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US Begins Dropping 'Cyberbombs' On ISIS (nytimes.com)
In what appears to be a significant shift in its tactic to battle against the terrorist organization, the U.S. has begun launching cyberattacks against ISIS (non-paywall link). The New York Times reports that the Department of Defense's Cyber Command unit is mounting cyberattacks against the terrorist organization. The Cyber Command unit aims to stop the organization from spreading its message. The Times reports: The goal of the new campaign is to disrupt the ability of the Islamic State to spread its message, attract new adherents, circulate orders from commanders and carry out day-to-day functions, like paying its fighters. A benefit of the administration's exceedingly rare public discussion of the campaign, officials said, is to rattle the Islamic State's commanders, who have begun to realize that sophisticated hacking efforts are manipulating their data. Potential recruits may also be deterred if they come to worry about the security of their communications with the militant group. "We are dropping cyberbombs," Robert O. Work, deputy secretary of defense said. "We have never done that before."
Stop with the links to pay walls. If you can't find another article then the article is useless.
Via the New York Post:
Finding God in a Dog
I bet ISIS are quaking in their boots.
That's sarcasm.
Just wait until they start attacking US websites. It doesn't even have to be sophisticated, DDOS attacks can be quite a bother already. But I wouldn't rule out actual hacking, I mean, it's not like the US government and certainly US companies haven't been hacked before, is it? They have more than enough money to rent some botnets or buy hacking kits. And many of them actually have a university background.
I'm not sure it was a good idea to make so much publicity about these cyberattacks, it might have been a better idea to do them in silence.
Here's a clue: The first amendment applies to americans living in America. Not american and not in America? Not covered.
Start dropping fast food on them. Destroy their health, destroy their ability to fight. Lots of American Idle too - the combination will be impossible to resist - it's worked on y'all, it can work on them too.
Requiem for the American Dream
More from the interview with Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work:
"We've developed a wide array of cybermunitions that fill various roles in our Comprehensive Cybercombat Arsenal (CCA). We can drop cyberbombs that selectively destroy the enemy's Information Superhighways and Network Bridges. We can keep out hostile cyberforces by putting up a very tall firewall and, if need be, surrounding the perimeter with cyberexplosive charges--our Minecraft is very strong. "
The Deputy Secretary leaned in conspiratorially, "Our most powerful cyberbombs can even level entire GeoCities."
He raised his eyebrows, nodded once, and finally leaned back in his chair, folding his arms with what can only be described as supreme confidence.
Nothing posted to
So they are infecting ISIS machines with Microsoft Clippy?
No good deed goes unpunished.
Here's a clue: The first amendment applies to americans living in America. Not american and not in America? Not covered.
UN declaration of human rights has it too.
"Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association."
But article 30 handles that:
"Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein."
How about "cyberpoking" or "cyberslapfighting"?
> Get real, this is bullshit. Anybody who has or uses an AK47 is not someone who stores meaningful data on a computer.
The armed forces of about 60 countries have and use the AK-47.
ISIL has about a billion dollars. They acquired $429 million when they took over the Mosul branch of the Central Bank of Iraq, and they now run retail bank branches in the territory the occupy. They "govern" a population of about 4 million, roughly half the size of Switzerland or Israel, and a bit larger than Barcelona or Houston.
ISIL has captured Syrian MiG-23 fighter jets, and demonstrated the use of Mohajer 4 drones captured from Syria and Iran. They have the M1A1M Abrams tank captured from the Iraqi army.
ISIL is a quasi-government, with not only a significant military administered by computers, but civil infrastructure as well - a tax system, payroll for 200,000 employees, etc. If you thought ISIL was a few guys riding around on camels, that's not quite true.
Here's a clue: The first amendment applies to americans living in America. Not american and not in America? Not covered.
Bzzzt, wrong! The 1st Amendment recognizes a natural, pre-existing right to freedom of speech (among other things) possessed by all human beings. It prohibits Congress from passing any law which would infringe on the freedom of speech—anyone's freedom of speech, not just the freedom of speech of Americans or of people living in America. Directing or authorizing (or funding) any branch of government to infringe on anyone's freedom of speech would constitute passing just such a law.
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
"type own" -> "your own"
Requiem for the American Dream
How much is a pack of Camels these days?
To "destroy" ISIS, who we gonna call?
Al Qaeda!
