US Cyber Command Reveals Plans To Hit Back At Cyber Threats

CNet News.com is reporting that the Air Force's Cyber Command has just as much interest in offense as defense. "Air Force Cyber Command (AFCYBER), a US military unit set up in September 2007 to fight in cyberspace, is due to become fully operational in the autumn under the aegis of the US Eighth Air Force. Lieutenant general Robert J. Elder Jr., who commands the Eighth Air Force's Barksdale base, told ZDNet.co.uk at the Cyber Warfare Conference 2008 that Air Force is interested in developing its capabilities to attack enemy forces as well as defend critical national infrastructure. "

Comments

dupe first, ask questions later dept

[zappepcs]

It still means bad things are about to happen when the defense team is studying offense tactics

Re:dupe first, ask questions later dept

[TubeSteak]

It still means bad things are about to happen when the defense team is studying offense tactics If your defensive plan doesn't include any offensive measures, you're doing it wrong.

To put it in simple terms, if someone is abusing your network bandwidth, you don't just throttle them down, you go tell them to knock it off (or something equivalent). That's an "offensive measure" and it's common sense, isn't it?

Re:dupe first, ask questions later dept

[zappepcs]

for some good responses to this article the first time around, try http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=508970&cid=22942214

Re:dupe first, ask questions later dept

[gnick]

An offensive measure would be more like block traffic to certain sites ahead of time. Blocking traffic is still a defensive strategy. There's a difference between proactive defense and offense.

Re:dupe first, ask questions later dept

[charlesj68]

No, an offensive measure would be more like destroying the person's computer, thus taking away his ability to attack you. Well ... the Air Force should be quite good at doing that sort of thing.

Re:dupe first, ask questions later dept

[Heembo]

An offensive measure would also mean sending a few burley Marines to the offenders office to beat the tar out of them. Now thats that I call "Intrusion Prevention"

Re:dupe first, ask questions later dept

[Opportunist]

Well, I guess that would qualify as a hardhack, no?

Re:dupe first, ask questions later dept

[Opportunist]

In the face of this development, the "Time to live" header field gets a whole new meaning...

Re:dupe first, ask questions later dept

[Heembo]

In the face of this development, the "Time to live" header field gets a whole new meaning... Indeed. So does the "kill bit". :)

I can see the press release now.

[baudilus]

Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Defense.

"...and they tried to hit us with a DDoS, so we totally pwned those script kiddies. It wasn't hard, they were teh suk..."

Defense.

[headkase]

Having hackers for offence is all and good but when it comes to defense they need to train the programmers of the "critical infrastructure" in security techniques. And also perform regular penetration testing on the infrastructure correcting any problems they find as they go. So basically the hackers would not only be hacking other nations but they would continually have to try to hack their own as well to defend it.

Re:Defense.

[sgt.greywar]

They do this. They're called CERTS and one of the many functions that the CERTs perform for the military is pen testing.

Contact General Spielberg!

[Chonnawonga]

Oh, great. How much did Hollywood pay them to do this?

Announcement for terrible cyber-war movie in 5... 4... 3...

"Sergeant! I've been pinged!"

"Dammit, Johnson! Get out of there!"

I guess this explains a few things...

[IonOtter]

Other causes for military concern include possible supply-chain vulnerabilities, where vulnerabilities are introduced into chipsets during manufacturing that an adversary can then exploit, and electronics vulnerabilities.

I guess that explains what happened to me?

I got an email from a supply company requesting payment of nearly $15,000 for, I kid you not, 2200 telephones. Apparently, they'd been ordered, purchased and delivered to my former duty station at NCTAMS PAC in Hawaii.

Mind you, they were all delivered to a mailbox that was probably all of 8x3x5 inches. I did the math, and 2200 desk telephones wouldn't have fit inside the whole mail BUILDING, let alone the post box.

Nobody at the base ever saw the order-they would have, since that many phones would have come on 5 pallets-and nobody knew what they heck was going on. Finally, after working with the business owner, it was determined that the owner had been hacked.

The phones went one way, the bill went the other, I got a nervous laugh, the poor business owner got screwed and the military was twirling around going "Wha?! Wha?!? HUH!??!"

Didn't have to pay a cent, though. Wonder how it turned out?

I want you! for DDoS Army

[TurinPT]

Sweet, someday our home PC's will have to do mandatory military service for X years.
Join the national DDoS army now. Its your patriotic duty!

Air forces

[ozbird]

Air Force Cyber Command (AFCYBER), a US military unit set up in September 2007 to fight in cyberspace, is due to become fully operational in the autumn under the aegis of the US Eighth Air Force.

One air force should be enough for any country.

Re:Air forces

[dbcad7]

I'm just imagining the drills...
Tear down and reassemble the PC box.. timed of course.

Why did you put that PC together so quickly, Gump?
You told me to, Drill Sergeant

What kind of offense?

[ishiboo]

It sounds like a sweet job.

Step 1. All the computers owned by the government are turned into one giant botnet if they aren't already associated with one.
Step 2. Communicate. Rather than the usual chain of command, everything will be run out of an IRC channel on EFNET that has a key and is invite-only.
Step 3. DDos the middle east, Korea, etc.
Step 4. US Government starts selling shell cacounts for eggdrops.
Step 5. US Government gets into the warez business and opens up a porn site.

Ah, I miss growing up on IRC.