America as the enemy? This is fricking bizarro world!
More on Cyber Storm I:
http://current.com/entertainment/88830245_government-plays-cyber-storm-war-game-to-test-nations-defenses.htm
http://cryptome.org/cyberstorm.pdf
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/prep_cyberstormreport_sep06.pdf
http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/303
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Feds-Deem-Operation-Cyber-Storm-a-Success/
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-825
Cyber Storm II: http://fcw.com/articles/2008/02/29/cyber-storm-ii-stirring.aspx
http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=10719
False Flag Cyber Attack Could Takedown The Internet - AJ 7/21/10
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=180655.0
Gen. Renuart: "World Govt. will be the only solution to our Cyber False Flags"
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=172572.0
Quote from: http://www.thenewnewinternet.com/about-tnni/
About
The New New Internet (TNNI) seeks to stay abreast of the rapidly developing field of cybersecurity. The site looks to connect the developments in the national and international arena with informative analysis that places the disparate ideas surrounding this still nascent market in dialogue with one another. We encourage you to follow our updates, and welcome your feedback on our articles and content.
Our readers can anticipate regular, objective and timely news updates on developments in cybersecurity spanning the public and private sectors. In practice, we do not focus on specific technologies, but instead cover broader policy developments, key players and cyber incidents, along with broad innovations in cybersecurity context.
The New New Internet intends to support a safer world of the Internet’s next generation. We will focus beyond the realm of the new internet of Web 2.0 into the promise of what will be The New, New Internet.
INSLAW Affair/PROMIS/Riconosciuto/"Octopus"/Casolaro MASTER ARCHIVE
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=187740.0
http://www.sovasec.com/2009/06/15/
June 15th, 2009
CyberWar is a Racket
Monday, June 15th, 2009
Inspired by ‘War is a Racket’ by Maj. Gen. Smedly Darlington Butler U.S.M.C
Under the threat of war, the cost of defense is never too high.
A nation is under significant obligation to protect its investments where ever they may be.
What we see now, is the transition from physical to electronic defense.
The United States is returning to Cold War status. In preparation for this the advancement of technology and the power of the intelligence community is of the foremost importance. In order to maintain a position of dominance, the government must sustain its partnership with wartime industry. Through a metamorphosis of the “military industrial complex”, into a new “intelligence industrial complex”, this accomplishment can be witnessed. The ever present fear of terrorism will still be used as justification for sustained engagement. The new terrorist threat comes from what the media refers to as hackers.
The United States’ trade deficit is in the trillions of dollars. The nation must possess assets for which they use to back the value of money sent overseas. China, for example, has accumulated a surplus of US currency. The deficit exists due to the lack of goods being sold in return. These dollars are then stockpiled or used to buy fuel. The oil cartel uses this petro-dollar as the international rate of exchange. There is already discussion to take the world off of this standard. The dollar has already been abandoned in places where once it was used it as a common currency. The United States needs to be ready to compete in the global market, or in default will continue to forfeit property as payment. If the international oil standard were to shift from the dollar, the American economy could be crushed. Places like China would have no reason to continue accepting currency from the United States as a form of trade. In order to continue doing global business, and maintain the standard of living for most Americans, the United States would need to find an acceptable financial solution. It would be necessary to provide a product or service which can be sold on the international market.
With a shift of strategy by the public-private sector, there is the beginning of what could be a record breaking transition. The same corporations, agencies, and institutions which traditionally have been government contractors understand this move, and are shifting production accordingly. International finance, which in the past has funded one or more sides of various conflicts, is already buying into this new deal. With the new President and his many supporters, the official war should be concluded soon. Although there will always be justification for troops stationed around the globe, much funding for war expenses would no longer be necessary.
The companies which produced the equipment, supplied the fuel for the machinery, and paid the workers, would be looking at a massive drop in revenue. To compensate they will begin to offer services in line with the new focus on infrastructure protection. War profits can be an increase of 7856% over peace time.
That is a real historical figure of seven-thousand eight-hundred and fifty-six percent. Profit is the only motivation for the existence of a corporation. Existing funding could be redirected towards new projects and a new war.
A nation needs a real or fabricated threat to justify taxation to its people, for the necessity of its defenses.
In Orwell’s 1984 we saw Emmanuel Goldstein as the fictional ‘enemy of the people’. The character was a phantom used to justify the actions of the state. Some would say there is a modern analogue to the Goldstein character.