So many weapons we can't count them all. They are shipped by the ton. How many holes does it take to fill a corpse?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Well, when China stops "engag[ing] in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein", I guess we'll know that anyone gives a shit about the UN declaration of human rights.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
I love the term "cyberslapfighting."
Like Stuxnet, any attack that the government launches has the potential to affect computers that are not owned by ISIS terrorists (or in Stuxnet's case, Iranian centrifuges).
The more success that Cyber Command has, the more comfortable they will be with with launching cyber bombs. At some point there will be significant collateral damage.
I'm sure that between this and the devastating Climate Change summit, ISIS will surrender any day now.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Bzzzt, wrong! The first Amendment only applies to the United States, and not just citizens but any person within its borders. How do I know this? I read the damn thing.
Here is the opening to the Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Note the last twelve words: do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Nowhere is it said our Constitution applies to everyone everywhere. It is solely for those within the United States.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
... is, don't confirm you're dropping cyberbombs!
Dang... yeah, I read the article, but still, making Daesh doubt the security of their computers a bit more pales into importance with them trusting compromised computers a bit more. How much is going to "go dark" now that the current administration decided to grab some headlines with this stuff that never should have seen the light of day? (At least, until after Daesh has ceased to be a threat to anyone.)
Or is it all disinformation? We can't compromise their computers, so make them think we have. If so, I could approve of that.
...or is it just DDOSsing their infrastructure? Seems like something Anonymous or Lizard Squad would do.
You know what really saps a society's willingness to fight?
Safety, self-determination and prosperity for everybody.
Or a reasonable facade of the same.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Absolutely untrue. Check out this story:
http://www.wired.com/2016/03/hack-brief-isis-data-breach-identifies-22000-members/
"You cannot find out which view is the right one by science in the ordinary sense." - C.S. Lewis on Intelligent Design
The Constitution of the United States does not grant any rights to non-US citizens.
> Get real, this is bullshit. Anybody who has or uses an AK47 is not someone who stores meaningful data on a computer.
The armed forces of about 60 countries have and use the AK-47.
ISIL has about a billion dollars. They acquired $429 million when they took over the Mosul branch of the Central Bank of Iraq, and they now run retail bank branches in the territory the occupy. They "govern" a population of about 4 million, roughly half the size of Switzerland or Israel, and a bit larger than Barcelona or Houston.
ISIL has captured Syrian MiG-23 fighter jets, and demonstrated the use of Mohajer 4 drones captured from Syria and Iran. They have the M1A1M Abrams tank captured from the Iraqi army.
ISIL is a quasi-government, with not only a significant military administered by computers, but civil infrastructure as well - a tax system, payroll for 200,000 employees, etc. If you thought ISIL was a few guys riding around on camels, that's not quite true.
I agree on the AK47 (and variants), but fiat money isn't explicitly worth anything. Turkey, which would be the stepping stone to Europe has a budget of 200B USD. Liechtenstein has a budget of 1B USD, and it's a micronation with 37k population.
I question if they have a significant army or tax base. Just look up German history regarding WW1 and WW2, and then scale that up to declaring war on everyone, but this time around they have immense manufacturing resources, incredible air superiority... Even if they managed to annex Iraq and Syria, they'd fail because they've declared the Caliphate, which they'll never get.
I suppose now is the appropriate time to point out that I own a Chinese-made AK-47. I've "used" it many times. I can't say that I've shot anyone with it but, as near as I can tell, most of the owners of them have not, actually, shot anyone. I do not see them right at the moment but I'll be back in Maine soon enough so you'll need to wait. See, I've actually got pictures of it or can make some and I imagine you're probably a bit skeptical that someone with meaningful data on a computer would own such a thing.
It's okay - it gets worse. Wait until you find out that there's a moderately good chance that you've come into contact with code that I've written. :/ No, the rifle would have been locked away and I wasn't sitting there lovingly stroking it while coding. Though, I did have a real battle axe on my desk for a long time. It still had dried blood on it from its one and only "kill." I used it to go boar hunting in Florida, it worked but not as well as I'd hoped. I ended up shooting the boar to finish it off. So, I'm not really sure if I should count it as a kill.
At any rate, it might have been on my desk but I don't think I ever stroked that lovingly. If you've ever seen a wild boar in Florida then you'd understand the challenge. In hindsight, it's one of the stupidest things I've ever attempted. It does make a good story for a certain crowd. And yes, yes there are pics and witnesses. One doesn't just go boar hunting with a battle axe and not take pictures.
