Cyber Warfare: US Military Gets Ready To Knock The World Offline

[bludex]

"from October 1, all the achievements of the informational age can be challenged"

Cyber Warfare: US Military Gets Ready To Knock The World Offline

Posted on Pakalert on September 7, 2010
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2010/09...world-offline/

After October 1 thousands of US military hackers and spies will get down to their cyber war activities.

Excerpt:
"
When commenting this article analysts point out that “The capabilities being sought would allow U.S. cyber-warriors to “deceive, deny, disrupt, degrade and destroy” information and computers around the globe”. (5)

Gen. Keith Alexander, the head of the Pentagon’s new Cyber Command(ARFORCYBER) said: “We have to have offensive capabilities, to, in real time, shut down somebody trying to attack us,” Earlier Keith Alexander compared cyber attacks with weapons of mass destruction and according to his recent statements the US is planning offensive application of the new warfare.

While Washington is accusing other countries of aiding and sponsoring cyber terrorism (Statistic shows that most of cyber attacks against US informational systems were made from China), the US special forces are training new personnel for cyber wars.
...

Considering all this what may we expect? It is quite likely that we may expect spying by means of tabs and backdoors in software sold by well-known companies such as Microsoft, as well as an informational blockade, limiting access to alternative sources of information. Thus from October 1, all the achievements of the informational age can be challenged.
"

[Gerry]

This has actually been going on for quite some time.

Recently, China maneuvered their own satellites next to each other in what the US viewed as a practice run (or "war games") of taking out other nation's satellites.

I have not finished reading the book yet, but Richard Clarkes latest book Cyber War has an appropriately named subtitle:

The Next Threat To National Security And What To Do About It

It was published earlier this year and the first paragraph on the inside flap just about covers the very things you point out:

"Richard A. Clarke warned America once before about the havoc terrorism would wreak on our national security - and he was right. Now he warns us of another threat, silent but equally dangerous. Cyber War is a powerful book about technology, government, and military strategy; about criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers. This is the first book about the war of the future - cyber war - and a convincing argument that we may already be in peril of losing it."

[Infoproliferati]

Richard Clark was on Real Time with Bill Maher earlier this year promoting his book. I remember him talking about cyber warfare having the ability to disable power and gas grids amongst other things. Seeing as how all sorts of electronic devices are built with the ability to connect to the internet, it is a no brainer that hackers will try to intrude those systems.

A month or so ago I did research on cyber-security. Corporations and governments already operate under the assumption that their intra-networks could be breached at any given second. Based on this fact, a stage in the full cyber-security cycle that is rapidly gaining attention is Cyber Incident Response. This stage deals with the actions that should be executed in the event of a security layer breach.

As the world becomes even more connected cyber war will only become more common. Cyber war even goes beyond destruction, intrusion or even disabling. It also has to do with the control of information. Intrude a network, access SCM database, modify files with false data/information, access CRM database, drop a virus to divert attention off SCM, then bail. Getting rid of the virus may not be worth much. But modified data in the SCM could cost any corporation millions if left undiscovered.

[Poker]

Agree, huge threat that needs aggressive attention.