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Air Force Firewall Now Designated a Weapons System (gazette.com)

Posted by timothy on from the my-name-is-a-killing-word-now-pay-up dept.

An anonymous reader writes with a report from the Colorado Springs Gazette that the U.S. Air Force Space Command has declared its first cyber "weapons system" operational. The weapon, deemed fully operational this month, is basically a big firewall designed to protect the Air Force's internal 1 million-user network from hackers. It will be a hot topic at the Rocky Mountain Cyber Symposium, which is expected to draw hundreds of computer experts to The Broadmoor for a four-day confab starting Monday." More from the article about why a firewall would be called a weapon: The biggest reason for the weaponization push is financial: When it comes to budget battles, weapons, even those with a keyboard and a mouse, get cash from Congress. "Designating something as a weapons system really does help us justify our funding," Col. Pamela Wooley, who commands the Alabama-based 26th Cyberspace Operations Group, which includes the new weapon.

1 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Hack Back Attack AUTHORIZED! by brian.stinar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unless this has some ridiculous hack-back-attack capabilities, complete with a nerdy looking airman typing as fast as humanly possible to "execute" the hack back attack, Congress may have to start looking a bit closer at these "weapons systems."

    We need more toilet paper for the bathroom.
    Here you go.
    WTF? Why does this toilet paper have pictures of guns on it?
    This is weaponized toilet paper. It helps with allocating funding...