It is claimed that Tim Osman, in only 30 years, was partly responsible for the near collapse of not one, but two world empires. He has never been permanently detained despite a concerted global effort. In fact, he taunts the world by sending recordings of himself to media outlets, which use his image as a rallying symbol of fear comparable to Orwell’s construct. It is hard to imagine how a person in need of regular medical attention, can evade the worlds most advanced intelligence gathering network, and continue to avoid capture.
A sufficiently disruptive electronic attack would be an excellent pretense to create a new phantom enemy.
Sophisticated attacks on domestic infrastructure by unknown foreign entities, could easily be sold to the people as ‘the cost of war hitting home’, against enemies which must be defeated ‘at any cost’. Create a little fear, combined with nationalism, and a popular charismatic leader, and one can accomplish almost anything through the mob mentality.
Operation Cyberstorm has introduced us to the next generation of hypothetical threats.
These new terrorists are individuals and groups of technically skilled people. United by a popular voice of dissent, these groups have formed a loosely knit alliance with a common goal of disrupting the global economy. There are individual actors, the known unknowns, who may assist and possibly increase the severity of an electronic attack. To defend the global financial system and domestic infrastructure, the federal government partnered with private industry, and is spear heading the effort to crack down on criminal activity within these groups. It is not an eAl-Queada, or the iTaliban, the new terrorists are hackers. They are the poltergeist in the machine, whenever there is a disruption in internet service, or a random power outage, or any other system the public has come to depend on is interrupted, there will be the suspicion and speculation as to the root cause. If a server catches fire in Phoenix, or suzie1865 can not get to her mytwitterface account, someone is going to cry wolf. When this occurs the justification for more funding is shown to be necessary, the cycle of funding continues. Operation Cyberstorm was not focused on international state sponsored crime, or independent groups of foreign nationals conducting espionage. Though these are the fears represented in the recent legislation and government reviews.
The very intangible nature of cyber-bogeymen provides the vagueness needed to justify any measure of prevention, or manner of retaliation.
It is possible that we could see the war funding re-purposed for the improvement of infrastructure, the advancement of technology, and the defense of communications networks. These billions of dollars will continue to flow into the same hands.
The nature of security allows the defender to only divulge knowledge when it is to their advantage. The knowledge of potential threats, or even past incidents, is just another form of information which could be released for profit. When the industry shifts from traditional combat to electronic engagement, the resources allocated would create a world class institution. The heavy corporate involvement will open up the opportunity for those holding a large number of dollars to trade them in. The sale of data, proprietary and patented new technologies, and accompanying services, would create an outlet for stockpiled petro-dollars.
However this is not the end of physical combat. With industry there is the necessity for natural resources, the foreign and domestic sources of these materials would continue to require physical protection. To prevent against supply line attacks involving sabotaged materials, increased international oversight would be required at these facilities, which produce today’s high-tech components. Government contractors will supply both electronic and physical security to protect their assets. Tax money is used to fund corporations which are not interested or obligated to protect people’s rights. By partnering with the private sector, the government has relieved itself of much responsibility to the people. This responsibility is transferred to the private sector, which only has the single minded goal of increasing its own profit. This could explain why corporate representatives testify before congress to the need for the very services they provide. The agencies which use their services sit alongside them in agreement. This gives the illusion of a clear and present threat which must be eliminated as soon as possible.
The corporations are lined up with their hands out for increasingly larger slices of the federal pie. Sadly, with the lack of resistance and competition, there will be no organic incentive for innovation. Like a pack of wolves they will only destroy each other fighting over the scraps. Those who rely on the contracts to continue operation are forced into compliance for their ration, forever submitting to the alpha of the pack.
The market would not be free, and likely would eventually create a situation where it will be too hollow to support itself and collapse, leading to a very real threat to national security.
On the other hand there is a great risk for the continued creation of a technocratic fascist state. In which we would see constant and holistic surveillance to protect against foreign or domestic threats, among which the government themselves admit, is public dissent.
America was founded on the principle of dissent against tyranny. It is a patriotic duty to question the motivations of government. Technology can be the key that sets us free, or the yoke under which the many exist to serve the few.
With the end of the war, the media will further turn its attention to programming which numbs the mind. Without the constant reminder of the hellish nature of war the protesters will slowly go away. When the international terrorist computer criminals allegedly cripple some piece of critical infrastructure, and the justification for increased spending be comes a reality, the new victims of war will not draw the public sympathy as do dead and dieing solders in the field. When the power grid is compromised, or restrictions are placed on internet usage, even the anti-war crowd will stand behind the government looking for justice against the terrorists, which have caused their inconvenience. The intelligence assurance community, a government and corporate body, would expand as protectorate of the national electronic infrastructure.
