USAF Considers Creation of Military Botnet

sowjetarschbajazzo writes "Air Force Col. Charles W. Williamson III believes that the United States military should maintain its own botnet, both as a deterrent towards those who would attempt to DDoS government networks, and an offensive weapon to be used against the networks of unfriendly nations, criminal groups, or terrorist organizations. "Some people would fear the possibility of botnet attacks on innocent parties. If the botnet is used in a strictly offensive manner, civilian computers may be attacked, but only if the enemy compels us. The U.S. will perform the same target preparation as for traditional targets and respect the law of armed conflict as Defense Department policy requires by analyzing necessity, proportionality and distinction among military, dual-use or civilian targets. But neither the law of armed conflict nor common sense would allow belligerents to hide behind the skirts of its civilians. If the enemy is using civilian computers in his country so as to cause us harm, then we may attack them." What does Slashdot think of this proposal?"

Comments

Re:I'm Suprised

[moderatorrater]

Two things: the government has so many computers it could have a fairly formidable botnet on its own. The second this is that, well, why not have it open source? Open the source and let everyone see what it can and can't do. The problem I see with that is that a quantum computer could overcome the encryption and doom us all...

Re:We must defend ourselves

[ShieldW0lf]

Your journal is interesting reading ShieldW0lf. Don't mistake the actions of a country's government with the (in)action of it's people.

How about, you don't support evil regimes, then tell the rest of the world you shouldn't be held to judgment because your heart wasn't really in it.

Re:Using bots in S.American countries

[OeLeWaPpErKe]

The fact that some of the acts of one party are forbidden, doesn't mean the other party may commit crimes in response.

Yes, I claim however that shooting human shields used by irregular opponents (non-uniformed or otherwise not clearly recognizeable or people who fight in an urban zone) is NOT a crime in the geneva convention.

The other parts of your response are mere conspiracy theories.