The point is, you'd be surprised at what some people do and what some people own. Not everyone is boring. Some of us do some exciting things. Some of us own some dangerous things. Some of us own some elaborate and technical things. Some of us own very simple machines. Speaking of Simple Machines, if you've ever used SMF (the forum) there's a good chance you've used some code that came from me.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Wait, what if we don't want Trump to be president? Hmm? Yeah, I'm not rooting for Trump, and you can't make me!
Err... I'll just go sit in the corner on my own. No need to punish me.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Maybe they're sending 'em tweets that say, "Run this to see a picture of Portman covered in hot grits: $ :(){ :|:& };:" and the IS guys are following through with it, mmm?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
And the US cares about that, why?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Sounds like you're boaring not boring.
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
Heh, nah, life's short. Live it like you're going to die. Chances are pretty good that you will. Discounting myths and unprovable legends, I've got a 100% success ratio backing that sentiment. Besides? I'd not want to live forever in exchange for boredom.
It was very, very adrenaline producing. This is *not* the typical crowd for which to woo with the story but I came down square across the top of it's scalp. It had charged, maybe about 20' away, and then veered off when I didn't move. The battle axe is a few feet long so I really got into it. I was actually hoping to catch it around the spine and make it quicker but I was too fast and that's why I hit its head.
It stopped "functioning" immediately, pretty much, and momentum made it keep going for at least another 10-15 feet. It was still alive and I'm not keen on animals suffering for longer than necessary. I could have finished with the axe but didn't want to have to keep whacking at it until it died and I had a 10 mm on my hip so I just used that.
I made sure he went to good use. He was roasted and eaten but, I gotta tell you. Don't do it. I'm a huge fan of eating what I kill. This thing? Well... It was not nearly as tasty as I'd hoped. It was old, touch, and tasted... Not gamy but gamy. Gamier than normal and, for lack of a better word, skunky. Now, I know skunky isn't really a word or anything and it's surely not a taste - unless it's what skunk tastes like and I've never eaten skunk so I don't really know. It tasted a bit like rancid meat might taste but not really quite like it. It didn't taste much like pork. It almost tasted a bit like black bear but way less fatty.
It's really not worth it. If you're going to go do it, go to cull the animal and not to eat it. I killed it, we ate it. We ate the vast majority of it but it took a couple of days, a dozen of us, and a lot of alcohol and drugs. We bitched about it the whole time but we ate it. They weren't kidding when they said they didn't eat them. I thought it strange that they'd say such a thing and then let us hunt there - any way we wanted to. I was the first (and as far as I know, only) person to do so with an axe but I guess some other dudes have gone spear hunting without any firearms as a backup. That's pretty ballsy.
It also wasn't as huge as the ones you see in the movies. If I had to guess (we didn't weigh it) I'd say it was 175 pounds but my eyes could be adding 25 pounds that didn't exist. There's no bag limit, season, or anything like that. This was just a boar hunting ranch. You go out on a big ol' platform that has a railing and giant mudding tires under it. You drive out through the swamp until you get to a rise where there's activity and they seem to come to you. You can move around but they'll come find you if you're in deep enough. It was a neat buggy. Your ass is probably 8' in the air while you're seated. It just had bus seats from an old bus and it's legal for them to drive it down the road in Florida. Yup... Florida... You can drive that fucker down the road! They did not let me drive it - we were obviously intoxicated at the time.
I've seen people propose eating them as a solution. That's not realistic. The boar's the most dangerous wild animal in Florida, or so they tell me. At any rate, that's the gist of the event. I'd go into a few more details but some folks are squeamish and don't really want to read it. In reality, it's not as cool as it sounds and a hell of a lot scarier than I make it out to be. But... I'd said I was going to go boar hunting with a battle axe. I went boar hunting with a battle axe. It's not every day that you get to be that stupid and live to tell about it.
Oh! I almost forgot. I did get wounded. Err... Except the boar was very much dead. In my efforts to drag him, I ended up with my fingers in its mouth and I cut my finger on a tooth or something in its mouth. It didn't need stitches but I did go, the following day, to get it looked at because it was kind of swollen, red, and sore. They put me on an antibiotic and I lived and kept my fingers. I'd cleaned it with rubbing alcohol and covered it up nicely but the antibiotic was probably a good idea.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Telling the population at large that the "enemy" is forbidden to speak to them really gives the imprimatur of authority and validity to ISIS.
Good job there, pentagon!
Close brackes on the Sarcasm flag.
