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US/UK Will Stage 'Cyber-Attack War Games' As Pressure Against Encryption Mounts

Posted by Soulskill on from the do-you-want-to-play-a-game? dept.

An anonymous reader writes: British prime minister David Cameron is currently visiting Washington to discuss the future of cyber-security in Britain and North America. The leaders have announced that their respective intelligence agencies will mount ongoing cyber-attack "war games" starting this summer in an effort to strengthen the West's tarnished reputation following the Sony hacking scandal. Somewhat relatedly, a recently-leaked Edward Snowden document show the NSA giving dire warnings in 2009 of the threat posed by the lack of encrypted communications on the internet.

16 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Any bets? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Given the state of real-world security, 'cyber war games' are going to look like a particularly enthusiastic WWI reenactor event if the participants take the gloves off.

    Who feels like a little speculation: Will the offensive teams be fairly picked(from people with suitable skills) and actually try, resulting a a resounding bloodbath, or will the 'exercise' be largely a whitewash?

  2. Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Encryption is one of the first defences against "cyber-attacks".

    It's like banning locks on doors to deal with the problem of burglaries.

    1. Re:Um... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Fortunately the US is likely to tell Cameron to fuck off, since it would be unconstitutional to ban encryption and after the economic damage that the NSA did they won't allow the UK to force service providers to back-door their apps.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Um... by jeffasselin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Euh locks on doors don't stop burglars. They stop kids from doing petty vandalism. Burglars can easily pick your door locks, or will simply break a window to enter.

      Door locks are the equivalent of FTP server banner messages telling people "access is restricted to those authorized".

      What prevents burglaries in civilized countries is the social contract, and the fact that most people have a common moral and ethical sense that tells them it's wrong. The idea that you're better off working for a decent salary and that you should respect the property of others so they'll respect you is a basic logic that holds true in many places (less so nowadays in some countries where the working poor are worse every day).

      The reason it doesn't work on the Internet is because this contract falls apart because of distance and the anonymizing nature of the Internet. Not just the fact that bad guys can be pseudonymous, but because to them you're not a person, you're an IP address. It de-humanizes contact and makes it easier to justify bad behavior.

      Add to it the fact that there may be a small portion of people in a city or neighborhood who are lacking enough in morality to do burglaries, but in the whole world there's a lot more of them. And although they can't all break into your house, they can all break into your computer...

      --
      If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
    3. Re:Um... by whoever57 · · Score: 2

      Euh locks on doors don't stop burglars. They stop kids from doing petty vandalism. Burglars can easily pick your door locks, or will simply break a window to enter.

      In the UK at least, door locks have an important function. They turn entering your house from traspass (NOT a criminal offense) into breaking and entering (a criminal offense).

      In the USA they invoke a requirement to get a warrant for LEO to enter the house.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    4. Re:Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wow. I mean double wow. Is this that new common core system I keep hearing about? Common core 'free form' word art. or somesuch?

      Mr. Sadler, you have written a string of I guess 15 or 20 sentences together, loosely directed at the topics of crime, substance abuse, mental illness, sexuality, hiring practices and such.

      Your initial assertion, that burgalaries and caused primarily by "substance abuse or mental illnesses" is made, then you don't even attempt to support this in any way, while rambling on - in a few cases nonsensically, and others you simply throw things out there devoid of any logical argument at all ("Businesses also create criminals.") and finally move on to the blockbuster statement that society in fact wants crime.

      So which is it? Are burgalries the result of substance abuse and mental illness, or are they caused by businesses and the justice system? Is this, in the end, all perfectly normal and good, because society in fact wants these criminals?

      I have to ask, is this the product of your schooling? Or is there some other reason (like for example "usual levels of psycopathy due to mental problems")? I wonder for a minute here if this is what happens to a persons mind when they spend excessive amounts of time on twitter, where, I seem to recall, you are limited to issuing 'Twits' (or whatever they are called) in 40 characters or less, all day long for months at a time. I wouldn't know, because I have never, nor have I ever wanted to Twit myself.

