November 03, 2006

Cyber Star Wars

The US Air force will start a new cyber warfare command. Of course liberal NPR got all paranoid about the “evil military” controlling the “good internet”.

All I can say is they are very short sighted. The main thrust of the article is that we need to defend critical systems against cyber intrusion and critical information theft. But also is broad enough to include going after enemy propaganda and information.

Reuters: Last month, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff defined cyberspace as "characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify, and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures."

The definition is broad enough to cover far more than merely defending or attacking computer networks. Wynne cited the use of remotely detonated roadside bombs in Iraq, "terrorist use of Global Positioning Satellites and satellite communications, Internet financial transactions by adversaries, radar and navigational jamming, and attacking American servers" as examples of operations involving cyberspace.

"This new way of war is data-dependent," he said. "We need to protect our data while detecting adversary data and then deny, disrupt, dissuade or destroy the source of that data or transmission as appropriate."…

…Heading the new command will be 8th Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, who said its capabilities would include, for instance, taking down a financial network if ordered to do so by the president or defense secretary.

"We see that as certainly within our realm," provided such action was consistent with laws of war such as proportionality and minimizing unintended harm to civilians, he told reporters at a briefing after Wynne's announcement.

Although the focus of U.S. efforts until now has been on defense, "we've come to realize there are a lot of things that we can do in the cyberspace domain that would be good for national security," Elder said.

The internet brings people together. It brings you and your enemy closer than you have ever been before. We would never have tolerated Tokyo Rose to be broadcast from US soil. We would never have Nazi agents to broadcast to our public.

However our terrorist enemy uses the internet to spread its propaganda, to communicate with each other, and to recruit fighters to oppose us. They often use services provided in the US.

It is imperative that some of this new command be dedicated to denying the terrorists the ability to spread their message by attacking and removing their websites. This will also damage their command and control and communications.

Cyberspace is a new battleground where there are no national boundaries. We must be present and fight on this platform. Killing terrorist websites is nearly as important as fighting the terrorists on the ground.

I suggest dedicated teams to harass, hack, bother, bug, insult, irritate and interfere with these sites whenever and where ever they are found. Not only will this disrupt their activities it will help by destroying confidence in the terrorists.

Right now they say,. “Look here we are and they cannot remove our presence on the web. It gives them credibility.

But take down and destroy a popular or flagship terrorist website and that perception will be shattered. The users will instantly know they are missing a site. I can tell you from experience here at the Jawa Report, it don’t feel too damn good. It is a great way to destroy the morale of the enemy.