Anyone who operates critical equipment, including networks of computers, will be biometricly catalogued. Some existing uses, of similar government systems, also employ operators in real time remote connection monitoring, as a security measure to ensure the validity of the information transfer, and that standard protocols are being observed. Most domestic communications are intercepted and recorded by the intelligence agencies at various points in the network. Private companies index this information, protecting it from Freedom of Information Act requests. Like so many baseball cards, profiles are bought, sold, and traded.
Information is the new currency.
The data centers are the new vaults, the processing facilities the new banks. Where there are banks there will always be robbers. Where there are robbers there will always be lawmen to make pursuit. In their way are things like privacy, the Constitution, and international boundaries.
The intelligence agencies are more then willing to put themselves above the law when it suits them. Their collaboration with the private sector gives them special access to infrastructure, which they have already shown the willingness to abuse. Unlike land, gold, and oil, persons and their information are renewable resources, so this new market has infinite growth potential.
DHS Launches Cyber Attack Exercise
Cyber Storm III, the largest simulated cyber attack to date, aims to test a new national cyber response plan and stretch the limits of collaborative cybersecurity.
By J. Nicholas Hoover
InformationWeek
September 28, 2010 12:01 AM
For three or four days this week, the Internet will come under a virtual attack from an unknown adversary, and it will be up to the government and private sector's coordinated efforts to root out the cause and work together to keep systems up and running -- at least within the simulated confines of the Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Storm III exercise, which begins Tuesday.
The Cyber Storm series of exercises simulates large cyber attacks on critical infrastructure and government IT assets in order to test the government's preparedness. Specifically, this year's exercise will be the first time DHS will test both the draft National Cyber Incident Response Plan (an effort to provide a coordinated response to major cybersecurity incidents) that will be publicly released later this year and the new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (the hub of DHS' cybersecurity coordination efforts).
With cybersecurity continuing to heat up as a national defense priority, Cyber Storm III will give the government a chance to see how ready it's processes and people really are in protecting the nation and Internet against malicious hackers. "So much of the cyber mission space is about collaboration, and every once in a while you've got to kick the tires to see how well it works," Bobbie Stempfley, director of DHS' National Cyber Security Division, said in a meeting with reporters last week.
This year's exercise will be the largest yet, including representatives from seven cabinet-level federal departments, intelligence agencies, 11 states, 12 international partners and 60 private sector companies in multiple critical infrastructure sectors like banking, defense, energy and transportation. High-level officials, including federal cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt and deputy homeland security secretary Jane Holl Lute, will be among those taking part.
More...
The New New Internet (TNNI) seeks to stay abreast of the rapidly developing field of cybersecurity. The site looks to connect the developments in the national and international arena with informative analysis that places the disparate ideas surrounding this still nascent market in dialogue with one another. We encourage you to follow our updates, and welcome your feedback on our articles and content.
Our readers can anticipate regular, objective and timely news updates on developments in cybersecurity spanning the public and private sectors. In practice, we do not focus on specific technologies, but instead cover broader policy developments, key players and cyber incidents, along with broad innovations in cybersecurity context.
The New New Internet intends to support a safer world of the Internet’s next generation. We will focus beyond the realm of the new internet of Web 2.0 into the promise of what will be The New, New Internet.
INSLAW Affair/PROMIS/Riconosciuto/"Octopus"/Casolaro MASTER ARCHIVE
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=187740.0
http://www.sovasec.com/2009/06/15/
June 15th, 2009
CyberWar is a Racket
Monday, June 15th, 2009
Inspired by ‘War is a Racket’ by Maj. Gen. Smedly Darlington Butler U.S.M.C
Under the threat of war, the cost of defense is never too high.
A nation is under significant obligation to protect its investments where ever they may be.
What we see now, is the transition from physical to electronic defense.
The United States is returning to Cold War status. In preparation for this the advancement of technology and the power of the intelligence community is of the foremost importance. In order to maintain a position of dominance, the government must sustain its partnership with wartime industry. Through a metamorphosis of the “military industrial complex”, into a new “intelligence industrial complex”, this accomplishment can be witnessed. The ever present fear of terrorism will still be used as justification for sustained engagement. The new terrorist threat comes from what the media refers to as hackers.