      Are you aware of what you are doing? That is to say, that your communication, in this case at least, indicates to me that you need at the very least to lay off the coffee, or worse I suppose, lay off the blue meth.

      I've never seen anyone write this way and it does worry me. Is this really what our educational systems are producing? On the other hand as it just occurred to me after writng that sentence, are you 12?

      Anyway, if you are 12, do please pay attention when you start to take English courses as you may be latching onto some interesting ideas, you just need to look for ways to organize your thoughts, understand basic logic and reason, and then lear ways to express these ideas. If you are in fact much older than 12, I'm frieghtened, I sincerely think you may be suffering from "usual levels of psycopathy due to mental problems" and you may want to call someone.

      Good grief, I will *never* go anywhere near facebook or twitter, and thank god I never have.

      Good day sir!

    5. Re:Um... by 0123456 · · Score: 2

      Have you forgotten? Up to and including the Clinton years, encryption was classified as a "munition" and was very much controlled by the US Government.

      Only in the sense that the rest of the world had to OCR the printed source code if they wanted to use it legally.

    6. Re:Um... by Tokolosh · · Score: 2

      "When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
        - H.L. Mencken

      --
      Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
    7. Re:Um... by Immerman · · Score: 2

      Mostly the burly guys in uniform that show up at your door soon after the NSA dragnet detects an unlicensed encrypted communication channel in use. Because why would they give you a license to establish a VPN? What are you trying to hide?

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  3. Re:Cameron passed the NSA test by houghi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a European, please take a huge rope, tie it around the UK and drag it to the other side of the pool. And if you think you don't have enough space for another country, we will gladly take Canada.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  4. Alternate idea by king+neckbeard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about, instead of playing war games, you use the same resources to actually secure the vital infrastructure that we get regular scare stories about, or audit widely used FOSS before the next shellshock or heartbleed?

    --
    This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    1. Re:Alternate idea by hattable · · Score: 2

      Because if you spend a billion dollars doing source code audit and developing system hardening techniques but your seal is that of one of the three-letters you will still have the tinfoil hats accusing you of doing something nefarious. You have wasted a billion dollars better spent doing almost anything else. The war games seem like a show for the public anyway.

      --
      OMG facts!
  5. Fuck Cameron by mr_mischief · · Score: 2

    Scotland should have seceded with the UK willing to have such a daft demagogue in charge. Now he's trying to turn the UK and the rest of the world into even more of a surveillance nightmare than the street cameras London already has.

    He can piss up a rope and then hang himself from it.

  6. Gov warnings of lack of encryption by hattable · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I think people forget that they exist to try and help advance the security of the internets, not listen to cheating husbands and wives for fun. Didn't they create SELinux, and the navy developed tor. Whether they are good or bad on the whole is a topic for another discussion but we shouldn't pretend that their mission statement is something like 'what 4th amendment' or 'internet cowboys without purpose'

    --
    OMG facts!
  7. Those who grab for power can't be trusted with it by John.Banister · · Score: 2
    From the article:

    Mr Cameron has previously said in relation to cyber attacks that there should be no "means of communication" which "we cannot read".

    It sounds like Mr Cameron wants microphones in every person's residence.
    People who feel with absolute certainty that someone else is always the problem will always try to grab more power for themselves, and because of that, they can't be trusted with the ability to grab power, even though their current goals in using that power are ostensibly laudatory. They can't be trusted with power, because they will never consider any part of any of their own goals as being suspect. Citizens don't benefit when people who can't cope with compromising and feeling frustrated have a career in politics or public service.

  8. Homegrown Initiative by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 2

    Fortunately the US is likely to tell Cameron to fuck off, since it would be unconstitutional to ban encryption...

    Just like it is unconstitutional to torture prisoners etc. etc.? I expect that you are right in that they will deny his request but the reason will be because it is the request of a foreign power. I also expect that many US politicians will think that it sounds like an excellent idea and after a suitable period so that they can claim it is their own idea there will be an American lead initiative to do the same thing. Why would they listen to some idiotic right wing UK politician when they have plenty of their own to choose from?