That boar was probably pretty high on the food chain, and a little like eating fish caught from Lake Erie or an urban river.
Well, when China stops "engag[ing] in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein", I guess we'll know that anyone gives a shit about the UN declaration of human rights.
As far as I know it's not legally binding, just "Yeah we accept this seem good" - not signed by everyone either.
Bunch of Muslim countries has signed the "Cairo-declaration of human rights in Islam" which isn't the same thing.
I don't know, perhaps these 'cyberbombs' have a good chance of causing collateral damage, just like the "boom" ones.
Actually you're wrong. The only rights reserved for American citizens in the Constitution are the right to hold public office and the right to vote. Even the words you quote from the Constitution don't say what you think. They just say the Constitution applies to the United Started of America. This is exactly why Guantanamo detainees were able to file (and win) habeas corpus cases like Rasul v. Bush: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
when they start holding Saudi Arabia accountable and stop sending those Toyotas and H&K G34s to ISIS. These airstrikes on empty buildings and trollings of ISIS websites are little more than PR stunts.
If freedom of speech were a pre-existing right, it wouldn't need a legal means to protect it.
What does pre-existing right mean anyway? It's a nonsensical concept for a law to exist before it is conceived. At most a law might be retconned, if a court issues a ruling that the law should always have been interpreted a certain way.
time to set up my ISIS honeypot for some fresh 0days.
Weel, if Daesh commanders feel their fundamental, human rights have been violated, they can bring their case to the International Criminal Court, where I'm sure they will be taken care of. Just like all other rights you have in human society, these rights extend to all - if you choose to violate the rights of others, then you forfeit your own right to society's protection, which is why criminals have their freedom taken away.
While I can't speak to the sophistication of ISIS IT departments.
I think it's safe to imagine they're not dunces and know what "routing around" means, including its most broadest of meanings.
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
I guess that's an euphemism for trolling them on twitter, à la :'Ahmed is stoopid!"
Looks like just a bunch of cyberfapping to me.
Basically, it is exactly what I would expect from the kind of out of touch people who are still unironically using the prefix cyber in 2016 to coin new words.
Anyone who has been paying even a little attention knows that the only acceptable words with that prefix are -punk -dyne and -sex, and only occasionally -space but only if its funnier than making a "tubes" reference.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Heh, nah, life's short. Live it like you're going to die. Chances are pretty good that you will. Discounting myths and unprovable legends, I've got a 100% success ratio backing that sentiment. Besides? I'd not want to live forever in exchange for boredom.
Ah, well, yes.... No.
You only have an approximate 92.5% success ratio backing that sentiment. Why? Because there have, throughout human history (and prehistory) lived approximately one hundred billion human beings on Earth; of these, about seven and a half billion still lives. So; so far, on Earth, the fatality rate for human beings is ~92.5%.
LOL Okay, close enough. I'm a bit skeptical of your number, by the way.
At any rate, you're gonna die. Sorry 'bout that but it's just what's going to happen. No, they're not going to achieve immortality. It's not just right around the corner. So far, everyone that was born prior to 1899 has died. Actually, I think that number's now changed - 1901 is the limit now - I'm pretty sure. Some lady's at 115 and supposed to be the oldest. She might have died though. So, yeah, you're gonna die. It's okay - there's nothing wrong with that.
I'd be interested in seeing how they came up with that 100 billion number. That seems like a rather convenient number. Ah well, it works for me. You're still gonna die. Hell, if you live past the age of 200 come see me and I'll give you five bucks.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
The 100 billion number was from memory from something I read a couple years ago; a quick google found http://www.prb.org/Publication... which estimated 108 billion (I did say approximately!) in 2011. As to everybody dying? Welllll... In the Many Universes interpretation of QT, there are an infinite number of universes, one of which exists solely for your survival. If that holds true, somehow (in that universe) you'll survive past the heat death of the universe; or you'll find a way to avoid it altogether.
Hmm... Now you've piqued my interest. ;-)
Does the Many Worlds/Universes theory actually assert that there will be infinite rules and variations in physics? My understanding was that in the other worlds the physics should be exactly the same as they are here and that such was considered almost a requirement in order for that theory to even be plausible?
So, in other words, if there's entropy in this universe and that entropy is unavoidable in this universe than it should (or *must*) also be the same in every other universe. I'm not sure if it was Cox, Greene, or Susskind that I recall mentioning that?
Note: I am NOT a theoretical physicist.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."