The United States’ trade deficit is in the trillions of dollars. The nation must possess assets for which they use to back the value of money sent overseas. China, for example, has accumulated a surplus of US currency. The deficit exists due to the lack of goods being sold in return. These dollars are then stockpiled or used to buy fuel. The oil cartel uses this petro-dollar as the international rate of exchange. There is already discussion to take the world off of this standard. The dollar has already been abandoned in places where once it was used it as a common currency. The United States needs to be ready to compete in the global market, or in default will continue to forfeit property as payment. If the international oil standard were to shift from the dollar, the American economy could be crushed. Places like China would have no reason to continue accepting currency from the United States as a form of trade. In order to continue doing global business, and maintain the standard of living for most Americans, the United States would need to find an acceptable financial solution. It would be necessary to provide a product or service which can be sold on the international market.
With a shift of strategy by the public-private sector, there is the beginning of what could be a record breaking transition. The same corporations, agencies, and institutions which traditionally have been government contractors understand this move, and are shifting production accordingly. International finance, which in the past has funded one or more sides of various conflicts, is already buying into this new deal. With the new President and his many supporters, the official war should be concluded soon. Although there will always be justification for troops stationed around the globe, much funding for war expenses would no longer be necessary.
The companies which produced the equipment, supplied the fuel for the machinery, and paid the workers, would be looking at a massive drop in revenue. To compensate they will begin to offer services in line with the new focus on infrastructure protection. War profits can be an increase of 7856% over peace time.
That is a real historical figure of seven-thousand eight-hundred and fifty-six percent. Profit is the only motivation for the existence of a corporation. Existing funding could be redirected towards new projects and a new war.
A nation needs a real or fabricated threat to justify taxation to its people, for the necessity of its defenses.
In Orwell’s 1984 we saw Emmanuel Goldstein as the fictional ‘enemy of the people’. The character was a phantom used to justify the actions of the state. Some would say there is a modern analogue to the Goldstein character.
It is claimed that Tim Osman, in only 30 years, was partly responsible for the near collapse of not one, but two world empires. He has never been permanently detained despite a concerted global effort. In fact, he taunts the world by sending recordings of himself to media outlets, which use his image as a rallying symbol of fear comparable to Orwell’s construct. It is hard to imagine how a person in need of regular medical attention, can evade the worlds most advanced intelligence gathering network, and continue to avoid capture.
A sufficiently disruptive electronic attack would be an excellent pretense to create a new phantom enemy.
Sophisticated attacks on domestic infrastructure by unknown foreign entities, could easily be sold to the people as ‘the cost of war hitting home’, against enemies which must be defeated ‘at any cost’. Create a little fear, combined with nationalism, and a popular charismatic leader, and one can accomplish almost anything through the mob mentality.
Operation Cyberstorm has introduced us to the next generation of hypothetical threats.
These new terrorists are individuals and groups of technically skilled people. United by a popular voice of dissent, these groups have formed a loosely knit alliance with a common goal of disrupting the global economy. There are individual actors, the known unknowns, who may assist and possibly increase the severity of an electronic attack. To defend the global financial system and domestic infrastructure, the federal government partnered with private industry, and is spear heading the effort to crack down on criminal activity within these groups. It is not an eAl-Queada, or the iTaliban, the new terrorists are hackers. They are the poltergeist in the machine, whenever there is a disruption in internet service, or a random power outage, or any other system the public has come to depend on is interrupted, there will be the suspicion and speculation as to the root cause. If a server catches fire in Phoenix, or suzie1865 can not get to her mytwitterface account, someone is going to cry wolf. When this occurs the justification for more funding is shown to be necessary, the cycle of funding continues. Operation Cyberstorm was not focused on international state sponsored crime, or independent groups of foreign nationals conducting espionage. Though these are the fears represented in the recent legislation and government reviews.
The very intangible nature of cyber-bogeymen provides the vagueness needed to justify any measure of prevention, or manner of retaliation.
It is possible that we could see the war funding re-purposed for the improvement of infrastructure, the advancement of technology, and the defense of communications networks. These billions of dollars will continue to flow into the same hands.
The nature of security allows the defender to only divulge knowledge when it is to their advantage. The knowledge of potential threats, or even past incidents, is just another form of information which could be released for profit. When the industry shifts from traditional combat to electronic engagement, the resources allocated would create a world class institution. The heavy corporate involvement will open up the opportunity for those holding a large number of dollars to trade them in. The sale of data, proprietary and patented new technologies, and accompanying services, would create an outlet for stockpiled petro-dollars.
However this is not the end of physical combat. With industry there is the necessity for natural resources, the foreign and domestic sources of these materials would continue to require physical protection. To prevent against supply line attacks involving sabotaged materials, increased international oversight would be required at these facilities, which produce today’s high-tech components. Government contractors will supply both electronic and physical security to protect their assets. Tax money is used to fund corporations which are not interested or obligated to protect people’s rights. By partnering with the private sector, the government has relieved itself of much responsibility to the people. This responsibility is transferred to the private sector, which only has the single minded goal of increasing its own profit. This could explain why corporate representatives testify before congress to the need for the very services they provide. The agencies which use their services sit alongside them in agreement. This gives the illusion of a clear and present threat which must be eliminated as soon as possible.
The corporations are lined up with their hands out for increasingly larger slices of the federal pie. Sadly, with the lack of resistance and competition, there will be no organic incentive for innovation. Like a pack of wolves they will only destroy each other fighting over the scraps. Those who rely on the contracts to continue operation are forced into compliance for their ration, forever submitting to the alpha of the pack.
The market would not be free, and likely would eventually create a situation where it will be too hollow to support itself and collapse, leading to a very real threat to national security.
On the other hand there is a great risk for the continued creation of a technocratic fascist state. In which we would see constant and holistic surveillance to protect against foreign or domestic threats, among which the government themselves admit, is public dissent.
America was founded on the principle of dissent against tyranny. It is a patriotic duty to question the motivations of government. Technology can be the key that sets us free, or the yoke under which the many exist to serve the few.
With the end of the war, the media will further turn its attention to programming which numbs the mind. Without the constant reminder of the hellish nature of war the protesters will slowly go away. When the international terrorist computer criminals allegedly cripple some piece of critical infrastructure, and the justification for increased spending be comes a reality, the new victims of war will not draw the public sympathy as do dead and dieing solders in the field. When the power grid is compromised, or restrictions are placed on internet usage, even the anti-war crowd will stand behind the government looking for justice against the terrorists, which have caused their inconvenience. The intelligence assurance community, a government and corporate body, would expand as protectorate of the national electronic infrastructure.
Anyone who operates critical equipment, including networks of computers, will be biometricly catalogued. Some existing uses, of similar government systems, also employ operators in real time remote connection monitoring, as a security measure to ensure the validity of the information transfer, and that standard protocols are being observed. Most domestic communications are intercepted and recorded by the intelligence agencies at various points in the network. Private companies index this information, protecting it from Freedom of Information Act requests. Like so many baseball cards, profiles are bought, sold, and traded.
Information is the new currency.
The data centers are the new vaults, the processing facilities the new banks. Where there are banks there will always be robbers. Where there are robbers there will always be lawmen to make pursuit. In their way are things like privacy, the Constitution, and international boundaries.
The intelligence agencies are more then willing to put themselves above the law when it suits them. Their collaboration with the private sector gives them special access to infrastructure, which they have already shown the willingness to abuse. Unlike land, gold, and oil, persons and their information are renewable resources, so this new market has infinite growth potential.
DHS Launches Cyber Attack Exercise
Cyber Storm III, the largest simulated cyber attack to date, aims to test a new national cyber response plan and stretch the limits of collaborative cybersecurity.
By J. Nicholas Hoover
InformationWeek
September 28, 2010 12:01 AM
For three or four days this week, the Internet will come under a virtual attack from an unknown adversary, and it will be up to the government and private sector's coordinated efforts to root out the cause and work together to keep systems up and running -- at least within the simulated confines of the Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Storm III exercise, which begins Tuesday.
The Cyber Storm series of exercises simulates large cyber attacks on critical infrastructure and government IT assets in order to test the government's preparedness. Specifically, this year's exercise will be the first time DHS will test both the draft National Cyber Incident Response Plan (an effort to provide a coordinated response to major cybersecurity incidents) that will be publicly released later this year and the new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (the hub of DHS' cybersecurity coordination efforts).
With cybersecurity continuing to heat up as a national defense priority, Cyber Storm III will give the government a chance to see how ready it's processes and people really are in protecting the nation and Internet against malicious hackers. "So much of the cyber mission space is about collaboration, and every once in a while you've got to kick the tires to see how well it works," Bobbie Stempfley, director of DHS' National Cyber Security Division, said in a meeting with reporters last week.
This year's exercise will be the largest yet, including representatives from seven cabinet-level federal departments, intelligence agencies, 11 states, 12 international partners and 60 private sector companies in multiple critical infrastructure sectors like banking, defense, energy and transportation. High-level officials, including federal cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt and deputy homeland security secretary Jane Holl Lute, will be among those taking part.
More...
No comments:
Post a Comment